Jun 30/07 — Parashat Balak

Commentary by Rabbi Alan Green

“It has been told to you, O man, what is good …
Only to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Micah 6:8

These profound words were selected by the rabbis of old as one possible summary of the six hundred thirteen commandments of the Torah. As the gifted teachers that they were, the rabbis realized that for many of their contemporaries, learning and performing the commandments was getting lost in translation. This phenomenon, so prevalent in the Jewish world today, was already a challenge at this early stage of our history.

So, Rabbi Judah says (Sifrei on Deuteronomy 32:2): “Ever let a person grasp the words of the Torah in the round. For if he grasps them in detail, they will tire him, and he won’t know what to do with them. This is like a person who goes to Caesarea, who needs one or two hundred ZUZ for expenses. If he takes it in small coins, they will tire him, and he won’t know what to do with them. But if he consolidates and converts the ZUZ into SELAS, he can exchange and spend them wherever he wishes.”

Evidently, the rabbis took Rabbi Judah’s teaching to heart. In the Talmud, in tractate Makkot (23b), using the Tanach as their guide, the rabbis have a contest to see who can compress the 613 commandments into the fewest and most potent possible admonitions. Certainly, it’s much easier to make one’s way in the world dealing with fewer commandments of greater intensity, than more commandments of lesser intensity.

The first attempt comes from Psalm 15. “King David came and brought the number down to eleven, as it is written: ‘Lord, who shall sojourn in Your Tabernacle? He that walks uprightly, performs righteousness, and that speaks the truth in his heart; who has no slander on his tongue, does no evil to his fellow, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbour; in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honours those that fear the Lord; he that swears to his own disadvantage and changes not; he that doesn’t lend on interest, and who doesn’t take a bribe against the innocent.’”

But even eleven admonitions might be too many. So they attempt to reduce the number further. “Isaiah (33:15) came and brought the number down to six, as it is written: ‘He that walks righteously, and speaks uprightly; he that despises the gain of oppression, that shakes bribes off his hands, that stops his ears from hearing gossip, and shuts his eyes against the sight of evil.’”

At this point in the discussion, someone remembers our quote from the prophet Micah (6:8), which reduces the number of admonitions to three: “It has been told to you, O man, what is good … Only to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Three admonitions of such elegance should be manageable. But now the contest swings into high gear. Why worry about three admonitions, when you can make do with even less? “Isaiah (56:1) came again and brought them down to two, as it is said: ‘Thus says the Lord, “Keep justice, and do righteousness.’”

But even this isn’t good enough. The rabbis now attempt to reduce the entire burden of the 613 commandments to one single admonition. Naturally, this will be an absolutely critical choice. Therefore, it shouldn’t surprise us that there is controversy on this point.

And so the Talmud tells us: “Amos (5:4) came and brought them down to one, as it is said: ‘For thus says the Lord to the House of Israel: Seek Me, and live.’ But Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak objected: ‘Seek Me’—might this not mean, ‘seek Me’ in all 613 commandments of the Torah? Rather, the prophet Habakkuk (2:4) came and brought them down to one, as it is said: ‘But the righteous one, shall live by his faith.’”

What was the real basis of Rav Nachman’s objection? It seems that Rav Nachman was afraid that Amos could be interpreted as an invitation to the life of the scholar—one who has the leisure to meditate, study, and contemplate the nature of God as it manifests in the whole of the Torah and its commandments.

Now, this certainly isn’t a bad thing—far from it! But Rav Nachman is concerned, not about the scholar, but rather, the common person—you and me—people who have families, who have to work for a living, who are involved in the hustle and bustle of life in the marketplace of the world.

I believe that this is why Rav Nachman introduces Habakkuk into the discussion. Through the mechanism of Habakkuk’s great teaching—that “the righteous one shall live by his faith”—Rav Nachman forever enshrines the principle that one doesn’t necessarily have to be a well-educated scholar to have access to the Jewish path of “serving the Lord with joy.”

Halacha—normally defined as the whole corpus of Jewish law—literally means, “the way.” Rav Nachman’s point is that “the way” to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to a life of righteousness and happiness, is ultimately more a matter of heart than mind; of spirit rather than intellect; of faith rather than rationality. Though far from the Jewish ideal of the Talmid Chacham—”the disciple of the wise”—the simple person of uncomplicated faith can be the one closest to God and most beloved of all.

Shabbat Shalom.