The Evolving Letter of the Law

Rabbi Melanie Aron

Saturday, July 14, 2007

It is fairly common when trying to explain the differences between the Reform and Orthodox branches of Judaism to talk about Reform Judaism as being more concerned with the spirit of the law while Orthodox Judaism remains bound to the letter of the law. To some extent that is a helpful way to think about it. Orthodox Jews, believing that the Torah is, word for word, the revelation of God to Moses on Mt Sinai, and believing that the Oral Torah, the Mishnah and Talmud, were also revealed at that time, are deeply bound to the halachah. Reform Judaism which believes that Judaism is and has always been an evolving civilization, changing and adapting in every generation to the circumstances in which the Jewish people have lived, understands that the way Rabbi Akivah practiced Judaism was not the way Moses practiced Judaism, and therefore feels more comfortable with change. However, the distinction between the spirit of the law and the letter of the law, is in some ways misleading. It hides the ways that traditional Judaism has used the letter of the law to change and adapt. There is a great example of this in the rabbinic commentary to this week’s Torah portion and it concerns the issues in this portion that Isaac and I talked about the most, that is vows.

As Isaac mentioned, Judaism teaches that we should take seriously any commitment that we make and especially any vow. In general, speech was concerned very important in Judaism- the world was created by God’s speech, and our speech was what made us human. Just like in the story last night, (“Mazal and Sechel”) where the princess decided that it was the ability to talk that turned the wooden statue into a person, our tradition, interprets the words from Genesis, that Adam became a living being, as Adam became“ a spirit that speaks.” (Targum Onkelos Genesis 2:7).

But as important as it is to keep our commitments, the rabbis recognized that there were times, whether out of anger or some other emotion, that people would make vows rashly, without thinking, and get themselves into trouble. We had an example of that just a few weeks ago in the Haftarah portion, where Jepthah the Judge, makes a vow to God that if he was successful in his battle with the Ammonites, he would bring as an offering, the first thing that greeted him as he returned from battle. One would guess he was expecting to see a sheep or a goat, but instead it was his only beloved daughter, who came out to greet him. The rabbis were convinced that in a situation such as that, there needed to be a way to be released from one’s vow- but how were they going to do that, given their commitment to follow the letter of the law?

Their solution is rather ingenious. They looked carefully at the text: ish ki yidor neder, if a person makes a vow to God, he shall not violate his word. Similarly in Leviticus 5:4 it says: For everything haadam, the person, expressed as an oath. In this text the word haadam, is redundant, it is not needed for the verse to make sense, therefore for the rabbis it was meant to teach something additional. They concluded that from this redundancy we can learn that an oath is binding only if there is a person who makes the oath.

Now what is a person? A person, a human being is different from an animal, and what makes us different from animals? For the rabbis, it was that we are able to learn from history. We are able to think about the purpose of our existence and improve our character. We are also different from animals in not being totally dominated by biological drives,, but being able to make choices based on contemplating the consequences of our actions. To the degree that people exercise these capacities they are more of HA-ADAM, and to the extent that they do not exercise these capacities, they are not HA-ADAM.

When a person rashly takes a vow, without consideration of its consequences, that person is not at that moment acting as HA-ADAM, and therefore that oath is not binding. Using the letter of the law, quite literally, the rabbis were able to adapt the law and introduce conditions for release from vows by competent rabbinic authority, something that is completely unmentioned in the Torah.

Isaac, today we celebrate your becoming an adult in the eyes of Jewish law, fully a person before God. We pray that you will always have and use your capacity to learn from history, to think about the purpose of your existence and improve your character and to make choices based on contemplating the consequences of your actions. On this your Bar Mitzvah day, we say to you, be a mensch.