Judaism
Negotiating the moral maze
Review: Pathways to their Hearts – Torah Perspectives on the Individual, Rabbi Nachum L. Rabinovitch, Maggid, £22.95
December 27, 2023 12:06
Review: Pathways to their Hearts – Torah Perspectives on the Individual, Rabbi Nachum L. Rabinovitch, Maggid, £22.95
December 27, 2023 12:06The late Rabbi Nachum Rabinovich was an influential religious figure, including in the UK. He was for a time the principal of Jews’ College, London (now LSJS), and teacher and long-time mentor of Rabbi Sacks, who wrote the foreword to this work.
Both men, who died within months of each other, shared a vision of a rationalist Judaism which embraces both the universal and particular.
Rabinovich drew much of his inspiration from the works of philosopher and halakcist, Moses Maimonides’ (1138–1204), in which he was an acknowledged expert, and many of the essays in this volume explicate ideas from Maimonides’ writings.
In an essay on natural morality and the Torah, Rabinovich recognises, as did Maimonides, that humans have an innate sense of morality based on ties of kinship and traditions of mutual assistance, but this does not mean that people always act morally.
People remain subject to conflicting desires and require clarification on how moral principles sit alongside each other and might translate into action.
For Rabinovich, this is the purpose of Torah, which aims at two things. The first is to create a just society through law. In this context, there are laws which apply for all times and others which must take account of societal progress.
The second purpose is to create a society worthy of the Divine Presence. Halachah (Jewish law), for him, cannot conflict with morality, yet “many people have a warped moral sense, and sometimes their understanding of halakha is likewise skewed.”
No one is immune from error or misunderstanding. He also recognises hard cases where neither halachah nor natural morality can directly assist. Here, in particular, there is a tension between the opposing forces of din (justice) and rachamim (mercy), which require engagement.
While Rabbi Rabinovich offers no clear answers to our current predicament, there is some comfort in being reminded that people with a moral sense can be deeply misguided, that navigating between justice and mercy is no easy exercise, and that there is an inherent power in a system which strives towards imbuing the world with godliness in line with universal values.