Sometimes it is what’s behind the details that determines what we must do!
When we read the Torah, do we take every detail of how the people lived at that time and use that as a guide to how we are to live today? Some would say yes, but to those I would ask if the way the Israelites lived, dressed, worked, worshiped, etc, was something we need to go back to or has our world today a different manner of living to which we must apply Torah principles, and not necessarily apply the descriptions around the principles as rules in themselves.
Let me show a few examples. Today in rabbinic Judaism, men wear a four cornered garment often under their shirts with white tied Tzitzit hanging from the corners. When we look at what the Torah says, it is true that it says to wear a blue string tied to the four corners of the garment. (Why did they change from blue to white—we’ll see this in a bit)
Numbers 15:37-41: “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the Lord, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by chasing after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God.’”
Deuteronomy 22:12 specifies four corners.
The question we must raise is, does the fact that the Torah specifies four corners mean that our garments today have to have four corners? Or was it applying to the garment of the day? Would it be acceptable to tie these strings to the edges of modern clothing? What was the law anyway? Does it say, thou shalt wear a four-cornered garment, or does that insertion tell the ancient Israelites where to fasten them on the accustomed clothing of their day? I might add that the commandment says to use a “blue string” and that seems to be the command, yet the rabbis have insisted on the four cornered garment and broken the rule of the blue string by replacing it with the white. Are we somehow taking things out of context? Have we made man’s rules our rules when a clear understanding of the Torah renders something else?
When the Sotah was dealt with by the priest at the Tabernacle, to prove her faithfulness or lack thereof, she had to have her veil removed. Numbers 5:11-31. Does the fact that a veil is mentioned mean that it is mandatory in today’s women’s clothing or was it an application used with what was the normal garment for women at that day? This has been explained to me a couple of times as to why Orthodox women wear a covering if they are married and many even after they are widowed. But what is this law really based on? Could the principle of covering oneself be about modesty and deference to one’s spouse, and not about the particular application shown in the Bible?
The instructions about the shmita year…Does the fact that the Torah speaks of keeping from planting on the 7th year mean that everyone must plant? In fact in this case, I believe people actually get it that if one plants crops, that they should not plant in the seventh year.
There are things like the price and treatment of slaves, whether they be Israelite or from the strangers in the land, the return of lost cattle, the payment paid for intentional injury of another person, the command not to boil a kid in it’s mother’s milk. What did it all mean and why do we make laws out of things that never were intended to be law?
Fanaticism in religion comes from making rules that were never intended by the Creator out of references to the way things were in those days. As we study the Torah let us try to see the principle behind the description.
