[Michah 5:6-6:8]
The prophet Michah, who lived
during a period when ethical ideals were crumbling and idol worship was
rampant, called out in a loud voice: There is no religion without ethics! He bitterly lamented the Nation of Israel's
abandonment of Hashem, and therefore
reproved them and demanded an explanation (ibid. v. 2). If you have a complaint against Hashem, let's
hear it! Hashem has only performed
goodness for you (ibid. v. 3-4). During
the course of our lengthy wanderings, from the time of the Exodus from Egypt
until entering the Land of Israel, one had only to open his eyes to "know
the righteous acts of Hashem" (ibid. v. 5).
But perhaps what frightened the
Nation of Israel was the difficulty of observing the Mitzvot. The prophet therefore explains that Hashem
does not demand numerous sacrifices (ibid. v. 6-7). "And what does Hashem seek from
you? Only the performance of justice,
the love of kindness, and walking humbly with your G-d" (Michah 6:8). At first glance, this seems like a minimal
demand, a sort of "religion without religion," a religion of
intellect, well-suited for a Reform or Atheistic Jew.
In the book "The
Kuzari," written by Rabbi Yehudah Ha-Levi, the King of Kuzar tried to
present Judaism as something other than a passageway to justice and kindness
(2, 47). But the Sage responded that
ethical behavior precedes Torah (ibid. 48).
Thus, Michah’s demand is not a preparatory state but in fact the very
foundation of Torah.
This recalls the story of the
non-Jew who wanted to convert to Judaism on condition that Hillel teaches him
the Torah while standing on one foot.
This Sage's famous answer is: "What is hateful to you, do not do to
others. This is the entire Torah, the
rest is commentary. Go and learn
it" (Shabbat 31a). This man was
searching for a broad worldview and a rationalistic view of Judaism. Hillel validated his aspiration by giving him
a humanistic view of the Torah, but with the recognition that the next stage
requires in-depth learning.
The Torah itself does not
immediately present all of the Mitzvot and their details. The Book of Bereshit deals almost exclusively
with the ethical behavior of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov without explicitly
mentioning Mitzvot. This approach teaches
us that proper character traits, especially those related to relationships
between people, take precedence over the religious mandates of the Torah. Our Rabbis formulate this ideal as
"Proper behavior precedes the Torah" (Vayikra Rabbah 9:3), both on an
individual level and on the worldly level.
It says in Pirkei Avot (3:21):
"Without proper behavior, there is no Torah," i.e. there is no Torah
without ethics. This is like building a
structure without first laying a foundation.
It will collapse during the first storm.
But the opposite sentence is no less true: "Without Torah, there is
no proper behavior" (ibid.).
Without religion, there is no possibility of true ethical behavior. This is what the Maharal explains in his
commentary on Pirkei Avot: Without Mitzvah observance a person is stopped in
the middle of the road and his work will remain incomplete. Only through the Torah can a person achieve
ethical behavior in its complete form.
Michah therefore warned us that
the foundation of every human society must be the ethical relationships between
people. Rabbi Yehudah Ha-Levi stated in
the Kuzari (2, 48) that some level of integrity must exist in every society,
even among a group of thieves (see the book "The State" of Plato).
But one question still remains:
Michah did not live during the birth of the Nation of Israel, when the
universal ethical foundation was laid with the introduction of the religion of
Israel. Why then is he instructing them
to go backwards? We must understand that
during Michah's period there was a complete collapse of this foundation. He therefore called upon the Nation to return to its source. Rabbi Yehudah Ha-Levi (ibid.) explained that
the people in this day were lax when it came to the intellectual Mitzvot of
proper behavior between people, but strict when it came to Divine Mitzvot such as
the sacrificial service. But, as we
know, the Divine Torah is only whole when the societal, intellectual law serves
as the foundation for the Divine Mitzvot of sacrifices, Shabbat, Brit Milah,
etc.
In this spirit, Michah stated:
"And what does Hashem seek from you?
Only the performance of justice, the love of kindness and walking humbly
with your G-d." It is not
sufficient for the Nation of Israel to be satisfied with performing justice and
kindness, we must also perform the rest of the Mitzvot. The Divine soul which rests within man cannot
be filled solely by ethical and societal sustenance. It aspires to greater
heights: to touch the Divine light. And this is only possible when one performs
the remaining Mitzvot.
