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Get With The Program
It is no secret - certainly not to the readers of Torah Fax, at any rate - that in order to facilitate free choice, G-d created the Yetzer Horoh, the Evil Inclination. To make our fulfillment of Torah more enriching and our observance of Mitzvos more meaningful, G-d made obstacles that we must overcome in pursuit of achieving our spiritual goals. Perhaps the greatest challenge G-d has given us is that of recognizing the Yetzer Horoh’s schemes and ignoring his distractions.
A formidable - and all too common - argument put forth by the Yetzer Horoh in an effort to weaken our resolve to observe the Mitzvos is a line of “reasoning” that goes something like this: Why the need to observe Mitzvos in this day and age? Haven’t times changed? What could an old, archaic text possibly have to offer to people of this post-modern era; people who travel the information superhighway and rarely use a phone connected to an outlet anymore?
For those people for whom this question has become outdated, the Yetzer Horoh can spruce up the query a bit and pose the following: Why can’t the rabbis change the Torah? Aren’t they supposedly endowed with Divine inspiration? Can’t they create new laws that are more in sync with the times - as they have already done in the past (e.g., Rabbeinu Gershom disallowing polygamy)?
To dispel any such misconceptions about the need to overhaul the Torah, this week’s portion of Bechukotai concludes with the statement: “These are the commandments which G-d commanded Moses for the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai.” Commenting on this verse, the Talmud says: “‘These are the commandments’ - meaning that even a prophet may not introduce any new laws after Sinai.” Only the Divine revelation at Sinai - consisting of both the Written and Oral Torah (which was subsequently written down in the Talmud, Midrash and numerous other works) - bind and obligate us. No one - not even a prophet - has the authority to change or revise that which was given at Sinai.
As for the argument that times change and therefore so should the Torah, the answer lies in remembering that the Torah is authored by G-d who certainly transcends the limitations of time. It is ludicrous to think that all of the technological advances of the 20th century were not “foreseen” by the Author of the Torah and therefore its laws should not apply today.
On a deeper level, we should bear in mind the teaching of the Midrash that the Torah is “the blueprint of the world.” When workers set out to build a house, they don’t simply decide what goes where as they go along, they must constantly look at the detailed plans laid out in the blueprints. There every particular is discussed and laid out in minute detail. The workers know where each wall, pipe, wire and beam need to go because the plans show them. In other words, the blueprints “decree” what to do at each stage of construction and where everything needs to to be placed.
Similarly, the Torah is the blueprint of the world. G-d, the one who “constructed” the world, looked into the “plans,” the Torah, to “know” where each detail of creation should be. Far from saying that the Torah can’t apply to certain times or circumstances (“this day and age”) because such advance times could not have been foreseen back when the Torah was written, the very opposite is true. Everything in the world, including every age, exists only because the blueprint, the Torah, “decreed” that it exist!
Indeed, there is no lack of articles and essays in Torah journals discussing the halachic ramifications of transplants, electricity and cloning. No issue is considered taboo or out of bounds for halachah - even the question of how to keep Shabbos on the moon, when we get there, is fair game for the Talmudists.
The eternity of the Torah extends - contrary to a popular misconception - to the era of Moshiach. Maimonides states unequivocally that Moshiach is a man who, in addition to totally conforming to halachah himself, will reinstate all of Torah law for the entire Nation. The Messianic Era will not be a time to be “liberated” from Mitzvos, but rather a time when all present day distractions and hindrances to the fulfillment of Mitzvos will be removed and we will fulfill the Mitzvos in the most complete way.
