בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לַעֲסוֹק בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָה .
Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of all, who hallows us with mitzvot, commanding us to engage with words of Torah.
(ג) אִם־בְּחֻקֹּתַ֖י תֵּלֵ֑כוּ וְאֶת־מִצְוֺתַ֣י תִּשְׁמְר֔וּ וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֹתָֽם׃
(3) If you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments,
Why does the verse list laws and commandments? What is the difference?
Sifra, Bechukotai, Section 1 2
"If in My statutes you walk": I would think that these are the mitzvoth. But in "and My mitzvoth you keep, to do them," mitzvoth are already stated. How, then, am I to understand "If in My statutes you walk"? — that you toil in Torah. And thus is it written (Vayikra 26:14) "And if you do not hearken to Me." I might think that these (words) are (spoken of) the mitzvoth. But in (Vayikra 26:14) "and do not do all of these mitzvoth," mitzvoth are already stated. How, then, am I to understand "If you do not hearken to Me"? — to toil.
"If in My statutes you walk": I would think that these are the mitzvoth. But in "and My mitzvoth you keep, to do them," mitzvoth are already stated. How, then, am I to understand "If in My statutes you walk"? — that you toil in Torah. And thus is it written (Vayikra 26:14) "And if you do not hearken to Me." I might think that these (words) are (spoken of) the mitzvoth. But in (Vayikra 26:14) "and do not do all of these mitzvoth," mitzvoth are already stated. How, then, am I to understand "If you do not hearken to Me"? — to toil.
Or HaChaim on Leviticus 26:3:1
אם בחקותי תלכו, "If you walk in My statutes, etc." In Torat Kohanim they explain this as follows: "if the Torah had spoken only about בחוקותי, I would have assumed that what was meant were the מצות. Now that the Torah added the words ואת מצותי, the word בחקותי cannot apply to the מצות seeing the Torah already wrote about them. The additional word בחקותי therefore teaches us that that one has to toil in order to get Torah knowledge." The reason the Torah refers to toiling over Torah by using the expression חקה is because there is a commandment to study matters again and again even if one had already studied them several times and they have been well absorbed. G'd wants us to study Torah out of a fondness for it and this is why He formulated a statute to that effect. We find that our sages in Kohelet Rabbah 3 state that G'd decreed that we will forget part of what we learned in order that we should sit down and learn it repeatedly.
אם בחקותי תלכו, "If you walk in My statutes, etc." In Torat Kohanim they explain this as follows: "if the Torah had spoken only about בחוקותי, I would have assumed that what was meant were the מצות. Now that the Torah added the words ואת מצותי, the word בחקותי cannot apply to the מצות seeing the Torah already wrote about them. The additional word בחקותי therefore teaches us that that one has to toil in order to get Torah knowledge." The reason the Torah refers to toiling over Torah by using the expression חקה is because there is a commandment to study matters again and again even if one had already studied them several times and they have been well absorbed. G'd wants us to study Torah out of a fondness for it and this is why He formulated a statute to that effect. We find that our sages in Kohelet Rabbah 3 state that G'd decreed that we will forget part of what we learned in order that we should sit down and learn it repeatedly.
Sforno on Leviticus 26:3:1
אם בחקותי תלכו, chukkot are like Royal decrees, something person has to be guided by if he expects his endeavours in life to prosper....they cannot just be performed by rote but must be performed consciously...
אם בחקותי תלכו, chukkot are like Royal decrees, something person has to be guided by if he expects his endeavours in life to prosper....they cannot just be performed by rote but must be performed consciously...
What happens if we follow God's laws?
(נט) חִשַּׁ֥בְתִּי דְרָכָ֑י וָאָשִׁ֥יבָה רַ֝גְלַ֗י אֶל־עֵדֹתֶֽיךָ׃
(59) I have considered my ways, and have turned back to Your decrees.
Or HaChaim on Leviticus 26:3:4
David had considered daily to do "his own thing" but had found that invariably his feet brought him to the Torah academy or the House of prayer (see Psalm 119:59). The lesson is that when one applies oneself to Torah and its precepts diligently one's very organs will automatically help one to head in the spiritually correct direction. You may translate the line: "if according to My statutes, you will find yourselves walking in the right direction."
David had considered daily to do "his own thing" but had found that invariably his feet brought him to the Torah academy or the House of prayer (see Psalm 119:59). The lesson is that when one applies oneself to Torah and its precepts diligently one's very organs will automatically help one to head in the spiritually correct direction. You may translate the line: "if according to My statutes, you will find yourselves walking in the right direction."
Babylonian Talmud, Kiddushin 31a
Greater is the one who is commanded and does it, than one who is not commanded and still does it.
Greater is the one who is commanded and does it, than one who is not commanded and still does it.
Shenei Luchot HaBerit, Torah Shebikhtav, Introduction 39
David used to rise from his bed at midnight singing the praises of G–d, until G–d Himself, i.e. His Holy Name arose on His throne at dawn, a reference to the emanation of Malchut. We have learned in Leviticus 24,11 that the reverse is possible also, when the Torah says, ויקוב בן האשה הישראלית את השם ויקלל "The son of the Israelite woman made a hole in the name (of G–d) by cursing it." This source is the reason we can interpret the verse in Samuel as we did. This is also why the Torah writes in Leviticus 26,3 ועשיתם אתם, meaning that if you perform them (the commandments), the result will be that you improve His Name.
David used to rise from his bed at midnight singing the praises of G–d, until G–d Himself, i.e. His Holy Name arose on His throne at dawn, a reference to the emanation of Malchut. We have learned in Leviticus 24,11 that the reverse is possible also, when the Torah says, ויקוב בן האשה הישראלית את השם ויקלל "The son of the Israelite woman made a hole in the name (of G–d) by cursing it." This source is the reason we can interpret the verse in Samuel as we did. This is also why the Torah writes in Leviticus 26,3 ועשיתם אתם, meaning that if you perform them (the commandments), the result will be that you improve His Name.
What does it mean to follow the laws and commandments as a Reform Jew?
Or HaChaim on Leviticus 26:3:5
Torah can be studied on four different levels, the פשט, רמז, דרוש, and סוד. These four methods between them account for what our sages call the 70 facets of the Torah. Each of these 70 facets is perceived as being a "path" one walks in the study of G'd's statutes. The lesson is that the approach to Torah study should be along a variety of paths.
Torah can be studied on four different levels, the פשט, רמז, דרוש, and סוד. These four methods between them account for what our sages call the 70 facets of the Torah. Each of these 70 facets is perceived as being a "path" one walks in the study of G'd's statutes. The lesson is that the approach to Torah study should be along a variety of paths.
Myra Soifer, "The Dance of the Reform Jew" in The Torah: A Woman's Commentary, p.784.
Through the translation renders the word teileichu as "follow" the usual meaning of its root h'l'ch, is actually "to walk." Jewish law is known as halachah, "the walking path." As a Reform Jew, walking in God's laws is not for me. I'd rather dance with them. Lately, I've become a passionate dancer. I tap dance for fun, but ballroom dance is my unbridled joy. And on the dance floor, I've learned quite a bit about God and mitzvot. Dancing is a whole new way of being in the world. While I live pretty rationally, I dance best when I'm least cerebral. I'm not too bad at learning Torah and Talmud, but learning dance steps uses a whole different sort of memory. It's muscle memory, body memory--a kind of memory that goes deeper and far beyond the scope of my intellect. My greatest challenge in ballroom dance has been learning to follow. I am used to being in control and trust my own abilities more easily than I trust my partners. It took me a long time to understand that following is a real blessing: trusting someone else to lead when I can anticipate and know the steps to come has become an important part of my joy as I whirl around the dance floor. Is God the supreme dance partner who invites me to join the dance of life, and to follow a rhythm that engages my body and my spirit?
Through the translation renders the word teileichu as "follow" the usual meaning of its root h'l'ch, is actually "to walk." Jewish law is known as halachah, "the walking path." As a Reform Jew, walking in God's laws is not for me. I'd rather dance with them. Lately, I've become a passionate dancer. I tap dance for fun, but ballroom dance is my unbridled joy. And on the dance floor, I've learned quite a bit about God and mitzvot. Dancing is a whole new way of being in the world. While I live pretty rationally, I dance best when I'm least cerebral. I'm not too bad at learning Torah and Talmud, but learning dance steps uses a whole different sort of memory. It's muscle memory, body memory--a kind of memory that goes deeper and far beyond the scope of my intellect. My greatest challenge in ballroom dance has been learning to follow. I am used to being in control and trust my own abilities more easily than I trust my partners. It took me a long time to understand that following is a real blessing: trusting someone else to lead when I can anticipate and know the steps to come has become an important part of my joy as I whirl around the dance floor. Is God the supreme dance partner who invites me to join the dance of life, and to follow a rhythm that engages my body and my spirit?
Carole Balin, "Mitzvah/Mitzvot", in A Life of Meaning, p.201-202
No longer could rabbis assume that adherents to Judaism would abide by religious law because “God said so.” Jews instead sought rational and/or provable explanations for practices both inside the synagogue and at home. This new mind-set led to irrevocable changes in the meaning and performance of mitzvot.
In 1885, the Reform Movement in America codified its novel interpretation of mitzvot in the document that became known as the Pittsburgh Platform. In a forthright sleight of hand, the authors overturned the classical Jewish understanding of commandedness by obligating Reform Jews only to those mitzvot that either (a) bring about ethical behavior or (b) enhance the spirituality of human existence. In a statement whose reverberations are felt in liberal Jewish circles today, Reform rabbis asserted:
We recognize in the Mosaic legislation a system of training the Jewish people for its mission during its national life in Palestine, and today accept as binding only its moral laws, and maintain only such ceremonies as elevate and sanctify our lives, but reject all such as are not adapted to the views and habits of modern civilization.
In no uncertain terms, the early Reformers relegated biblical law to a bygone age while elevating moral conduct to the plane of religious duty. This audacious shift from obligatory observance of all mitzvot to a mandate to carry out moral laws represents nothing less than a revolution in Jewish practice and theology. By denying the claim that halachah represents the revealed will of God, Reform Jews were in effect asserting that divine revelation is progressive, akin to inspiration and ultimately concerned with ethics.
No longer could rabbis assume that adherents to Judaism would abide by religious law because “God said so.” Jews instead sought rational and/or provable explanations for practices both inside the synagogue and at home. This new mind-set led to irrevocable changes in the meaning and performance of mitzvot.
In 1885, the Reform Movement in America codified its novel interpretation of mitzvot in the document that became known as the Pittsburgh Platform. In a forthright sleight of hand, the authors overturned the classical Jewish understanding of commandedness by obligating Reform Jews only to those mitzvot that either (a) bring about ethical behavior or (b) enhance the spirituality of human existence. In a statement whose reverberations are felt in liberal Jewish circles today, Reform rabbis asserted:
We recognize in the Mosaic legislation a system of training the Jewish people for its mission during its national life in Palestine, and today accept as binding only its moral laws, and maintain only such ceremonies as elevate and sanctify our lives, but reject all such as are not adapted to the views and habits of modern civilization.
In no uncertain terms, the early Reformers relegated biblical law to a bygone age while elevating moral conduct to the plane of religious duty. This audacious shift from obligatory observance of all mitzvot to a mandate to carry out moral laws represents nothing less than a revolution in Jewish practice and theology. By denying the claim that halachah represents the revealed will of God, Reform Jews were in effect asserting that divine revelation is progressive, akin to inspiration and ultimately concerned with ethics.
Rabbi Leon Morris
A disproportionate emphasis on personal choice has ‘dumbed down’ our movement. While sometimes marketed as ‘informed choice,’ this rarely has meant more than learning a snippet of a classic text about a particular issue rather than the kind of immersion and wholesale commitment that ongoing learning requires.
A disproportionate emphasis on personal choice has ‘dumbed down’ our movement. While sometimes marketed as ‘informed choice,’ this rarely has meant more than learning a snippet of a classic text about a particular issue rather than the kind of immersion and wholesale commitment that ongoing learning requires.
Eugene Borowitz
“We need to guide Jews in the difficult art of maintaining an intense loyalty to Jewish tradition, that of living by a deeply Jewish faith, while freely assessing the virtues of the various modern ways of interpreting it — and within this continuous dialectic process to find the personal and conceptual integrity of what it means to be a modern Jew.”
“We need to guide Jews in the difficult art of maintaining an intense loyalty to Jewish tradition, that of living by a deeply Jewish faith, while freely assessing the virtues of the various modern ways of interpreting it — and within this continuous dialectic process to find the personal and conceptual integrity of what it means to be a modern Jew.”
Rabbi Mark Washofsky, "Seeking guidance from the Jewish legal tradition"
We see halakhah as a discourse, an ongoing conversation through which we arrive at an understanding, however tentative, of what God and Torah require of us. As far as we are concerned, this conversation cannot be brought to a premature end by some formal declaration that "this is the law; all conflicting answers are wrong."
We hold, rather, that a minority opinion in the halakhic literature, a view abandoned long ago by most rabbis, or a new reading of the old texts may offer a more persuasive interpretation of Jewish tradition to us today than does the “accepted" halakhic ruling. We therefore assert our right of independence in halakhic judgment, to reach decisions in the name of Jewish law which, though they depart from the "Orthodox" position, make the best Jewish religious sense to us.
In so doing, we follow the opinion, held by the some of the greatest teachers of Jewish law, that the "correct" halakhic ruling is not determined by the weight of precedent or by "what all the other rabbis say," but by the individual scholar’s careful and honest evaluation of the sources.... Our experience has led us to see that Torah, if it is to serve us as a sure source of religious truth, cannot exist in the absence of certain essential moral and ethical commitments. These commitments are discussed and elaborated in the great theological statements issued by our movement and in the writings of our prominent religious thinkers. They operate in a concrete way in our responsa literature as underlying assumptions which govern our work and direct our conclusions. Among these, we can cite the following examples:
1. Reform Judaism is committed to gender equality....
2. Reform Judaism affirms the moral equality of all humankind....
3. We are open to the possibility and the desirability of religious innovation and creativity. We do not believe that existing forms of ritual observance are necessarily the only "correct" forms of observance from a Jewish perspective...
4. Finally, while our responsa seek to uphold traditional halakhic approaches whenever fitting, we reserve to ourselves the right to decide when they do not fit.
We see halakhah as a discourse, an ongoing conversation through which we arrive at an understanding, however tentative, of what God and Torah require of us. As far as we are concerned, this conversation cannot be brought to a premature end by some formal declaration that "this is the law; all conflicting answers are wrong."
We hold, rather, that a minority opinion in the halakhic literature, a view abandoned long ago by most rabbis, or a new reading of the old texts may offer a more persuasive interpretation of Jewish tradition to us today than does the “accepted" halakhic ruling. We therefore assert our right of independence in halakhic judgment, to reach decisions in the name of Jewish law which, though they depart from the "Orthodox" position, make the best Jewish religious sense to us.
In so doing, we follow the opinion, held by the some of the greatest teachers of Jewish law, that the "correct" halakhic ruling is not determined by the weight of precedent or by "what all the other rabbis say," but by the individual scholar’s careful and honest evaluation of the sources.... Our experience has led us to see that Torah, if it is to serve us as a sure source of religious truth, cannot exist in the absence of certain essential moral and ethical commitments. These commitments are discussed and elaborated in the great theological statements issued by our movement and in the writings of our prominent religious thinkers. They operate in a concrete way in our responsa literature as underlying assumptions which govern our work and direct our conclusions. Among these, we can cite the following examples:
1. Reform Judaism is committed to gender equality....
2. Reform Judaism affirms the moral equality of all humankind....
3. We are open to the possibility and the desirability of religious innovation and creativity. We do not believe that existing forms of ritual observance are necessarily the only "correct" forms of observance from a Jewish perspective...
4. Finally, while our responsa seek to uphold traditional halakhic approaches whenever fitting, we reserve to ourselves the right to decide when they do not fit.
Yael Splansky, https://reformjudaism.org/learning/torah-study/torah-commentary/commanded-ness
Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, z"l, a leading light for our Movement, challenges us to consider the great contribution Reform Judaism can make to the Jewish world by "ethicizing the ritual mitzvot and ritualizing the ethical mitzvot." What could this mean? When Reform Jews refrain from eating t'reif, they fulfill the ritual mitzvah of kashrut. When in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, many Reform Jews boycotted California table grapes and called them t'reif, because the migrant field workers were being treated as slaves, they "ethicized the ritual" of keeping kosher....When Reform Jews turn our synagogues into homeless shelters, they fulfill the ethical mitzvot of "feeding the hungry" and "welcoming the stranger." When the volunteers recite a prayer to start their preparations, when they wear kippot as they serve the warm meal to the hungry guests, they "ritualize the ethical." When a circle of friends support a woman through her battle with cancer, they fulfill the ethical mitzvah of bikur cholim, "visiting the sick." But when she completes the regimen of chemotherapy and radiation, and her friends shower her with heartfelt prayers of hope for a healthy future and accompany her to the mikveh, which "cleanses" the poison from her body, they "ritualize the ethical."
Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, z"l, a leading light for our Movement, challenges us to consider the great contribution Reform Judaism can make to the Jewish world by "ethicizing the ritual mitzvot and ritualizing the ethical mitzvot." What could this mean? When Reform Jews refrain from eating t'reif, they fulfill the ritual mitzvah of kashrut. When in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, many Reform Jews boycotted California table grapes and called them t'reif, because the migrant field workers were being treated as slaves, they "ethicized the ritual" of keeping kosher....When Reform Jews turn our synagogues into homeless shelters, they fulfill the ethical mitzvot of "feeding the hungry" and "welcoming the stranger." When the volunteers recite a prayer to start their preparations, when they wear kippot as they serve the warm meal to the hungry guests, they "ritualize the ethical." When a circle of friends support a woman through her battle with cancer, they fulfill the ethical mitzvah of bikur cholim, "visiting the sick." But when she completes the regimen of chemotherapy and radiation, and her friends shower her with heartfelt prayers of hope for a healthy future and accompany her to the mikveh, which "cleanses" the poison from her body, they "ritualize the ethical."