Indeterminate Decrees from God.

[John D. Brey]

Good question. The answers are passed on orally and in other written texts, but regardless, there is disagreement over it. Now matter which Jewish text you go to, whether it is the Torah, the Talmud, Rashi's commentaries, The Torah Mishnah, the Shulchan Aruch, or what have you, the things within it are disputed by religious Jews.

The difference between the diversity of Jews and the diversity of Christians, is that we have no history of killing each other over our disputes. For reasons I don't entirely understand, Jewish culture creates a greater tolerance for differences. Two rabbis can argue quite feverishly over a passage in the Talmud, and then go out to lunch together. As a Jew, I can go into any synagogue, Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform, and feel I am with family, all praising God together.

In my opinion, you've accurately zeroed in on the fundamental difference between Jewish and Christian thought. The "greater tolerance for difference" you speak of is indeed baked into the very genesis and nature of Jewish thought when God gives Israel "decrees" (chukim חקים) they're told they must obey to a t without knowing the reasoning and rationale behind the decree. The absolute need to obey commands from God without knowing the reasons and rationales behind the obedience means that when debate takes place (say in the Talmud) between two particular viewpoints, the debaters, being Jewish (such that their mentality and marching orders are based on the decrees חקים), are thus aware that the foundation for disputes, being rooted in the decrees (chukim חקים), means the debate, though fruitful, can go only so far, by design, since the design of the debate is rooted in the decrees.

Would you ever do something that you do not at all understand and for which you --or others ---cannot find a good reason? This question lies at the core of our relationship with the category of mitzvos described as the chukim. . . Why would G-d command us to do something that does not make sense? And it cannot be said that the purpose of these mitzvos is to train us in obedience, because that is a tyrant's approach. Since G-d is good, nothing He asks of us is without a purpose; it must also be for our benefit.​

​

The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Likkutei Sichos, Chukas I.​

In line with your statements, Rabbi Mendel Schneerson seems to be saying that the very purpose and giving of the decrees (chukim חקים), is, at least partly, for Jews to practice a form of hyper-objectivity that's based on knowing that all knowing is limited. Whereas this limitation might seem to be debilitating, the Jewish philosopher Otto Weininger argues quite the opposite; he says it's so freeing that in his opinion it's one of the reasons history records Jewish persons excelling over many of their peers to a notable degree.




John