Rabbi Ĥanina ben-Dosa says: The wisdom of him whose fear of sin takes precedence over his wisdom will endure; but the wisdom of him whose wisdom takes precedence over his fear of sin will not endure. He [also] used to say: The wisdom of him whose actions are more than his wisdom will endure; but the wisdom of him whose wisdom is more than his actions will not endure. He [also] used to say: God is pleased with those with whom people are pleased; but God is not pleased with him with whom people are not pleased.
4:
The teaching of Rabbi Ĥanina ben-Dosa which is offered in our present mishnah seems to have particular meaning for our own day and age. This probably goes to show the eternal wisdom of the old French adage
plus ça change plus c'est la même chose – the more things [seem to] change the more they stay the same. Rabbi Ĥanina ben-Dosa seems to be addressing people who live in an age of 'enlightenment'.
5:
We can easily recognize two types of Torah-observant Jews. The first type activates his religious faith because he has a reticence to disobey the mandates of the Torah. The second type observes the requirements of the religion because it seems philosophically acceptable to do so. The first type faces the mitzvot head on and elects to observe them because he sincerely sees disobedience as a sin. The second type relates to the system of mitzvot from a philosophic standpoint and observes when he is rationally convinced.
6:
But the matter is not as simple as it seems at a first reading. It would be simple if Rabbi Ĥanina had chosen to compare the rationalist with the God-fearing person. But he does not do so: he compares the rationalist with the sin-fearing person. The God-fearing person submits and willingly accepts 'the yoke of the commandments' because he or she is in awe of the divine and seeks the divine pleasure and fears the divine displeasure and its consequences. (Thus the person who fears God is to be distinguished from the person who loves God.) The sin-fearing person refrains from doing what is wrong because they are convinced that sins are inherently bad and wrong.
7:
Let us illustrate with an extreme example. The sin-fearing man refrains from murder because the idea of taking another human life is repulsive; the God-fearing woman refrains from murder because she is afraid of the consequences – divine punishment.
8:
We must note carefully that Rabbi Ĥanina ben-Dosa does not condemn 'wisdom' – what we would call a rational or philosophic approach to Judaism. He only wants that 'wisdom' to take second place to an acute fear of sin (or love of righteousness).
9:
This question is of particular import for the Conservative movement. Clearly, Conservative Judaism does not teach that all the observable mitzvot must be observed without question. We do question. And sometimes our corporate wisdom decides that the observance of a certain mitzvah must be modified, curtailed or annulled. The teaching of Rabbi Ĥanina ben-Dosa comes into play when we consider the mechanisms by which such decisions are arrived at.
10:
When we – corporately – know that something is inherently wrong (or that it is essential righteousness that some positive action be taken) we must subordinate our rationality to that genuine 'gut feeling': if something is wrong it is wrong and we shall never be content if we permit our reasoning faculties to 'make it right'; if something clearly should be done we shall never rest content if we permit our reasoning faculties to present it as 'a sin'. But when the issue is an open question for us we should bring our rational apparatus into play.
11:
Clearly, such perceptions will change over time: what was sinful in one age may not be so clearly sinful for another. What seemed to our noble and high-minded great-grandparents to be the most desirable behaviour possible may appear to our no less noble and equally high-minded great-grandchildren as not being desirable, possibly even reprehensible.
To be continued.
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