Tefillah 045

88:
In the previous shiur we noted the theological development concerning a person's responsibility for their actions that came about during the time of the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The development concerned a transition from the concept of collective responsibility to personal accountedness. It is a basic assumption in the psychology of Jewish theology that each person decides his or her own behaviour. Man is not a puppet or a robot whose actions are pre-planned by "the Great Programmer in the Sky", but each person decides what he shall or shall not do, be it good or bad, and God does not interfere in these decisions in any way at all. (For a development of the theology implied in this basic assumption see A Masorti Theology, Part 5: Theodicy.) Man is different from the animals in that he does not act only upon natural instincts, but his actions and reactions are in his control: he can act otherwise if he so chooses. All this on the one hand.

89:
On the other hand Judaism postulates that man knows that God has defined what is acceptable or desirable behaviour and has promised reward for compliance; God has also defined what is unacceptable or undesirable and warned of the consequences of making such a choice. Without this postulate there can be no meaning to the word 'commandment': there is no need to command a creature that cannot act otherwise a certain mode of behaviour – indeed, there is no point in so commanding! Only the assumption of free choice gives an ethical significance to the terms 'commander', 'commanded', 'commandment'; also, without this assumption there can be no meaning to the terms 'sin', 'regret' and repentance'.

90:
It follows, of course, that modern Judaism has no great difficulty in accepting the basic assumption of man's free choice. But modern man does have a difficulty with the concept of 'recompense', especially the model of recompense that finds expression in the second parashah of the Shema. According to what is written in this parashah, if the people of Israel, collectively, act according to God's will they will be blessed with plenty; but if the people of Israel, collectively, do that which is bad in the sight of God the punishment will be the exact opposite: failure of the harvests, want and hunger, culminating in the loss of political independence:

Modern man finds it very difficult to associate the climate and its sometimes dire consequences with the collective behaviour of the Jewish people.

91:
One possible way out of this difficulty is to read the first verses of this parashah with a different construction. The Hebrew language, especially in its biblical period, can sometimes offer a string of conditional clauses that is so convoluted that one sometimes cannot decide which is the main clause to which all the conditional clauses are subordinate. The fact that all the clauses are linked by the conjunctive 'and' complicates the problem even further. Let me offer an example from a context that does not have problematic theological consequences. When God is about to give the Israelites the Torah on Mount Sinai He requires of Moses that he make clear to the people the conditions. What Moses is to say to the people is given in Exodus 19:4-6. Here is one modern translation:

However, that same Hebrew text can be rendered differently, because of the plethora of subordinate clauses:

In this second rendition, which is quite faithful to the style of biblical Hebrew syntax, the decision as to whether or not Israel will be God's 'treasured possession' is up to Israel, not God.

92:
Now, let us apply the same methodology to the problematic verses in the second parashah of the Shema:

In other words: Even if God blesses Israel with economic wealth and prosperity because they have observed His commandments, nevertheless the Jewish people must be very careful not to lapse into idolatry. And we, living as we do in a modern consumer's paradise, must be very wary indeed of the temptation to worship other gods. For many do worship all kinds of new and demanding deities; we just call them 'the rat race' or 'the pursuit of happiness' and so forth. Most often we worship ourselves and require that our demands be satisfied far and beyond those of any idol of the ancient world. We ourselves, each one of us, are the most potent idol of the modern age. The Torah warned us not to let this happen:

93:
In order that this situation may never be allowed to develop the continuation of the second parashah of the Shema enjoins us to diligent observance of commandments, some of which are a reitteration of what has already been said in the first parashah:

94:
In the middle of the last century the emergent Reconstructionist Movement decided to replace the second parashah of the Shema with a different quotation [Deuteronomy 28:1-6], one which obviated the problematica of the traditional selection (which dates back from long before the codification of the Mishnah). However, recently the traditional paragraph has been restored as an option in the Reconstructionist prayer book. As we have seen, if we understand the construction of the second parashah as suggested above it has a very cogent message for our own generation in particular.

To be continued.