Sunday, August 20, 2023

Ascertaining Ratzon HaShem: How do we know what G-d wants us to do?

Knowing G-d's Will  is a very deep and complicated topic which furthermore - while it has no clear answers - we are judged on how close we come to the right answer. I came across a very interesting and fundamental discussion in Minchas Asher of Rav Asher Weiss regarding last week's parsha. Below is some of the material from Rav Weiss (the first and last page). He deals with the issue of whether all our Torah obligations are included in halachos which are explicit in verses in derasha or whether we also have Torah obligations based on our inferences as to what G-d wants. 

You will note we are not dealing with Rabbinic ordinances of Chazal or contemporary gedolim. One example he discusses is the prohibition of tzar baalei chaim - unnecessary suffering of animals. It is agreed that this is in fact a Torah prohibition - but where is it stated? 

This is of course relevant to our discussion of the murder done at the Gay Parade. The murderer decided that it was Ratzon HaShem for him to randomly attack participants at the Parade. While it is clear that Shlissel is mentally ill - his decision making was based on his understanding of the Torah. Thus it is relevant to ask how applicable is his evaluation - to ignore the law of secular society not to kill as well as the Torah prohibition not to kill -  to the rest of us. To what degree can we assume that a mentally healthy adult will deviate severely from society's norms for the sake of higher principles i.e., the Will of G-d? What if any safeguards are there for an individual who is trying to ascertain what G-d's Will - not to harm others or themselves? Is there any restriction of determining G-d's Will to gedolim - or is it an activity that every Jew is required to participate in?

Let me make this a bit stronger. A number of years ago I participated in a series of meetings between religious and non-observant Jewish psychotherapists for the purpose of learning how to bridge the gap between religious and non-religious Jews. It was organized by an intelligent non-religious therapist whose grandfather - who he had known - had been the last religious member of his family. When we first met he was notably nervous. I asked him him what was making him nervous. He replied simply - "I am not sure the religious Jews won't kill me if they have a chance" He was referring to the religious members of this group - including me!

This fear of religious Jews - killing their non-religious brethen to fulfill G-d's Will - is not the limited to paranoid people and it isn't a rare phenomenon. Religious Jews can be scary people (I know charedim  who are uncomfortable going into Meah Shearim) - partly because they are beholden to a higher authority. The question is how are the requirements of that higher authority determined. Furthermore are there parameters such as that what we think is G-d's Will must conform to Darchei Noam i.e., be objectively pleasant? Not violate the law of the land? Not create a Chilul HaShem? Not harm others?








5 comments:

  1. Since we are examining the actions of a person who you claim is not quite מאה אחוז, how do you know that his rationale was based on the extra-Halachic concept of רצון השם, and not on (his understanding of) normative Halacha, such as Rodef, אפרושי מאיסורא, מניעת חילול השם etc. (see Brachos 20a)? Again, I am not claiming that a Halachic justification exists, only that it is very possible that Schlissel thought that it does - as opposed to him deciding to act on the basis of an הוראת שעה of sorts.

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  2. @Chaim - excellent point. I have not been able to find significant discussion regarding what is normative halacha in these areas - combined with the Chazon Ish's statement about modern times are different. Given the above it seems that anyone who acts has no clear guidelines or role models and thus is deciding himself based on ratzon HaShem is.

    To put it another way - if this were a clear cut issue then it would seem that the gadolim would respond themselves or at least tell people to act.

    BTW I am not claiming this is הוראת שעה but rather halachich principles that are implicit or inferred such as was attempted by our fellow commentator that the case of Pinchas provides the basis for acting.

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  3. This is a very important post. I actually started writing a comment on the earlier post, about what is "L'Shem Shamayim", but discarded it. However, if we remember, the great deceiver Shabbetai Zvi made such claims, as did his followers. There was even a brocho "mattir issurim", a variation on the one we read before shacharit, "mattir asurim".
    In other words, any fool can claim he is acting l'shem shamayim. This was also the case with the infamous Rosh yeshiva from the "North".
    we are not like Noach and Avraham, who walked with G-d. In terms of actions, today we have things called Poskim, Batei Din who can answer questions we have. I could build a school 'l'shem shamayim, but if i claim that a nudist yoga club is such, obviously I would have lost my marbles.
    Even in the Tzioni world, I remember Rav Goren criticising Baruch Goldstein for taking out his own perceived act of Milchemet Mitzvah. Thus, even for those who allow for military action, there are still halachic decisions to be taken.
    Obviously the answer to what is L'Sehm Shamayim is an unresolved question.

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  4. @Eddie you raise an interesting point. However trying to ascertain what ratzon Hashem is not the same thing as doing something lshem shamayim. leshem shamayim simply means that you think you are doing good - not for ulterior motivation. There is no need to think or study texts. What Rav Weiss is talking about is ascertaining metarules that transcend specific halachos such as darchei noam or kiddush hashem, - and applying them where there is no clear halachic imperative to do so. It requires effort and knowldge as was as making inferences and extrapolating - none of that is required to do something leshem shamayim.

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  5. These are very interesting issues, but how do you prove something that doesn't exist? Are the darchei noam the halachas or the metarules? Btw, R' Walter Wurzburger ztl of YU (who was very close to the Rav) had a simialr concept of meta-halchic rules, but he was speaking more of halacha's absoluteness.
    It is difficult to understand what are the parameters of l'shem shamayim. Someone might have a love for the story of Shimshon, and then decide to go to Gaza and kill as many Pilishtim as possible, and losing his life in the process, but doing this l'shem shamayim. So (it seems to me) one has to be quite great and knowledgeable of not only the Torah sources, but what is in between the lines to do this. One or 2 anecdotes or Tzaddik stories are not sufficient to guide the average person on how to do things L'Shem.

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