Beyond the basest

Do you want to serve God, to do right, to do His will? One needs to learn His will. Thank God, He didn't leave us to founder in the dark. Rather, He gave us good laws. Keeping the laws that God has given us refines us. It makes us more worthy of His grace and salvation.

All the Universal laws, as powerful as they are in leading us to joy and purity, are prohibitory - they are all "shall nots." They are all couched in negative terms. You shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not commit incest, and so forth. Naturally, God expects more of each of us than that we simply avoid committing felonies, criminal violations of His Law, the basic Seven Commandments. He calls all of us, everyone - all human beings - to holiness.

Beyond telling us what God hates, His Universal Law also tells us, by logical inference, what He loves. Do the opposite of what He hates - do the opposite of what His First Covenant Law forbids - in order to do what is right and good and holy. Come to Him and He will come to you - and you will have reason indeed to be joyful! The system He gives us is simple enough:

*Instead of merely refraining from committing murder, one should, when one can, act to save the life in danger. His Law doesn't require this so one isn't legally bound to do so, but the opposite of what the Universal Law forbids is what is right and good and holy - the moral thing, in other words.

*Instead of merely refraining from thievery, one should give charity. Instead of merely refraining from serving strange gods or a strange, unholy God, one should worship and truly serve God. Instead of merely refraining from profaning His holy Name, one should always try to honor it. Et cetera.

One soon learns two things: 1) that the First Covenant and its laws are surprisingly rich and deep; 2) and that what God revealed to man at Sinai, the Torah, is where we go to more fully explore them. This is the way to the good life.

O, how I love Your Torah! It is my meditation all the day. - Psalm 119:97

The Law or Way of the First Covenant (the Noahide or Universal Covenant), is for everyone. The Torah of Sinai - Israel's Torah - is how we get into it. God entrusted the Torah to Israel for the good of all mankind. The Torah contains the details of the Universal Law. This may sound hard or legalistic but it isn't. If you want to be all you can be you need to think and concentrate. The Torah isn't just prohibitions but also affirmative, positive prescriptions. So when we want to go beyond the basest - violations of the prohibitions that make up the First Covenant Law - we need to look to Torah.

If you seek it as silver, and search for it as hidden treasures: then you shall understand the fear of the Lord (HaShem) and find the Knowledge of God. - Proverbs 2:4

When we want to discover how to properly worship God, how to honor Him, we need Torah. In the confusion and darkness of our busy lives, to discover how to act as He wants, truly charitably and honestly and morally and properly, we need Torah. The Torah's positive prescriptions are where God would have us go to learn to do right (not just avoid evil), to do the opposite of what the Universal Law forbids.

Leaving aside certain sacred Hebrew rituals, the Torah applies to everyone - not as law, though it is as law (as legal, court-enforceable ordinances and rules) that it applies to Israel, but as moral guidance. God gave Israel the Torah for the good of all humanity. This is the Way that God has revealed to mankind so that we can better come to God. The Torah's universal moral "laws" apply to everyone; they are God's Universal Torah.

Everyone who aspires to joy and happiness, to more than merely avoiding committing felonies under God's Universal Law - these being perversions which take away from man's potential, while corrupting the world at large - needs to study, and practice, what righteousness requires. Mankind's chief reference and source-text for that is the Torah.

God gave the Torah to the Jewish people so that all nations might benefit from it. - Midrash Tanchuma (ancient rabbinic commentary), Deuteronomy 3

Every person and society needs to establish and live up to the Universal Law. Living up to the standards of the good Guidance He set before us, the Law that God commands us to keep, which is our obligation under this covenant, is the very definition of goodness.

Oddly, many millions of people of different faiths have been taught to believe that keeping God's laws is bad!

My ordinances you shall do, and My statutes you shall keep. - Leviticus 18:4

Do you think God would inflict bad instructions on those who humbly seek to follow Him? To keep His laws for us we do what is right. We earn reward, happiness and merit in this world (and also, a basic Torah principle, in the world of the spirit and life eternal), make our families better, make the world better, and please Him.

Again, oddly, this is a controversial principle which many millions of people who think that keeping His Law is evil deny. But keeping the laws that He gave us to keep helps us "know" Him and stengthen our connection to Him, the Ultimate, the infinitely loving, infinitely humble, infinitely intelligent Creator and Master of the Universe Himself! This is the Way of truth, success, eternal life and joy.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord [HaShem], all the earth; make a loud noice, and rejoice, and sing praise. - Psalms 98:4

His Universal Law gives us an eternal framework, a benchmark, for doing right in the world, for avoiding wrong, and then for going beyond the basest all the way to God and holiness!

[See What's the Hebrew Revolution? and Law of the torn limb]

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