Spin off



Do you reject halacha?
Do you accept that your views have been perverted by Western Society?
Do you just shrug it off and don't think about it because it makes life easier?

The latter two.

Agreed.

edit: until I find someone who will answer my questions to my satisfaction.

None of the above. (ok, maybe a bit of the third)

I think that since these issues don't apply today, it is hard for us to put ourselves in the frame of mind people were in when they did apply. We can't really imagine what it was like, and therefore, find it hard to accept. That doesn't mean that Western society "perverted" my views, but simply that the circumstances and living conditions have changed in such a way, that I can't transpose my intuitive views to the structures in which these issues were relevant.

That's a very good point.

I'm sure someone can come up with something that has relevance today though, perhaps a Jewish doctor not saving a life on Shabbos?

1. Halachah changes.
2. Chazal themselves dealt with this issue when they declared a beit din that imposes a death sentence once in 70 years is a bloody court.
3. The Rambam was sensitive to this issue when he said in the Moreh Nevuchim that sacrifices are not necessarily the ideal in this day and age.

That makes me very happy. Thank you.

Except it might have been rhetoric, depending on how one spins it.

Where could I find the direct quote?

I'm not sure. I'll try to find it later if I remember and have a chance. Maybe it's not in the Moreh but in letters. But it's moot anyway b/c his says in the Yad that mashiach will reinstate korbanot.

Why does that make it moot?
Doesn't sound like the same thing at all.

It's moot because the Rambam is not saying in the Moreh that there won't be sacrifices in messianic times even though some people like to spin it that way, as if it's a total validation of the view that sacrifices are an outdated ritual. Rather, as I stated above [and I tried to word it carefully], the Rambam didn't see sacrifices as necessarily the ideal.

Anyway, here is the Moreh 3:32:

CHAPTER XXXII
ON considering the Divine acts, or the processes of Nature, we get
an insight into the prudence and wisdom of God as displayed in the
creation of animals, with the gradual development of the
movements of their limbs and the relative positions of the latter,
and we perceive also His wisdom and plan in the successive and
gradual development of the whole condition of each individual.
The gradual development of the animals' movements and the
relative position of the limbs may be illustrated by the brain. The
front part is very soft, the back part is a little hard, the spinal
marrow is still harder, and the farther it extends the harder it
becomes. The nerves are the organs of sensation and motion. Some
nerves are only required for sensation, or for slight movements, as,
e.g., the movement of the eyelids or of the jaws; these nerves
originate in the brain. The nerves which are required for the
movements of the limbs come from the spinal marrow. But nerves,
even those that come directly from the spinal cord, are too soft to
set the joints in motion; therefore God made the following
arrangement: the nerves branch out into fibres which are covered
with flesh, and become muscles: the nerves that come forth at the
extremities of the muscles and have already commenced to harden,
and to combine with hard pieces of ligaments, are the sinews
which are joined and attached to the limbs. By this gradual
development the nerves are enabled to set the limbs in motion. I
quote this one instance because it is the most evident of the
wonders described in the book On the use of the limbs: but the use
of the limbs is clearly perceived by all who examine them with a
sharp eye. In a similar manner did God provide for each individual
animal of the class of mammalia. When such an animal is born it
is extremely tender, and cannot be fed with dry food. Therefore
breasts were provided which yield milk, and the young can be fed
with moist food which corresponds to the condition of the limbs of
the animal, until the latter have gradually become dry and hard.
Many precepts in our Law are the result of a similar course
adopted by the same Supreme Being. It is, namely, impossible to
go suddenly from one extreme to the other: it is therefore
according to the nature of man impossible for him suddenly to
discontinue everything to which he has been accustomed. Now
God sent Moses to make [the Israelites] a kingdom of priests and a
holy nation (Exod. xix. 6) by means of the knowledge of God.
Comp." Unto thee it was showed that thou mightest know that the
Lord is God (Dent. iv. 35):" Know therefore this day, and consider
it in thine heart, that the Lord is God" (ibid. v. 39). The Israelites
were commanded to devote themselves to His service; comp." and
to serve him with all your heart" (ibid. xi. 13):" and you shall
serve the Lord your God" (Exod. xxiii. 25);" and ye shall serve
him" (Dent. xiii. 5). But the custom which was in those days
general among all men, and the general mode of worship in which
the Israelites were brought up, consisted in sacrificing animals in
those temples which contained certain images, to bow down to
those images, and to bum incense before them; religious and
ascetic persons were in those days the persons that were devoted to
the service in the temples erected to the stars, as has been
explained by us. It was in accordance with the wisdom and plan of
God, as displayed in the whole Creation, that He did not command
us to give up and to discontinue all these manners of service; for to
obey such a commandment it would have been contrary to the
nature of man, who generally cleaves to that to which he is used; it
would in those days have made the same impression as a prophet
would make at present if he called us to the service of God and
told us in His name, that we should not pray to Him, not fast, not
seek His help in time of trouble; that we should serve Him in
thought, and not by any action. For this reason God allowed these
kinds of service to continue; He transferred to His service that
which had formerly served as a worship of created beings, and of
things imaginary and unreal, and commanded us to serve Him in
the same manner; viz., to build unto Him a temple; comp." And
they shall make unto me a sanctuary" (Exod. xxv. 8): to have the
altar erected to His name; comp." An altar of earth thou shalt
make unto me" (ibid. XX. 2 1): to offer the sacrifices to Him;
comp." If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord" (Lev. i.
2), to bow down to Elim. and to bum incense before Him. He has
forbidden to do any of these things to any other being; comp." He
who sacrificeth unto any God, save the Lord only, he shall be
utterly destroyed * (Exod. xxii. 19):" For thou shalt bow down to
no other God" (ibid. xxxiv. 14). He selected priests for the service
in the temple; comp." And they shall minister unto me in the
priest's office" (ibid. xxviii. 41). He made it obligatory that certain
gifts, called the gifts of the Levites and the priests, should be
assigned to them for their maintenance while they are engaged in
the service of the temple and its sacrifices. By this Divine plan it
was effected that the traces of idolatry were blotted out, and the
truly great principle of our faith, the Existence and Unity of God,
was firmly established; this result was thus obtained without
deterring or confusing the minds of the people by the abolition of
the service to which they were accustomed and which alone was
familiar to them. I know that you will at first thought reject this
idea and find it strange: you will put the following question to me
in your heart : How can we suppose that Divine commandments,
prohibitions, and important acts, which are fully explained, and for
which certain seasons are fixed, should not have been commanded
for their own sake, but only for the sake of some other thing: as if
they were only the means which He employed for His primary
object ? What prevented Him from making His primary object a
direct commandment to us, and to give us the capacity of obeying
it ? Those precepts which in your opinion are only the means and
not the object would then have been unnecessary. Hear my answer,
which win cure your heart of this disease and will show you the
truth of that which I have pointed out to you. There occurs in the
Law a passage which contains exactly the same idea; it is the
following :" God led them not through the way of the land of the
Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure
the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt; but
God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the
Red Sea," etc. (Exod. xiii. 17). Here God led the people about,
away from the direct road which He originally intended, because
He feared they might meet on that way with hardships too great for
their ordinary strength; He took them by another road in order to
obtain thereby His original object. In the same manner God
refrained from prescribing what the people by their natural
disposition would be incapable of obeying, and gave the
above-mentioned commandments as a means of securing His chief
object, viz., to spread a knowledge of Him [among the people],
and to cause them to reject idolatry. It is contrary to man's nature
that he should suddenly abandon all the different kinds of Divine
service and the different customs in which he has been brought up,
and which have been so general, that they were considered as a
matter of course; it would be just as if a person trained to work as
a slave with mortar and bricks, or similar things, should interrupt
his work, clean his hands, and at once fight with real giants. It was
the result of God's wisdom that the Israelites were led about in the
wilderness till they acquired courage. For it is a well-known fact
that travelling in the wilderness, and privation of bodily
enjoyments, such as bathing, produce courage, whilst the reverse is
the source of faint-heartedness: besides, another generation rose
during the wanderings that had not been accustomed to
degradation and slavery. All the travelling in the wilderness was
regulated by Divine commands through Moses; comp." At the
commandment of the Lord they rested, and at the commandment
of the Lord they journeyed; they kept the charge of the Lord and
the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses" (Num. ix.
23). In the same way the portion of the Law under discussion is the
result of divine wisdom, according to which people are allowed to
continue the kind of worship to which they have been accustomed,
in order that they might acquire the true faith, which is the chief
object [of God's commandments]. You ask, What could have
prevented God from commanding us directly, that which is the
chief object, and from giving us the capacity of obeying it ? This
would lead to a second question, What prevented God from
leading the Israelites through the way of the land of the Philistines,
and endowing them with strength for fighting ? The leading about
by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night would then
not have been necessary. A third question would then be asked in
reference to the good promised as reward for the keeping of the
commandments, and the evil foretold as a punishment for sins. It is
the following question: As it is the chief object and purpose of God
that we should believe in the Law, and act according to that which
is written therein, why has He not given us the capacity of
continually believing in it, and following its guidance, instead of
holding out to us reward for obedience, and punishment for
disobedience, or of actually giving all the predicted reward and
punishment ? For [the promises and the threats] are but the means
of leading to this chief object. What prevented Him from giving
us, as part of our nature, the will to do that which He desires us to
do, and to abandon the kind of worship which He rejects ? There is
one general answer to these three questions, and to all questions of
the same character: it is this : Although in every one of the signs
[related in Scripture] the natural property of some individual being
is changed, the nature of man is never changed by God by way of
miracle. It is in accordance with this important principle that God
said," 0 that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear
me," etc. (Dent. v. 26). It is also for this reason that He distinctly
stated the commandments and the prohibitions, the reward and the
punishment. This principle as regards miracles has been frequently
explained by us in our works: I do not say this because I believe
that it is difficult for God to change the nature of every individual
person; on the contrary, it is possible, and it is in His power,
according to the principles taught in Scripture; but it has never
been His will to do it, and it never will be. If it were part of His
will to change [at His desire] the nature of any person, the mission
of prophets and the giving of the Law would have been altogether
superfluous.
I now return to my theme. As the sacrificial service is not the
primary object [of the commandments about sacrifice], whilst
supplications, Prayerss and similar kinds of worship are nearer to
the primary object, and indispensable for obtaining it, a great
difference was made in the Law between these two kinds of
service. The one kind, which consists in offering sacrifices,
although the sacrifices are offered to the name of God, has not
been made obligatory for us to the same extent as it had been
before. We were not commanded to sacrifice in every place, and in
every time, or to build a temple in every place, or to permit any
one who desires to become priest and to sacrifice. On the contrary,
all this is prohibited unto us. Only one temple has been appointed,"
in the place which the Lord shall choose" (Deut. xii. 26): in no
other place is it allowed to sacrifice: comp." Take heed to thyself,
that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in every place that thou
seest" (ibid. v. 13); and only the members of a particular family
were allowed to officiate as priests. All these restrictions served to
limit this kind of worship, and keep it within those bounds within
which God did not think it necessary to abolish sacrificial service
altogether. But prayer and supplication can be offered everywhere
and by every person. The same is the case with the commandment
of zizit (Num. xy. 38); mezuzah (Dent. vi. 9; xi. 20); tefillin (Exod.
xiii. 9, 16): and similar kinds of divine service.
Because of this principle which I explained to you, the Prophets in
their books are frequently found to rebuke their fellow-men for
being over-zealous and exerting themselves too much in bringing
sacrifices: the prophets thus distinctly declared that the object of
the sacrifices is not very essential, and that God does not require
them. Samuel therefore said," Hath the Lord as great delight in
burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord"
(I Sam. xv. 22) ? Isaiah exclaimed," To what purpose is the
multitude of your sacrifices unto me ? saith the Lord" (Isa. i. 11):
Jeremiah declared:" For I spake not unto your fathers, nor
commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of
Egypt, concerning burnt-offering or sacrifices. But this thing
commanded I them, saying, Obey my, voice, and
I will be your God, and ye shall be my people" (Jer. vii. 22, 23).
This passage has been found difficult in the opinion of all those
whose words .1 read or heard; they ask, How can Jeremiah say that
God did not command us about burnt-offering and sacrifice, seeing
so many precepts refer to sacrifice ? The sense of the passage
agrees with what I explained to you. Jeremiah says [in the name of
God) the primary object of the precepts is this, Know me, and
serve no other being;" I will be your God, and ye shall be my
people" (Lev. xxvi. 12). But the commandment that sacrifices
shall be brought and that the temple shall be visited has for its
object the success of that principle among you; and for its sake I
have transferred these modes of worship to my name; idolatry
shall thereby be utterly destroyed, and Jewish faith firmly
established. You, however, have ignored this object, and taken
hold of that which is only the means of obtaining it; you have
doubted my existence," ye have denied the Lord, and said he is
not" (Jer. v. 12): ye served idols;" burnt incense unto Baal, and
walked after other g