Dear Friends,
“Do what is good and right.” (Deut. 12:28)
Sometimes, being Jewish sounds like being a Boy Scout or a Girl Scout. It is both fascinating and exasperating that after God and Torah gave us 613 commandments, with great specificity, as to when and what to do, we find this verse. “…For you should do what is good and right in the sight of the Eternal your God.”
Ultimately, God is both commanding us what to do, and is charging us to use our own moral compass and make our own ethical decisions.
As potentially confusing and maddening as this could be, I actually find it fabulously liberating and enlightening. It demonstrates the trust and confidence that God has in his Chosen People to understand the mission of humanity “to do what is good and right.” God would not command us to do so, if God had doubts in our abilities.
So, too for us. Clearly, when we live in a day of rampant contention in government, economic uncertainty, the tragic war in Ukraine, international tensions, rampant gun violence, and random street assaults, we could, and should, doubt our abilities “to do what is good and right.”
Yet, those are the newsworthy episodes. How about when my neighbor simply comes over to help me move a piece of furniture, or cuts my lawn when he is cutting his, as I mow his when I am mowing mine? How about the store on Main Street that puts out water for dogs on these hot days? How about the many hat-loomers of TBJ who crafted and gave away over 1,000 hats last winter, to warm a thousand cold heads in Newburgh? How about our own Confirmation student last year who raised over $5,000 for HIAS to support Ukrainian refugees through selling sunflower buttons? How about my daughter, an elementary teacher in California, who routinely stays late to work with students, parents, and other faculty on writing skills, or my son in Boston who realized that they had over-bought baby formula last winter, so he donated his overstock to a shelter to help those who sorely lacked supplies? We get it!
I think we get the meaning of “to do what is good and right.”
I think that God and Torah placed the proper confidence in us. Now, we need to place that confidence in one another as well!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
“Do what is good and right.” (Deut. 12:28)
Sometimes, being Jewish sounds like being a Boy Scout or a Girl Scout. It is both fascinating and exasperating that after God and Torah gave us 613 commandments, with great specificity, as to when and what to do, we find this verse. “…For you should do what is good and right in the sight of the Eternal your God.”
Ultimately, God is both commanding us what to do, and is charging us to use our own moral compass and make our own ethical decisions.
As potentially confusing and maddening as this could be, I actually find it fabulously liberating and enlightening. It demonstrates the trust and confidence that God has in his Chosen People to understand the mission of humanity “to do what is good and right.” God would not command us to do so, if God had doubts in our abilities.
So, too for us. Clearly, when we live in a day of rampant contention in government, economic uncertainty, the tragic war in Ukraine, international tensions, rampant gun violence, and random street assaults, we could, and should, doubt our abilities “to do what is good and right.”
Yet, those are the newsworthy episodes. How about when my neighbor simply comes over to help me move a piece of furniture, or cuts my lawn when he is cutting his, as I mow his when I am mowing mine? How about the store on Main Street that puts out water for dogs on these hot days? How about the many hat-loomers of TBJ who crafted and gave away over 1,000 hats last winter, to warm a thousand cold heads in Newburgh? How about our own Confirmation student last year who raised over $5,000 for HIAS to support Ukrainian refugees through selling sunflower buttons? How about my daughter, an elementary teacher in California, who routinely stays late to work with students, parents, and other faculty on writing skills, or my son in Boston who realized that they had over-bought baby formula last winter, so he donated his overstock to a shelter to help those who sorely lacked supplies? We get it!
I think we get the meaning of “to do what is good and right.”
I think that God and Torah placed the proper confidence in us. Now, we need to place that confidence in one another as well!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
