Mindflex- Morality, Is it Innate?- Simcha Herzog

good evening i'm here to respond to the question of whether or not morality is in fact innate i'd like to start out by sharing with you two scenarios two hypotheticals that hopefully bring this out into play a bit the first is imagine the situation you're walking in the desert it's part of a caravan and one by one people on the caravan are dying the camels are dying there's simply not enough food and you're lost you are the last person standing and you're starving and you have the option to either eat a camel or to eat one of the members of the caravan that is now deceased would you eat the camel or the person the second scenario is a situation where you are lying in bed you're not dressed and all of a sudden you hear the fire alarm you realize that there's a fire you smell the smoke and you have the option to either run out of the house in your birthday suit or to put on your wife's dress before you run out of the house which would you choose in the torah there is a negative commandment a prohibition on eating camels there is no negative prohibition there is no law against eating people so should you eat the human or the camel in the torah there is no prohibition on walking around in your birthday suit but there is certainly a prohibition for a person to wear his wife's dress so which would you do i think many of us would say at least for the question of the person starving in the desert and they most certainly would rather eat the camel regardless of what it says in the torah how could you eat a human being how could you eat another member of the human race i think many people would also say in relation to the house burning down that some dispensations should be made this person should be allowed to wear the dress until it gets out of the house to safety rather than running outside and looking at the bucket brigade while not dressed the reason we say this the reason that we think this is because there's something innate something intuitive that we feel is real and compelling and even though the torah may not say that there is a negative command and prohibition i'm eating human beings but we have a feeling an intuition that says that fundamentally we shouldn't be doing this better to eat the camel and would you know that many rabbis in fact agree and they say that you are correct the innate intuition is something that in fact the torah doesn't have to say the torah is predicated on the fact that you are going to use your innate intuition in order to be able to make the right decisions the torah by definition cannot encompass every possible permutation for every human being to walk the face of this planet because we each have thousands of thousands upon thousands of possible ways to apply the torah in our daily life and each one of us has a very specific way that it applies to us and that application is in no way applicable to anyone else in the world in that exact way or to put it another way there is no mitzvah in the torah that you should use your common sense there's no myths from the torah that you should learn how to write to read to do arithmetic to speak but the torah doesn't have to make explicit some things that are so fundamental and basic that all humans by definition would be doing that there's an apocryphal story that supposedly took place with robert salaveczyk who was the rabbi in brisk and formerly in the yeshiva in village whether it truly took place with him or someone else it's hard to know but supposedly there was a young aspiring rabbinical student training for ordination the lunchroom brisker to take his rabbinic exam and thereby obtain ordination and as he sits down is preparing himself for the questions that would be quite difficult no doubt that our mikhail briscoe would ask him regen brisker asks him a question out of left field and says the young man please enumerate to me the five books of the jewish code of law now everyone is familiar with the fact that the jewish code of law as codified barbara joseph caro only contains four sections four books not five and so this young man is flummoxed he's confused he says to rabbis elevation i don't understand sir there's only four sections in the code of jewish law not five and our television responds to him and says you're wrong there are actually five books there are the four books that you're aware of and that you've studied but there's a fifth book what we would call the fifth shohana roch the fifth khelik of the shoghana rook and that fifth helix is common sense without which while you may know the other four sections perfectly well you will have no idea how to apply it you cannot apply the four sections without having the fifth down cold the rabbis themselves developed this in an amazing statement rabbi yochanan one of the greatest and the one who put together the talmud you were shown me the palestinian talmud as opposed to the babylonian talmud he says that jerusalem the second temple was destroyed because they decided cases in the jewish courts of law according to the torah and the mind is bothered by that one the jewish courts of law decided cases in accordance with jewish law and therefore jerusalem was destroyed how does that follow shouldn't jewish courts of law be applying jewish law not roman law jewish law not canon law and the answer is of course jerusalem was destroyed because they implied an adjudicated case is based upon jewish law without thinking without considering the context and the complexities they simply decided cases based upon the black letter law and that will cause untold suffering undo harm and cause jerusalem to be destroyed what this story shows us is azerbaijam salavichik said we need a fifth shokhan we have to use our common sense we have to remember that the law as written is not necessarily as it should be applied there are many facets to the law there are many laws that can be at play and the interplay of the laws can be leading to various complexities you can't just simply open a book and say oh well on page x it says y so therefore we must do z the great scholar in spain before the inquisition says or coins the following term that has become popular today in his commentary on the book of leviticus he suggests that the torah has to have a catch-all command of be holy to your god kiddoshim to you be holy unto your god because if not for that catch-all it is quite possible for a person to be a naval or torah for a person to be a disgusting person within the confines of the torah a naval is somebody disgusting somebody gross avigil was naval's wife the prophets tell us that his name was naval kashmir cain who like his name so he was naval just means disgusting somebody repulsive somebody beneath contempt what the commodities are suggesting is that a person can take the four books the four sections of the code of jewish law apply it to his daily life and be in compliance with the black letter law technically correct but spiritually obtuse spiritually bereft a person who is an absolute epitome of somebody disgusting but you say how's that possible how's it possible to be in compliance with jewish law how is it possible to be acting in accordance with jewish law and yet be a naval and yet be somebody who's absolutely disgusting person the answer is very simple if you take the law at face value if you take the law without applying common sense if you take the law without understanding the context you will end up in terrible situations well how's one to know how can you possibly ever formulate a jewish law book a section of this code that will tell you well this is what you should be doing this is how you should be applying the black letter law the answer is you can't that fifth section of the rook that fifth section of the jewish code of law is not written it is not to be found in any book it cannot be bound by the confines of a book it is intuitive it is beyond what can be codified in words it is a sense it is something supernal and everyone every human being has been blessed with it and we know it's necessary we know that you cannot study torah and apply it to our lives without it the torah itself tells us that and therefore created a catch-all to remind you to always be on guard that even if you're technically following the rules and regulations you might nevertheless still be heading into the abyss if you're not being true to the more supernal intuitive and innate side that connects one directly with god i want to take it a step further you see you and i can each be acting in accordance with that spiritual supernal side in a given moment and we can nevertheless be in conflict with each other think about a situation that you find yourself possibly in where someone unfortunately is having a seizure or a heart attack god forbid they are a death store and you live in one of those places where unfortunately they do not have the at all at the ready and the response times of the first responders is very slow and this person will be a dead man before you realize it and it's really a matter of life and death it's now or never so you get into your car and you with this person you speed to the nearest hospital a cop driving by not knowing the context sees you speeding at 100 miles an hour and he attempts to pull you over to stop you at that moment each of you is acting in accordance with the law yes it is true that by your speeding you're violating the technical law in relation to the speed limit but there's another technical law about saving lives and you're certainly an adherence to that but this officer he's in a hundred percent adherence to trying to stop you in terms of ensuring public safety and attempting to make sure that the populists remain safe by trying to get you to pull over so you see you can have situations where two people unbeknownst to one another can be totally acting in harmony with the most intuitive and innate sense of what is correct and at the same time still create a conflict with each other it doesn't mean that there won't be conflict but it does mean that when that officer pulls you over and sees that person choking to death dying seizing up that most likely that officer will now click in to some deeper truth that he needs to help save this person and if he does not if he simply writes you a citation while keeping that person from getting the needed help you can understand the moral abhorrence the condemnation that would resound upon such a police officer for doing such a heinous act because at that point in time everyone would understand that there is a higher law attempting to save a human life that should take precedence so what we are saying thus far is that there is an innate intuitive sense that we each have and that innate and intuitive sense is something that exists without the torah this is something the torah itself needs in order to be able to be applied correctly and it is something that exists in each and every one of us and it does not mean that just because we're applying it that there won't be conflicts i'd like to take it a step further you see the rabbis having an incredible statement they suggest that abraham the first of the patriarchs the father of the jewish people they suggested abraham kept the entirety of the torah and on its face that is an absurd claim how could abraham have kept the torah that wasn't given until moses and the answer that the rabbi suggests is not that abraham kept the torah because he had on his bookshelves the four sections of the code of jewish law but no that fifth section that fifth section in abraham was so developed as the rabbis put it it came through his kidneys or he put it in another way it was in his kishkas and his very insides abraham understood what god wanted in a given situation and was able to act in accordance you see abraham was a pre-socratic socratic abraham was someone using occam's razor had reached the conclusion that god is not merely an idol he's not merely one of the planets he's not merely one of the stars but rather god is something beyond any human comprehension beyond space beyond time abraham understood that he could never positively apprehend god and he spent his lifetime knocking down through negative theology all the claims about what god is and as he kept up that arduous philosophical quest to find god he kept on refining himself and refining himself until his very insides were so connected to the most deep innate spiritual truths that he was truly a supernal human being who was able to keep the entirety of the torah without ever opening up a jewish water of course we're not abraham today but the rabbi suggests that nevertheless we would still be able to find many of these mitts vote just simply by looking at the natural world we don't even have to practice the socratic method we could simply look at a cat and learn modesty because a cat when it takes care of its bowels does it privately oral faithfulness from various different animals that made for life or courtship from the elaborate displays and mating rituals of various different animals we could learn not to rob from the ant we can learn cleanliness from animals there's so much that we can learn from the natural world without having to open up the torah just simply by being aware of the world outside many many of the mitzvot say the rabbis many of them it's vote are simply common sense like for example not murdering your fellow not worshiping idols not cursing god loving god these are simple things in theory in practice maybe they are more complicated but in theory honoring your parents respecting them gratefulness these are not complex commandments they are common sensical commandments and many many of the commandments in the torah fall within these categories and according to the rabbis even if we were not abraham even if our very insides didn't proclaim the lord in a way that we could hear at all times we could nevertheless still by looking out the world be able to find the innate morality that exists within this planet within this universe so i ask you then why do we need to torah if we all have a moral sense maybe some of us is less refined some of us it's more but we have that sense and we need that sense in order to be able to interpret the torah accurately and appropriately then why do we actually have to have the torah and the answer is in part as i alluded to before but now i'd like to elaborate on a bit we all have an innate moral sense but we also have a material sense and in many of us that material side is pretty strong the life force of the spiritual supernal side is sometimes quashed is sometimes really innate and doesn't really get to the outside and is not able to sing its sirens on and so we don't hear it and we don't respond to it one of the things that the torah does is that by formulating it in an objective way externally it forces adherence and reminds us that we need to ensure that that still small voice of morality that's innate and intuitive deep with inside us and our innermost sanctum needs to be cherished needs to be washed and guarded it needs to be allowed to flower to bloom and to become more powerful and to really be the dominating force within us but it's much easier said than done it's a lifetime of work not just for abraham but for each and every one of us so again why do we need the torah we need the torah because the torah enables us to get to that space to reach that place it is the proving ground i would like to spend a moment to talk about the lawgiver the person who brought the torah down to the jewish people moses we're all familiar with him as the greatest of human beings but the torah introduces moses to us in a most astonishing way it tells us that this was a person who lived in the lap of luxury he grew up as a son in pharaoh's home and his palace and that palatial atmosphere moses had every ability not to twin his fate with the jewish people but he does the torah details how he gives up his life as a pampered prince to go with the downtrodden forlorn slaves that were his brothers to what end he had no idea when he gave it all up he had no idea that one day he would become the leader of the jewish people he let it all go away for not just because it was the right thing to do just because his innate spiritual sense was so dominant that it was not even a question he just threw it all away but it's more than that god has to argue with moses to become the leader of the jewish people in the most amazing passage the torah details god repeatedly adjuring moses to please agree to become the leader of the jewish people now even if you're a modest person if god is coming and he's giving you the vote of confidence if he's suggesting to you listen this is a good idea i want you to be the leader of the jewish people you would be hard for us to say no moses moses doesn't just say no once he does so repeatedly with fervor and with strength he's fighting with god because he does not want to become the leader of the jewish people and it's the most mind-boggling how could one argue with god and the answer is that we learn about moses later on the book of numbers we learn that the torah attests that moses is the most humble of all men remember that humbleness in the parlance of the torah doesn't mean somebody's unaware of who they are moses was well aware that he was the greatest of all human beings to ever live that his prophetic ability surpassed everyone that existed before or subsequent to him but moses is also aware that with all that prophetic ability and with all of that closeness to god that he wasn't even the most infinitesimal speck of dust in relation to god humbleness is awareness of the greater context it's awareness of the fact that any being within space and time can never approximate can never comprehend can never apprehend even the most infinitesimal iota of god and in that sense there's nothing to be proud of there is nothing to show off about the fact that you're greater than a few other human beings you're all a bunch of pieces of dust in relation to god and so therefore for moses whose spiritual supernal self is always on is always dominating for moses that is the prime person to give over the torah because if we are to use the torah as a way and as a means to get closer to god to open up that spiritual supernal innate intuitive side that hides in the shadows of each and every one of our souls then we need a torah that is entirely free of ambition of ego of materiality we need a torah that is given by the person most close to approximating the ideal of what a human being can be in a post-edentic world moses is the most supernal person he's the most in tune with his innate spiritual side and therefore he is the perfect person to give over the torah which is our roadmap to become that perfect person and so to conclude the question of where does morality come from is it innate the answer is of course it's innate morality is in every one of us without the torah we would still have a moral sense but we wouldn't necessarily be aware of it it wouldn't necessarily be a dominant part of our personality what the torah does what studying torah does what delving into torah does and what the torah has done for thousands of years is essentially create a system that enables those who study it to be able to become more contextualized to be able to realize that there are aspects of their personality that need a little bit more subsuming and subservience and sublimation and others that need to be put more to the forefront more to the vanguard adhering to the torah studying the torah enables one to adhere and to apply the four sections correctly it is a road map to enabling one to get really into tune with that fifth section of the that common sense that innate supernal spiritual side that we all have have a great night