By Rabi Rav. Ben Abrahamson Q. Rabbi, I hope you are well. How do you read ayat 6:146, that make it sound like the commandments to the Jews were punitive? Q. The Mishnah says: R. Hananiah ben Akashya says: The Holy One, blessed be He, desired to grant merit to Israel; therefore, he multiplied for them Torah and commandments, as it is written (Isa. 42:21): The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness sake, to make the Torah capacious and glorious. (Mishnah Makkot, 3,16) We know that God gave us many commandments to grant merit to Israel so that they could succeed in their mission to function a nation of priests for the other nations, with sacrifices, Temple and priesthood. There were many ways to do this, we could have been monks or hermits. Instead, the nature of the Children of Israel is to question and be legalistic. The mulitplicity of commandments and the depth of Torah was given to us as appropriate to our nature and to keep us fully occupied/utilized in submission to God. I think this is the same concept expressed in Surat l-an?am 6:146 And to those who are Jews We prohibited every animal of uncloven hoof; and of the cattle and the sheep We prohibited to them their fat, except what adheres to their backs or the entrails or what is joined with bone. [By] that We repaid them for their injustice. And indeed, We are truthful. The word jazayna-hum which is translated here as repaid them comes from the root ji-m za-y ya- which means to avail, to award, to provide appropriate measures. The word bibaghyihim which is translated here as injustice comes from the root ba- ghayn ya- which can mean to seek, to be fitting in the positive sense, as well as to desire, to rebel in the negative sense. The two words together should be translated to provide appropriate measures for their [tendency] to seek/wander/argue. Its not punitive, but knowingly appropriate.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 12:11:46 +0000
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