Hello,



In your questions and answers one often finds a problematic relationship to the commandments which our Creator has given us.



You claim:

One of the central problems with Charedi education is that it teaches obedience to commands while absolutely rejecting education based on the dictates of conscience. The main emphasis in the Jewish religion is acceptance of the yoke of heaven, total subjugation of man’s thoughts, feelings, and conscience to the will of G﷓d.

My answer:

You must not forget that the very idea of commandments is to force upon us a manner of behavior, though this manner is not acceptable or clear to us. This is the idea behind the negation of the self in the face of the divine.

In the observance of commandments there is no relevance to “choosing what seems proper to me.”

Man’s law does not stand alongside Divine law. One who is created cannot understand his Creator and if he did, there would be no meaning to the concept of G-d.

“Acceptance of the yoke of heaven: is a necessary precondition for the observance of commandments and must be the base for the worship of G-d, but this does not mean that you are not permitted to investigate and understand more about the commandments; that has value so the observance of commandments is not technical nor robotic.

This has been spoken of in Ethics of Our Fathers.

“It is not your place to say that the work is done, nor are you permitted to refrain from it.”

The exegesis states that if you try to understand the commandments you will never find an end, but you have an obligation to try and understand.

Solomon, the wisest of all men, tried throughout his life to understand the matter of the red heifer and did not succeed, yet he still tried mightily.



Even if a man tries, he will not understand the divine intent, even if he exhausted himself his whole life long. Yet we cannot rely upon explanations of the commandments like the one given for circumcision: that it is healthy, etc.



Bye.



Yonatan