Drasha
Undoubtedly one of the voices of our generation and philosophical minds of our time, Jay-Z, in his song with Kanye “No Church in the Wild,” presents one of the great ethical and theological questions of all time: “Is pious pious ‘cause God loves pious?” Jay-Z asks, before namedropping Socrates and Plato. Of course, Jay-Z is echoing a millenia old question, most famously articulated in Plato’s Euthyphro. Does God approve of things because they are moral, or are things moral because God approves of them? What is the epistemic source of our morality– the fact we’re following divine command, or something more innate and intuitive?
Within our own tradition, this age old moral question comes to a head in the Parshah we just read together today. Avraham is commanded to sacrifice his son Yitzchak in what feels like an intuitively immoral commandment from God. Thus, we are posed with the age old question. Can, and does, morality exist outside of God, or is God the final arbiter of morality? But while all of us may be compelled, or even plagued, by questions of divine morality during difficult or questionable times, what I want to focus on today is not our reaction to this question, but Avraham’s. When faced with the challenge to his intuitive morality, how does Avraham relate to God’s command?
Unsurprisingly, this question has been debated by the Rabbis, commentaries, and even non-Jewish philosophers over the centuries. But just to draw out two strawmen, I want to contrast Rav Soloveitchik’s understanding of Avraham’s internal workings with that of Rav Kook. Rav Kook took the approach that Avraham, due to his great religious heights, was able to fully submit himself to God’s command to the point that Avraham was eager and joyous to sacrifice his son. Once Avraham knew that this was what God wanted, he was so devout he could flip a switch, turn off his own thoughts and morality in the face of God’s, and even be excited to wake up early, saddle his own donkey, and get going to do his Mitzvah...CONTINUE HERE
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