[Avodah] What is the Law?

[Yitzchok Levine]

Below are some selections from RSRH's essay Sivan V. I have posted a 
link to the entire essay at 
http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/collected_writings.html  YL

What is this Law?

It is the light of our manhood. It illuminates our eyes and, from the
totality of truth, lets us glimpse what we need to know to function on
this earth. Not to comfort us for the darkness of this world with a dim
preview of the light of the next world does this light come. On the
contrary, it is precisely the life of this world that is illuminated by this
light and is the object of its teachings and ordinances. And not just a
narrow corner of life, but life in its broadest conception and greatest
perfection.

This light-the Law-conducts us step by step through all of the
relationships of individual, family, and civic life, the life of the spirit
and the mind, of the body and the instincts, of word and deed. It
guides the life of the household, the community, the individual nation,
all nations, humanity-whose past it illuminates and whose future it
charts. And as for the present, it lets us see its significance as the
product of the past and the progenitor of the future.

The Law is a light which becomes brighter the purer we keep it,
the more fully we devote ourselves to its radiance. Its radiance enables
the Jewish man to walk through life with his eyes open, knowing what
he is, what he should be, and what is the meaning for him of the
individual and community life going on around him.
The Law gives us a standard by which to distinguish the true from
the false, the pure from the tainted, right from wrong, what is beneficial
from what is unsuitable- all according to the undeceivable
judgment of Godly Truth. It gives us a standard by which resolutely
and firmly to travel His Road without audacity and without recklessness,
without contempt for man and without worship of man, without
conceit and without self-abasement, but rather with the Godly lamp in
hand. Thus equipped, we can travel our road without fear, calmly and
earnestly, prepared for all eventualities
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What a bright radiance of "wisdom" the light of the Law became
in the virile breast of our people! All around them everything began to
develop. Whole cultures sprang up and faded away. Everything
flourished that the ancient world, winding laurels about itself, recorded
upon the pages of history as the greatness of splendor of its own
culture and power, to be admired by all posterity unto eternity.
Persian, Greek, and Roman world empires celebrated their victories
of intellect and power. The world prostrated itself at the feet of
these all-conquering civilizations and basked with envious, blandishing
homage in the radiance of their splendor and culture.

All the while, in little Judea, a core of men within the nation lived
their own lives, wound the laurels of homage in honor of completely
different values. These men found the paths of their Calling within the
orbit of a completely different sun. And they built foundations of a
completely different structure in anticipation of a world-conquering
future. The Law was their value system, the Law was their sun. It was
the Law for which they built the future of their nation and the future of
mankind.

In vain did Persia unfold the impressive solemnity of its pomp. In
vain did Greece develop the brilliance of its science and the gracefulness
of its art which pleased the spirit and heart. In vain did Rome
display the world-conquering genius of its statecraft. The light of the
Law that shone upon Jewish men allowed them to recognize a lie
under any wrapping-no matter how gleaming. It armed them against
all temptations of Greek and Roman philosophy which appealed to
the senses; and against all enticement offered by Greek and Roman
practical wisdom which favored self-interest.
And when for the second time the temple, priesthood, state, and
kingdom of Judea sealed their own downfall through the apostasy
from God's Law-to fall prey to the Roman sword-the core of the
Jewish people emerged from the debris and ruins of an unprecedented
destruction. They carried with them the lamp of the Godly Law,
triumphantly confident, toward an unparalleled period of wandering
through the nations of the world.

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