[Avodah] Must we agree with the Torah?

[Zev Sero]

On 8/08/2013 10:25 PM, Lisa Liel wrote:
> Is it your contention that everything Hashem says is forbidden to us
> is "bad"?

Yes.  I don't think the mitzvos are arbitrary.  Hashem *could* have given
us meaningless commandments, and we would have obeyed them willingly anyway,
but He chose not to do that.  This isn't muchrach, but I think it's been the
consensus view in pretty much every set of sources you care to look at.


> If pork is "bad", why would a merciful God permit it to non-Jews?

I believe the standard answer is that because of their coarser nature
they're not sensitive to it.  Of course one could also suppose that He
warned us off it and not them, because He loves us more.

This goes also into the area of whether the positive mitzvos have inherent
value, and that is why He gave us them, or whether they're inherently
worthless and their value comes only from His having arbitrarily picked
them.  Which goes to the question of how one understands "ilu nitztavinu
lachtov eitzim".  I was taught that it means if we had been commanded to
chop wood, *and it remained an essentially worthless activity* (beyond the
obvious benefits of exercise and firewood), we would still willingly do it
just because He told us to.  This supposes that the actual mitzvos are
*not* "chopping wood", and for that we are grateful.

Another implication of this chiluk is whether mitzvos have an inherent
reward that is the natural consequence of keeping them, in *addition* to
the reward Hashem gives us for them.  If they have no inherent value, then
the only sechar is that which Hashem gives us.

-- 
Zev Sero
zev at sero.name