[Avodah] The Torah and the Natural Way of the World

[Yitzchok Levine]

The following is from the article with the above title that is at 
http://www.jewishideas.org/articles/torah-and-natural-way-world

Without the principle of derekh erets kademah leTorah, we would not 
be able to function properly in the Bet Midrash. We would not be able 
to make rulings on the laws of how people should dress. It would be 
impossible to rule on monetary cases if we did not have the 
principles of natural ownership according to the guidelines of 
society; it would be impossible to delineate the forbidden labors on 
Shabbat if we did not first understand the natural workings of the 
world. We would be obligated to devote the entire governmental budget 
to healthcare to save lives, and we would be unable to arrange the 
government's budget in the normal way governments arrange their 
budgets. The Torah itself indicates, when it discusses monarchy in 
Israel, the learning from the natural order of the world among the 
nations, "as all the nations around us." My argument is that although 
only some of the posekim (rabbinic decisors) have written directly on 
this topic, in fact all of the posekim throughout the Responsa 
literature base themselves in a permanent and fixed way on the 
foundation of the world and the natural way of life. The "news" of 
the Torah is not in the denial of this principle, but in adopting it, 
strengthening it, limiting it, sanctifying it, purifying it, and 
giving it boundaries.

Please see the above URL for the entire article.

Yitzchok Levine 
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