[Avodah] chukotav & rashi

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 02:20:24PM -0800, Harvey Benton wrote:
: this week's parsha mentions mitzvotav, chukotav and torotav;
: on chukotav, rashi mentions that they are things without reason, a
: gezeiras hamelech; ... do other meforshim agree with rashi that there
: are no reasons for these kinds of mitzvos? ...

I think you mean "mishmarti, mitzvosai, chuqosai vesorosoi. (26:5)

Are you sure that's what Rashi means? It is more likely that Rashi holds
these are things we do because they are gezeiros haMelekh despite our
not grasping a reason.

Rashi defines it there was "Things which the yeitzer hara and the nations
of the world have answers on [doing] them. Such as eating pig, wearing
shaatnez, for the taam is not in the thing, but they are a decree of
the King and His law on His servants." Does "ta'am ein badavar" mean
there is no reason, or that we don't find reason in it? Which fits the
first part?

Also, the contrast is with mitzvosai, which are "things that even if
they weren't written they would have been worth being commanded, such as
theft and murder." The antonym of obvious is non-obvious. Not
reason-less.

(Mishmarti: gezeiros; Torosai: Halakhah leMoshe miSinai.)

A few months ago we discussed Divine Command Theory, the theory of
morality that defines it as "that which Hashem commanded". Not that
Hashem commands things that are moral, but that the entire concept of
moral *means* "following Hashem's command".

Among the observations was that (unlike Notzrut and Islam), Yahadus has
few if any advocates of DCT. We specifically discussed Rashi and ruled
him out as an adherent. That would make your take on how Rashi explains
choq" to be quite difficult.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Life is complex.
micha at aishdas.org                Decisions are complex.
http://www.aishdas.org               The Torah is complex.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                                - R' Binyamin Hecht