[Avodah] Chok

[Michael Poppers]

In Avodah V42n49, R'Micha posts:
I was taken by R J Sacks zt"l's idea for what a choq is. See his essay
"Descartes' Error"
<https://rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/chukat/descartes-error>,

Much, and probably most, of the human decision-making process is not based
in the rational part of our brain. First, we get too many stimuli to be
fully aware of all the "inputs", never mind our thoughts about much of
it. And thus emotion is very involved. So RJS argues that this is why
some of halakhah is not aimed at rational comprehension.

    "There have been many interpretations of the chukim throughout the
    ages. But in the light of recent neuroscience, we can suggest that
    they are laws designed to bypass the prefrontal cortex, the rational
    brain, and create instinctive patterns of behaviour to counteract
    some of the darker emotional drives at work in the human mind."

And since their role is to ingrain habit and instinct, the word "choq"
fits the /ch-q-q/ etymology.
<snip>
---
However, as RMFirst (bcc:ed) notes (URL:
https://jewishlink.news/what-is-the-meaning-of-chok-2/) re other
interpretations, this "create instinctive patterns of behavior" suggestion
does not fit all the uses of "choq" in TaNaCH -- you can see all those
examples in his article after he quotes RML:
===
Fortunately, Rabbi Menachem Leibtag has discussed the meaning of חק in an
article available online on the Orthodox Union website (“Chukat: Parah
Adumah: What’s a Chok?”). He concludes that a חק is a law that is fixed and
unchanging. (This would be a natural expansion from the original “engraved”
meaning of the root.) He gives many arguments to support this understanding
and I agree with him.
===

All the best from
*Michael Poppers* * Elizabeth, NJ, USA
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