(I delivered the following address at one of our recent Yom Kippur services. It’s based on a favorite biblical quote, and is … well, just listen.)
הִגִּ֥יד לְךָ֛ אָדָ֖ם מַה־טּ֑וֹב וּמָֽה־יְהֹוָ֞ה דּוֹרֵ֣שׁ מִמְּךָ֗ כִּ֣י אִם־עֲשׂ֤וֹת מִשְׁפָּט֙ וְאַ֣הֲבַת חֶ֔סֶד וְהַצְנֵ֥עַ לֶ֖כֶת עִם־אֱלֹהֶֽיךָ׃ – Micah 6:8
MANY SMART PEOPLE HAVE TRIED to distill the Torah and its 613 mitzvot – “commandments,” or “connections” – into something smaller and more digestible. When someone told the early first-century sage Hillel, “Teach me the entire Torah while I stand on one foot,” Hillel famously replied, “What is hateful to you, do not do to others. […] The rest is commentary. Now go study.” Put another way: “‘Don’t be a jerk.’ Everything else is explanation; now, go figure it out.”
The prophet Micah lived six hundred years before Hillel. He explained Torah thus: “You have been told what is good […] and what Adonai seeks from you: To do justice, love chesed, and walk humbly with your G?d.” All three instances of the word “you” or “your” are in the second-person singular. These instructions are aimed at the Jewish nation’s individual members – at you, and you, and you, and me.
So. Let’s take a closer look at what we’re getting into.
DO JUSTICE: We’ve all heard that Jews are considered to be a “chosen people.” That title actually comes from Deuteronomy 14:2, where Moses tells the Israelites, “For you are a people holy to your God יהוה.”). That doesn’t mean we’re superior to others (despite what my dear bubbe a”h used to think). The why of chosenness is stated in Genesis 18:19 – G?d says of Abraham: “I have known him, that he teaches his children and his household to keep the way of Adonai to do what is right and just.” The Hebrew word for “justice” and “just” is the same in both cases – “mishpat.” “Mishpat” also refers to such ethically obvious mitzvot as, for example, not lying. Not murdering or stealing. Not holding a grudge. Dealing honestly in business, and with each other in general. And Abraham doesn’t keep those mitzvot to himself: he directs his descendants – that’s us! – to live that way too.
LOVE CHESED: Many modern translations have this as “love mercy,” but when King James’ translators were stuck for an English word for “chesed,” they invented one: “lovingkindness.” Loving is emotion, and kindness is action. It’s a self-supporting tension: kindness informed by love, and love informed by kindness. And we are called upon not just to “feel” or “experience” lovingkindness, but to “love” it – to seek an immediate connection with it. Even when we’re not “feelin’ it.”
WALK HUMBLY WITH YOUR G?D: Note how Micah describes G?d: as your G?d, the G?d of your singular understanding. Each of us is different, and so are our G?dly understandings. But whatever our understanding may be, it must include a tangible sense of perspective. Look up at the stars. Go listen to the ocean. Breathe deeply beneath immense redwoods. Feel the living earth on which you stand or sit. Do anything that helps you realize how small and temporary you are in an infinitely large, infinitely inscrutable Universe.
“Do justice. Love chesed. Walk humbly with your G?d.” The rest truly is commentary. Gut Yontiff.