www.TheLogician.net © Avi Sion - all rights reserved |
|
The Logician © Avi Sion All rights reserved |
JUDAIC LOGIC© Avi Sion, 1995. All rights reserved. Chapter
13. ON THE CONCEPT OF
MITZVAH.
Jewish tradition assigns various technical characteristics to the concept
of mitzvah. In this
chapter, we will try to clarify some of them, and analyze their formal
implications, making comparisons to natural ethical logic.[1]
The term mitzvah
(pl. mitzvot) is usually
translated as commandment(s). Mitzvot asseh
(do's) are positive commands or imperatives; mitzvot lo-taasseh
(do-not's) are negative commands or prohibitions. Strictly-speaking, this is not
quite correct. Some of the 'mitzvot' are indeed imperatives or prohibitions, but
some, whether directly or by implication, are rather only permissions (i.e.
negations of prohibitions) and/or exemptions (i.e. negations of imperatives).
For examples: Deut. 23:25, "when you come into your neighbour's
vineyard, you may eat grapes" (which refers to a labourer at work), is a
case of direct permission; or Exod. 13:13, "and if you will not redeem it,
you must behead it" (which refers to a firstborn donkey), is a conditional
imperative, which by implication implies a permission. In some cases, the
imperative and permission do not have the same logical subject; thus, in Lev.
19:10, the crop-owner's obligation to leave gleanings for the poor, implies the
right of the poor to go into the field and take them.
But note that, in some cases, a statement which has the form of a
permission, is received rather with emphasis on an implicit imperative (for
instance, Deut. 14:11, which reads "every clean bird, you may eat" is
taken to mean that one must examine a bird and make sure that it is kosher
before eating it; similarly with Lev. 11:2, 9, 21). Some passages which might
more naturally be understood as merely permissive, are seemingly interpreted
more extremely as imperatives (for instances, Deut. 15:3 or 23:21, which read
"from a gentile, [go ahead]" - "exact repayment [of loan, even in Shemitah year]" or "take interest", are interpreted by some as meaning
'you must do so', rather than as
merely 'you may do so'; similarly,
Deut. 17:14-15 is understood to mean that Israel not just may but must (eventually)
have a king.
So we have to interpret the term mitzvah/command, here, as including
'command to allow' and 'command to exempt', as well as 'command to obligate' and
'command to forbid'. This sort of nested reiteration might raise formal
problems, if taken too literally. Rather, I think, the best thing is to
understand the term 'command', for lack of another, as having as well as its
narrow sense of imperative, a broader sense which includes prohibitions,
permissions and exemptions, as well.
One might argue that reiteration does reflect an aspect of the concept of
mitzvah, namely that even contingent ethical propositions, if true, are products
of Gd's will and therefore imply a command. But then, a command to whom? Some
might answer, to the religious authorities, telling them to tell the lay people
what they must, must not, may, may not do. However, I do not think that Judaism
wishes to be so extremely authoritarian; it acknowledges a more direct relation
between layperson and Gd.
Also, I do not think that we are logically forced to regard contingent
ethical propositions as expressions of Gd's will; it is not inconceivable that
Gd is simply open to either course implied by such propositions. In other words,
the totalitarian thesis, that "everything is regulated" within a
religious ethics, is not logically inevitable; it is quite conceivable (though
some people, with fanatical inclinations, would doubt it) that Gd allows for
(perhaps even rejoices at) some human spontaneity, so that humans have some
(however much or little) freedom of choice, not only in the sense of natural
capacity, but also in the sense of ethical liberty.
In more formal terms, the issue may be expressed as follows: in natural
modality, a proposition of the form "X is capable
of doing Y" is usually associated with a proposition of the form "When
X is in such and such a situation, he is forced
to do Y", which expresses the conditions under which the potentiality is
necessarily actualized. One hypothesis (known as determinism) is that such
association is not only usual but universal; the opposite hypotheses (positing
spontaneity or freewill) are that there exists cases where a potentiality does
not imply a conditional necessary actualization.
Similarly, the issue totalitarianism versus partial liberty arises as
follows in ethical modality: a proposition of the form "X is permitted
to do Y" may or may not presuppose a proposition of the form "When X
is in such and such a situation, he is obligated
to do Y" - the issue is not formally resolvable; either position, ethical
determinism and ethical indeterminism, is a hypothesis. Note in passing that the
English language, by using passive verbs like 'is permitted', already implies
that liberty is endowed; but a more impartial terminology would reflect more the
inherent independence of liberty, its conceptual primacy.[2]
The following are some of the terms found in Talmudic discussions
referring to mitzvot:
There are many other equivalent terms, needless to say; in Hebrew, such
as tsarikh, zakai, in
English, such as prescribed, prohibited, allowed, and so forth (check out your
thesaurus for more). These concepts are normally understood by logicians as
ethical modalities - attributes of relations, conceptually similar to (indeed
subsets of) necessity, impossibility, possibility and unnecessity, but in the
ethical field, implying some prior standard(s) of value, ultimate norms - and
having (among others) the following logical characteristics:
(a) They are in principle obvertible, so that if, for subject X, the
doing (in the widest sense) of Y is an obligation, then not-Y is forbidden, and
if Y is forbidden, then not-Y is an obligation; and likewise, if Y is permitted,
then not-Y is an exemption , and if Y is an exemption, then not-Y is permitted.
(b) They form a normal 'square of oppositions', so that obligation
implies (but is not implied by) permission, is contrary to prohibition, and
contradictory to exemption; and likewise, prohibition implies (but is not
implied by) exemption, is contrary to obligation, and contradictory to
permission.
However, as already discussed in an earlier chapter, Talmudists would be
likely, more often than not, to interpret these concepts somewhat differently.
For them, at least ab initio,
permission and exemption would be understood as davqa
positions, and therefore as implying each other, and being together contrary to
both obligation and prohibition. In that case, one may educe "X may
not-Y" (as well as "X may not not-Y") from "X may Y";
and similarly "X may Y" (as well as "X may not Y") from
"X may not-Y". In certain cases, the preceding lav davqa interpretations might be preferred, if the davqa
ones turned out to be untenable for some reason.
Going further, a question arises as to whether the Hebrew expressions 'asseh' and 'lo-taasseh'
('do' and 'do not do') are intended as general words, signifying any verbs, or
whether they signify more specifically volitional
'action' and 'restraint from action', respectively.
In the general sense, verbs are fully obvertible: 'does X' implies
'does-not do not-X', and 'does-not do X' implies 'does not-X'; this is the sense
preferred by formal logic, because of its simplicity. Whereas, in the more
special sense, concerning human will, with its psychological, physiological,
environmental, social, political and spiritual concomitants, which is the domain
of interest of ethics, various nuances have to be taken into consideration.
An 'action' may refer to a thought (a purely mental event); to an emotion
(a psychosomatic expression of pleasure, pain or indifference, love, hatred, or
non-commitment, in various configurations and degrees); or to a
physically-manifest event, with all its implications within the individual(s)
concerned and all its consequences in the surrounding natural and social
context. In this sense, then, 'action' refers to an act of the human will, which
may range from fully voluntary and
conscious to very-nearly involuntary and/or unconscious, but must in any
case have some degree of freedom to be subject to ethical legislation, under any
system.
Note that, contrary to what one might expect, thoughts are often subject
to legislation: for though cognition is ultimately an objective event, the
observer can often choose the direction of his/her attention, the course of
his/her research, and the price (i.e. conditions) of his/her belief-attitudes.
Similarly, emotions are in a sense 'passions', but the value-judgements
originally underlying them are often a relatively free choice, and a person may
often choose to suppress emotions, more or less control them or give them free
rein, and actions (of varying value) may then follow. Certainly, we find within
Judaism laws relating to belief (to believe in the Lrd/Gd's existence, oneness,
sovereignty, not to believe in other gods) and to love (to love the Lrd/Gd, to
love one's neighbour as oneself, not to hate one's brother in one's heart).
Lastly, while it might be that an individual can have influence on
his/her natural and social surrounds directly through his/her thoughts and
emotions (I mean, by telepathy), in most cases, certainly, such influence can
only take shape through the medium of physical acts (be they words or sounds
spoken or unspoken, facial expressions and gestures, or pushing, pulling and
other movements) of the individual.
Also to note: as far as religion is concerned, ethics concerns not only
the impact of individuals on their own body and mind (including soul), and on
their physical and social surrounds, but also their (alleged) effect on
"upper and lower spiritual worlds" of mystical significance. While
some rituals are more or less explicable in immanent terms, many are reputed or
presumed to have transcendental purposes. But I will not make further remarks on
such relatively metaphysical topics.
My only interest being here to point out the differing senses of 'doing',
and to briefly demonstrate that once one goes beyond the simple, general sense,
the issues become rather complicated. For these reasons, formal logic usually
concentrates on the broadest sense of the verb 'to do', with which no essential
distinction other than polarity exists between positive and negative commands.
Where the more specific sense of human action is intended, we have to
keep in mind at least the following categories: 'doing' and 'avoiding doing'
(both of which signify some degree of volition and awareness), and 'absence of
doing' and 'absence of avoiding doing' (which merely negate the preceding two
categories, without implying volition and awareness and without excluding them).
All this is obvious enough, and was (it seems to me) clearly known to the
Talmudists.
The following is a more technical presentation of the concepts under
discussion:
For the most abstract forms, where 'do' refers to any verb, positive or
negative, active or passive, whatsoever, (a) all imperatives with a zero or even
number of negations are equivalent, and (b) all those with an odd number of
negations are equivalent, and these two sets of forms are contrary to each
other. This refers to the following forms (I use the formulas "that's
good," "that's bad," to express the black and white
value-judgements involved): a)
X must do Y = X mustn't do not-Y = X must not-do
not-Y = X mustn't not-do Y = if X does Y, that's good; if X does not do Y,
that's bad. b) X mustn't
do Y = X must do not-Y = X mustn't
not-do not-Y = X must not-do Y = if X does not do Y, that's good; if X does Y,
that's bad.
However, in contrast, if we interpret 'doing' as meaning specifically
'willing', obversions are not always feasible, and we obtain four variously
opposed sets of two forms (c through f, below), instead of two contrary sets of
four forms (a, b, above). c)
X must will
Y = X mustn't not-will Y = if X
wills Y, that's good; if X does not will Y, that's bad. d) X mustn't
will Y = X must not-will Y = if X
does not will Y, that's good; if X wills Y, that's bad. e)
X must will
not-Y = X mustn't not-will not-Y =
if X wills not-Y, that's good; if X does not will not-Y, that's bad. f)
X mustn't
will not-Y = X must not-will not-Y = if
X does not will not-Y, that's good; if X wills not-Y, that's bad.
About the oppositions between these forms. Note that, given "X wills
Y" and "X wills not-Y" are incompatible, whereas "X does not
will Y" and "X does not will not-Y" are compatible, it follows
that "X wills Y" implies (but is not implied by) "X does not will
not-Y", and that "X wills not-Y" implies (but is not implied by)
"X does not will Y".
Now, the forms (c) and (d) are contrary, since they disagree regarding
whether "X wills Y" is good (c) or bad (d), and likewise whether
"X does not will Y" is good (d) or bad (c). Similarly, for the forms
(e) and (f). However, since "X wills Y" (good) found in (c) implies
"X does not will not-Y" (good) found in (f), and "X does not will
Y" (bad) found in (c) is implied by "X wills not-Y" (bad) found
in (f), the forms (c) and (f) are compatible, but neither implies the other.
Similarly, for the forms (e) and (d).
When Gd tells us to do or not-do something, is He just
concerned with that one thing He has mentioned, or with a much larger, unstated
context?
Perhaps just doing what one is told by Gd to do, is all that counts. Or
perhaps this bottom line is duly rewarded; but also, as one enriches the deed
with better kavanah
(pl. kavanot),
as defined below, the reward increases proportionately. Similarly, on the
negative side: there may be gradations in seriousness, ranging from a minimum
for "sin through error" (implying that one has a certain
responsibility for ignorance or neglect), to a maximum for intentional or
willful sin (implying a certain rebellion). Or perhaps, more extremely, the
performance of a positive mitzvah or non-performance of a negative mitzvah
require an adequate kavanah (or, rather, a certain collection of kavanot), and
does not otherwise count at all.
Kavanah includes various factors:
(a) A certain degree of awareness
of one's activity or inactivity; so that it is a product of will, and not merely
an automatic reaction (a reflex or habit or chance occurrence). For example,
while praying, being aware of the meaning (at least the plain meaning, if not
the deeper meanings) of the words one utters, would fall under this heading.
(b) The proper motives: this
concerns the causal background influencing the deed. Included here are (i) more
or less conscious goals, like gaining a place in the world-to-come, or earning
earthly rewards, such as a wife and children, long life, health, knowledge,
success, riches, and so forth; and (ii) undeclared/unadmitted, subconscious or
unconscious goals, which constitute the relatively hidden psychological context,
such as power-lust for instance. Apparent motives are not necessarily true
motives; here, complex needs for introspection are implied.[3]
(c) The intention to thereby
fulfill the mitzvah, as such, i.e. as a command from Gd given through Moshe
at Sinai. One may view this, though the ideal motive, as just a necessary
motive, a sine qua non, without having
to be the only motive, exclusive of any other. Or, more extremely, one may insist on
obedience without selfish motive whatever, purely lishma, "for its own sake," or leshem Shamaim, "for the sake of Heaven."
(d) We might additionally mention, though it does not strictly qualify as
kavanah, the emotional context.
Treatises on the performance of mitzvot always stress the significance of mood
or attitude: goodwill, doing the job
at hand with joy (beratson), adds to
the value and virtue of one's good deed, and conversely resentment and such
depreciate it. This is quite understandable, at least from the point of view of
the order-giver, who does not want the annoyance and interference of negative
vibes (stiff-neck); from the viewpoint of the order-receiver, however, there may
be a felt need to express dissatisfaction or disagreement, of involuntary
compliance.
According to some Rabbis (including, as I recall, the Rambam and the
Chafets Chaim), without the required kavanah the action done or not-done is
considered mere happenstance, and does not constitute fulfillment of the
corresponding mitzvah.
Now, the above is a very heavy doctrine, whose logical implications are
manifold. For what it means, in formal terms, is that the Divine commandments
given in the Torah, although expressed in simple forms like "do this"
or "don't do that", are really meant as more complex forms, which
include a multiplicity of tacit qualifications. Clearly, this changes their
logical properties. For instance, the two ethical propositions below have very
different logical properties: ·
"X must do Y"
(simple). ·
"X must do Y and
be aware (to degree k) of doing Y and have motives l, n, m
while doing Y and do Y in order to
fulfill the command to do Y" (complex).
When I say that two such propositions have different logical properties,
I mean that they have different contradictories, different implications, and so
forth - just as any elementary proposition 'P' has different logical properties,
compared to any compound proposition 'P+Q+R'. All the more so, since the
additional elements include mention of the same subject and/or predicate in a
complicated variety of ways.
It follows that, if the doctrine described above is to be accepted
literally and in full, so that there are effectively no simple ethical
propositions in Judaism, then the logical system applicable to it is not (as
often presumed) the system which applies to simple ethical propositions, but a
much more elaborate system appropriate to the more complex forms, with strings
of qualifications of the simple relations. It is very important to realize the
full weight of this implication of the doctrine.
There are yet other complementary factors which might need to be taken
into consideration:
In a natural ethics, the reward/punishment
factor is built-in, because the things one should or shouldn't do have a natural
causal relation, constructive or destructive, to one's standard of value -
normally, human welfare. The doing or not-doing of so and so causes an improvement or a damage in the goal(s) which constitute
our norm; and the seriousness of the measure depends on whether this causation
is necessary or merely helpful, sufficient or partial, categorical or
conditional, etc.
Here, "X should do Y", because
if X does-not do Y, the ultimate
goal(s) Z will be disfavoured; or
"X should not-do Y", because
if X does do Y, the ultimate goal(s) Z
will be disfavoured; or again, "X
may or may not do Y", because whether X does or does-not do Y, the ultimate
goal(s) Z will not be disfavoured,
though one way may be more favourable than the other, or unfavourable
consequences may arise, one way and/or the other, only under certain conditions
instead of unconditionally.
But in a religious ethics, that is: one based on Divine Revelation, such
causal relations are not always apparent, especially in that the ultimate
goal(s) involved may not be altogether explicitly known to us (though
commentators may variously presume this or that to be Gd's intentions).
Moreover, the personal or collective reward/punishment may not in all cases be
in a naturally-apparent manner causally-connected to the deeds, but may rather
be connected by Divine fiat, as it were, in hidden pathways. I mean, granted
that Nature is also a product of Divine fiat, religion still presumes that some
relations are intrinsic to it (immanent, natural), while others use more
extrinsic pathways (transcendent, miraculous).
Thus, in religion, the reward or punishment, which we will symbolize by
Z1 and Z2, respectively, has the following formal relation to the command:
"X should do Y, and if X does Y
then Z1 is promised, and if X does not
do Y then Z2 is threatened"; and similarly, in the case of "X should
not do Y", mutadis mutandis. The
imperatives are associated with promises and threats, but one may not formally infer
from these imperatives negative natural-conditional propositions.
Here, the reward/punishment complex is a Divinely-instituted appendage, which may not (though it also may) have any natural
causal connection to the (positive or negative) imperative. The result is not
automatically consequent, under Natural Law, but mediated by ad
hoc acts of will by Gd on a case-by-case basis. Even if Gd's choices are
consistently uniform, they always retain a more voluntary character. This
hypothesis would explain the irregularity of results (which might alternatively
be due to the complexities of the natural causalities involved, of course), and
fits neatly with the doctrine that Gd wishes to reserve for Himself the option
of mercy and forgiveness.
In this context, the issue of redemption
arises. In nature, some mistakes can be corrected, and others cannot. In
Judaism, by special Divine dispensation, as it were, we are more often than not
offered further possibilities of redemption, the undoing and forgiveness of fait
accompli, beyond the natural, through repentance and personal change (teshuvah),
through charity (tsedakah) and
sacrifice in the Temple (korbanot).
All this has logical significance.
Another issue with possible relevance is whether reward/punishment are
related to effort. Is Gd's only
interest in tachlit, the bottom line,
getting the job done, or is the effort expended in fulfilling a mitzvah
significant to Him? Effort means work against resistance, the resistance of
one's own faculties or weaknesses or diverse external factors; or, in other
words, in a terminology dear to the Rabbis, the counter-pressure of the yetzer haraa, the "evil inclination" allegedly possessed
by mankind in particular and this-world in general.
With regard to reward, if two people fulfill the same mitzvah, and for
one it was an easy thing and for
another a difficult thing, are they at
the same moral/spiritual level? The one for whom it was easy is in a sense
proved the higher, in view of the facility experienced; but the one for whom it
was more difficult is in another sense proved the higher, in view of the extra
effort dedicated.
More specifically, for instance, if a person never kills or never steals
or never commits adultery (and many people fall in those categories), is such a
person always credited with virtue? Or does the merit depend on having been
tempted and resisted temptation, as some Rabbis claim, and does the merit grow
as a function of the difficulty encountered? In other words, to use a
technological image, is only heat-production respected in Jewish law, and
superconductivity looked down upon?
More formally, does "X must do Y" imply, in the Torah, "if
it takes X an effort to do Y, he is rewarded; else, not"; and does "X
mustn't do Y" imply, in the Torah, "If X is tempted yet resists to do
Y, he is rewarded; else, not"? It may not be possible to answer such
questions on formal grounds; any doctrine which is internally consistent, which
presents no inherent difficulty, is on equal footing from that point of view.
With regard to the negative mitzvot just mentioned, I would like to
comment that people are in fact constantly tempted: any cause for anger, real or
imagined, is effectively a temptation for violence and (eventually) murder,
every object one can pick up (which belongs to someone else) is a temptation for
theft, every woman that passes by is a temptation for rape and (if she is
married) adultery. So, even if such temptations were regarded as so small as to
be nearly zero, for most people, or the overcoming of them was viewed as
generating a virtually negligible credit, for most people, we could still not
truly claim in such cases that no
temptation at all was involved and therefore that no resistance to temptation
took place.
The idea of the more extreme Rabbis may be expressed more fully by saying
that each mitzvah refers to four outcomes (leaving aside more complex issues of
kavanah mentioned earlier) as follows: for example, that "X must do Y"
in the Torah is intended to mean "X must will Y" (see form (c), in the
previous section), so that: ·
if X wills Y (= active performance), the mitzvah is fulfilled and
rewarded; ·
if X does Y, but does not will Y
(= passive performance), the mitzvah is not truly fulfilled and no reward
follows; ·
if X does not will Y, yet as it happens does not do Y (= sin of omission), the mitzvah is breached though
perhaps relatively less punishably; ·
if X wills not-Y (= sin of commission), the mitzvah is breached in a
more punishable manner.
Similarly, that "X mustn't do Y" in the Torah is intended to
mean "X mustn't will Y" (see form (d)), and this entails four outcomes
as above, mutadis mutandis; and likewise, supposedly, for "X must do/will
not-Y" (see form (e)) and "X mustn't do/will not-Y" (see form
(f)). All that in itself seems consistent.
With regard to punishment, is a person who has tried his/her utmost to
perform a positive mitzvah or resist a temptation to sin, but failed, treated
less severely than one who has tried less or not tried at all? This question can
also, like the preceding one, be expressed in formal terms; it proposes further
gradations. Our human sensibilities concerning Justice would answer yes to it;
Judaism tends to agree in principle, though some stories seem to suggest that
sometimes this is irrelevant.
Still further distinctions and gradations are called forth when we
consider the issues of kavanah. For instance, a person who did not know the law,
having say been kidnapped far from the community, and who consciously eats pork,
is not comparable to someone who knew the law and wished to break it to express
rejection of it. Such fine subdivisions are beyond the scope of the present
study; I only mention them to remind the reader that we have far from exhausted
the issues.
While on the topic of reward/punishment, we should mention an interesting
concept of deontology (general ethical logic) found in the Bible and Talmud,
that of remedy. For example, it is
forbidden to steal (a negative mitzvah), but if one did steal, returning the
stolen object to its owner (a positive mitzvah), in some cases with an extra
amount of the same object, frees the thief from the penalty incurred (such as
lashes). Similar examples can be found in man-made law and 'natural' ethics.
Such corrective processes can be expressed in formal terms, as follows.
In some situations, X causes Y and
NotX causes NotY; whereas in other cases, though X causes Y, NotX does not cause NotY - so that the damage
done (Y) by the violation (X) cannot be undone
(NotY) by a remedy (NotX). This is an insight, primarily, of causal logic,
namely that some causal relations are reversible, whereas with others
"what's done is done" - they are 'entropic', we might say.
In a broader sense, all reward or punishment, whether in this world or in
the afterlife, is considered as remedy. This is the concept of tiqun
(repair), so dear to and widely used by Jewish mystics. Life is either
degeneration (through sin) or putting things right (through good deeds or
through reward/punishment by society or by Gd). Note that reward is ultimately
as much a tiqun as punishment, in that
a never-rewarded good deed is comparable to work without wages, there is an
injustice involved, something which should have been completed has not been.
It should be stressed that the Rabbis nowhere (so far as I know) explain
just how they know that mitzvot were intended by Gd to have the various special
features they ascribe to them. Certainly, the Written Torah is not as explicit
as they are on such matters. Nor are any of the inferences - emerging from by
the special features discussed in this chapter - included in the main lists of
hermeneutic principles; nor is it anywhere shown precisely how such forms of
argument might be read into the Torah text by means of the listed hermeneutic
principles. The special features of Rabbinic ethical logic are merely taken for
granted, as part and parcel of the oral tradition; and perhaps viewed as
implicit to some extent in the behavior of exemplary characters found in stories
in the Torah, Talmud and later inspirational literature. There are, as we have
pointed out, discussions among Rabbis as to their ultimate force of law. I would
suggest that such special features developed gradually in Rabbinic lore,
generated by the idealism, and sometimes the oneupmanship, of successive Rabbis.
Note, finally, that mitzvot may have still other
features (unrelated to the above). For instance, mitzvot are quite often
temporally related, in forms like "you
[the person(s) concerned] must
perform Mitzvah A before Mitzvah B".
These constitute complementary commands, say C, whose subject is the same as A
and B, and whose predicate contains two commands in a specified sequence. Such
statements may have any polarity or modality[4]; and may be - as well as categorical - conditional, in
diverse and eventually complex hierarchies. Needless to say, the formal logic of
such propositions can get rather complicated. This feature is not peculiar to
Jewish deontology, but may be found in natural ethics, where complementary means
to an end are often similarly ordered.
An example from Judaism is the sequence recommended for the mitzvot of tallit
(prayer shawl) and tefillin
(phylacteries; leather boxes containing extracts from Scripture, with straps);
within the latter, in turn, the rosh
(head) tefillin is to be put on before
the yad (arm) tefillin.
Strictly-speaking, these are independent mitzvot, but the order in which they
are here listed is the ideal. We are also told precisely at what stages the
appropriate blessings should be recited.[5]
How all this is proved (if at all) from Scripture is another matter, to do with
hermeneutics; our concern here is with formalities.
One of the interesting, peculiar properties of Biblical
or Talmudic/Rabbinic commands is the
non-equivalence between an ethical proposition and its obverse. That is,
"X must Y" and "X mustn't not-Y" (or similarly, "X
mustn't Y" and "X must not-Y"), although they logically imply
each other, formally, in all cases, may nevertheless in some cases be counted as
two Mitzvot! For example, Deut. 22:19, which refers to cases of libel of wife by
husband, says both "she shall remain his wife" and "he may not
send her away all his days"; having to remain married and being forbidden
to divorce are identical, yet are here both specified. Another example is Deut.
25:17 and 19, the commandments to remember and not-forget Amalek's misdeeds
towards Israel.
It would at first sight seem like a redundancy, to repeat the same
commandment in positive and negative form; or one may suspect that the two
wordings were counted as two laws to satisfy some preconceived notion of the
'number of Mitzvot'. But the explanation given by the Rabbis is quite plausible,
namely that this emphasis serves not only to doubly encourage obedience of the
command, but also to signify the extra possibilities of reward or punishment
inherent in its performance or in failure to do so. (Note that the positive and
negative mitzvot in question need not be close to each other in the Biblical
text: for instance Lev. 19:13 and Deut. 24:15, concerning paying a worker his
wages without delay and on time, are far apart yet complementary.)
Thus it is that there is a general (or nearly general) rule, to the
effect that: the disobedience of a positive command cannot be punished by
Rabbinical courts, though it may have negative social or Divinely-produced
consequences, the latter in this life or in the afterlife; whereas, disobedience
of a negative command can indeed be punished by Rabbinical courts, though again
it may have consequences of one kind or another. With regard to obedience of
positive or negative commands, the reward of such obedience is not usually
within the competence of Rabbinical courts (though they may in some cases decree
a person be honoured, for instance), but may be programmed in nature (by Gd, of
course) or occur as a social phenomenon (most probably due to the ambient
culture produced by the Torah) or be effected Providentially (i.e. by Divine
intervention) in this world or the next.
Effectively, we have here a specialized linguistic
convention that: when a command is worded only
positively, the courts are not competent to punish transgression, whereas when
it is expressed also or only
negatively, they are so. It is a signal, a code, not found in general language,
and therefore not a rule of formal ethical logic, but peculiar (we are taught)
to the domain of Torah.
Note that, in some cases, the pair of positive and negative commands are
not, strictly-speaking, in a purely formal sense, obverts of each other. This
may occur when the positive command refers to a finite act of will, and the
negative command refers not merely to the absence of that will, but to another
finite act of will in the opposite direction. For examples. Deut. 22:29,
concerning cases of rape, obligates marriage and forbids divorce; these two
mitzvot are not like the above mentioned case of Deut. 22:19 identical, for one
might well be forced to marry someone, yet not absolutely forbidden to turn
around and divorce her soon after.
Similarly, in Deut. 21:23 the prohibition to allow a man to remain
hanging overnight and the obligation to bury
him on the same day as he was executed, are not exact obverts of each other. In
Deut. 22:1,3, the mitzvah to return lost property one finds, and the warning not
to pass-by and ignore it (so as to avoid the hassle of returning it), are not
implied by each other; similarly, with Deut. 22:4, concerning helping one's
fellow's fallen animal. Again, the commandments in Deut. 22:6-7 concerning the
mother-bird are not inferable from each other (as it might have been required
that we take neither mother nor young, or mother but not young).
We also find in the Torah another form of apparent redundancy, the
repetition of certain laws in both generic and specific form. For example,
if incest is forbidden between a man and various
specified near of kin (Lev. 18:7-18), one might ask what is the point of
forbidding it additionally with any
near of kin (Lev. 18:6). Here again, the explanation given by commentators is
that such repetition signals the severity of the mitzvah, and forewarns of the
double jeopardy its disobedience implies, in the case of negative mitzvot; or,
in the case of positive mitzvot, their importance and double recompense. A
calculus is suggested. With regard to the example taken here, one might say that
whereas incest in general generates a moral debit of x, such practise with a specified near of kin generates a greater
debit, x + y.[6]
This issue incidentally raises another, of even broader interest to the
formal logic of ethical propositions. What are the logical relations between
imperatives, permissions, prohibitions and exemptions? This question has to do
with modal logic, and as we shall see it may be answered entirely with
reference to alethic (non-ethical) logic.
We know that, in the logic of non-ethical propositions, while predication
of any species syllogistically implies predication of all of its genera,
predication of a genus does not suffice to imply predication of any one (randomly selected) of its species, though it does imply
that at least one (without prejudice
as to which one(s)) of its species
must be predicable. By contraposition it follows that: while denial of a generic
predicate implies denial of all
relatively specific predicates, denial of any
one (or even more than one, provided less than all) of its species is not
formally sufficient to deny a given genus, but it takes denial of all
of its species to ensure denial of a given genus.
As we shall now show, certain rules may be inferred from the above, with
respect to ethical logic. The formal relation of ethical to neutral propositions
is to be found in teleology (a
derivative of causal logic). Normative statements refer to means
and ends, they tell us whether such and such is needed for, harmful to, or neither needed for nor harmful to, some
accepted standard of value. This norm
may have its source in revelation, or in rational deliberations or in irrational
choices, it may be more or less explicit, and it may be unitary or manifold
(provided that it is internally consistent, or at least that its parts are
clearly hierarchized).
In Judaism, the norm is Gd's Will, whose precise content we know only
partly and speculatively, insofar as it is implicitly expressed in the Torah
through the laws and stories (and similarly, mutadis
mutandis, in certain other religions). In Natural Ethics, the norm is
general human welfare, which may be broadened to include the ecological
concerns, and this is largely explicit and consistent, to the extent that it is
knowable through biology and kindred sciences. More subjective ethical systems
refer to personal emotions or the welfare of special groups (e.g. a race) as
their standard, and are largely unverbalized and often inconsistent. In any
case, whatever the standard of value (which we shall label C),
the following formal relations are set by logical science, for any given action
(call it B) performed by someone (A): ·
A must do B (B is imperative for A), means that if A does not do B, C cannot occur. ·
A musn't do B (B is forbidden to A), means that if A does do B, C cannot occur. ·
A neither must nor mustn't do B (call this 'license', for lack of a better word),
means that whether A does or doesn't do B, C can still occur. Additionally: ·
A may do B (B is permitted to A), means that B is either imperative or licensed to
A. ·
A may not-do B (B is exempt to A), means that B is either forbidden or licensed to A.
These, then, are the alethic interpretations of categorical
ethical necessity, impossibility, contingency, possibility and unnecessity,
respectively. Our palette of ethical modalities may be extended further with
reference to conditional teleologies.
Thus, for instances, A doing B is conducive
to C, if it causes C in certain circumstances; and A doing B is dangerous
to C, if it inhibits C (causes not-C) in certain circumstances. Now, our goal
here is to find the relationships between
species and genera of action. Knowing that a given genus (say G) is imperative or forbidden or whatever, what can we infer
concerning its species (say S1, S2,
S3,...); and vice versa?
a.
If a genus G is imperative, no
given one of its species is logically implied to be imperative, or anything
else, though it is implied that at least
one of its species has to be performed, otherwise
G cannot occur, and therefore C cannot occur. Note well that S1, S2, S3...
are disjunctively, but not individually or distributively, and still less
collectively, implied imperative by G's imperativeness; it is only the
disjunction of the series of S which is affected, each and every S may just as
well, in itself, be licensed, or imperative or even forbidden. It follows, by
contraposition, that it does not suffice to know that each and every one of its
species, S1, S2, S3, ..., are exempt, to infer that a genus G is exempt, but we
must establish that the species are not disjunctively imperative, as just
defined; note this well! Thus, if any
species, say S1, is exempt, no inference concerning its genera, such as G,
is logically possible.
b.
If a genus G is forbidden, all
(each and every) of its species are logically implied to be forbidden, because
if any (one or more) of the species occurred, G would occur, and thereby C
couldn't occur. Here, the prohibition of G is transmitted to S1, S2, S3,
..., distributively and collectively; the link is much stronger than in the
previous case, note well. It follows, by ad
absurdum, that if any species, say
S1, is permitted, then all its genera, such as G, are permitted (either
imperative or licensed).
c.
If any species, say S1, is
imperative, then all of its genera, such as G, are imperative, because the absence of G (which is implied by S1) would imply the
absence of S1, under which condition C cannot occur. Note that G's other
species, S2, S3, ..., need not for all that be imperative; G's imperativeness,
here, is rather incidental to S1's, more in the way of an inevitability, due to
the fact that you cannot generate S1 without G; only if all of its species were
equally imperative, would G be imperative per
se. It follows, by ad absurdum,
that if a genus G is exempt, then all
its species, S1, S2, S3, ..., are exempt (either forbidden or licensed).
d.
If any species, say S1, is
forbidden, no inference is possible concerning its genus G, because given that S1 implies not-C and S1 implies G, we can only
conclude that G does not imply C (since if G implied C, then S1 would imply both
not-C and C, whence S1 would be impossible, contrary to the premise that it is
forbidden, which implies potential). G may equally be imperative (not-G
implies not-C, in which case the remaining species S2, S3, ..., are at least
disjunctively imperative), or forbidden (G implies not-C, in which case S1's
prohibition is simply a consequence of G's), or neither imperative nor forbidden
('G does not imply C' only excludes the possibility that G be imperative to not-C,
which does not concern us, since it is C that is our standard of value). It
follows from all the above, that if a
genus G is permitted, no inference is logically possible concerning its
species S1, S2, S3, ...; each of them could equally be imperative (in which
case, G would be imperative, and therefore permitted) or licensed (implying only
that G is permitted) or forbidden (nothing implied for G).
Note well, finally, that knowing a
genus G to be licensed (i.e.
neither imperative nor forbidden), we can only infer for its species that they
are exempt (i.e. either forbidden or licensed); and knowing any
species, say S1, to be licensed,
we can only infer for its genera, such as G, that they are permitted. These
relations follow from the above. We need not pursue the matter further, here,
with reference to conditional situations.
It should however be noted that the above principles, describing how
ethical modality is transmitted or relayed up or down conceptual hierarchies,
can also be expressed in the form of modal syllogisms. The most obvious valid
moods being (see b, c, above, which yield categorical conclusions):
In everyday discourse by religious Jews, we find the term mitzvah used in
a loose, broad sense covering any good deed or proper restraint, which will get
you brownie points. However, in the context of the doctrine that there are 613 Mitzvot for the Jews, or of the doctrine of 7
Mitzvot for the Bnei Noach (non-Jews), the term acquires more restricted
senses, which are also not quite the same in each system. This phenomenon will
now be explained, because it is rather interesting from the logicians' point of
view and rather special to Jewish (or Jewish-style) law.
Formal logic deals in meaningful grammatical sentences, each of which
symbolizes some phenomenal appearance, be it concrete or abstract, material or
mental, empirical or hypothetical, real or illusory. Viewed in this broad-minded
way, even the subjective is objective, and logic is at all times open to all
candidates to membership in the body of knowledge it seeks to gradually
construct. Every event has a great many facets and a great many levels, which
are interconnected in a great many ways. Each of these innumerable phenomena,
each phenomenon within or next to every other, may be represented for conceptual
purposes through verbal propositions; but many objects of perceptual experience
or of insight are never verbalized.
In this flexible perspective, it would be absurd and arbitrary to try and
dogmatically enumerate 'laws' of any kind, and say "there are N laws of
nature in such and such a field" (e.g. Three Laws of Thermodynamics) or
"there are M moral laws to follow in such and such a situation" (e.g.
Seven Cardinal Sins). The enumeration would have to capture all the
propositions, at a certain same level,
which are true and from which all others relating to the topic concerned can be
inferred; and it would claim a certain finality.
Such an ultra-rationalistic logistic programme, which is still found
among modern logicians with Cartesian inclinations, takes no account of the
moment-by-moment import of empirical data which occurs in practise. Such gradual
input is bound to affect, not only the applications of laws, but their very
bases and contents.
One may, in any science or body of knowledge, identify certain larger
principles, however arrived at, as dominating the remaining data, in a way
resembling the deductive relationship between axioms and theorems; but every
wise thinker keeps in mind the inductive sources of the whole, and remains
pragmatic in his approach. All this to say: rigidly counting
'laws' would be a very artificial procedure, particularly if one insisted on adhering
to a given number. Yet this is found in Jewish law, and predictably
affects not only its content, but its form.
Thus it is that different Rabbis will agree that
there are 613 Mitzvot for Jews, or 7 Mitzvot for non-Jews, in accordance with
Talmudic traditions, but will disagree somewhat regarding which commandments precisely are to be included in or excluded from
the list concerned! So long as they arrive at the correct total, even
superficially, they retain a certain legitimacy; whereas a system which refused
to recognize the magic number, insisting on an irreducibly larger or smaller
number, would from the outset be eliminated. An additional given is that there
be 248 positive Mitzvot and 365 negative
Mitzvot[7]. My purpose here is not to criticize such an approach,
but to emphasize the logical specificities it generates.
Still, it is interesting to note that the number 613 [TaRYaG,
in Hebrew]
is only based, so far as I know, on one passing mention in Maccot
23b, quoting Rabbi Simlai, and the Talmud has no one-by-one enumeration of these
Mitzvot. One explanation of the number that I have read somewhere is that it
consists of the sum of: 2 for the first two of the Ten Commandments, which the
Children of Israel heard at Sinai directly from Gd; plus 611, which is the
gematria of the word TORaH (T=400, O=6, R=200, H=5), which were received by them
indirectly through Moshe. Whether this explanation was constructed ex
post facto, or was the original reason for the number, I do not know. One cannot, in such a context, count just any mitzvah (ethical sentence) as a Mitzvah (note my use of a capital M). Only certain mitzvot qualify for the honour, and their ability to do so is mainly traditional (for instance, they are in the list proposed by the Rambam in the Sefer HaMitzvot, or that in the Sefer HaChinukh). One cannot strictly say that these laws, known as av (father) mitzvot, are all at the same conceptual level; nor that they taken together will allow the strictly deductive inference of all other laws, though many are indeed inferable (in which case they are called toledot [descendants]). Thus, the enumeration has no natural basis; it is an imposed structure.< |
