Once, the famed Mashgiach of Mir—Rav Yerucham Levovitz—met an irreligious German professor, and Rav Yerucham attempted to draw this person back to Torah. The professor began asking Rav Yerucham of his knowledge of certain philosophical books, but one by one Rav Yerucham replied that he had never read any of them. “So how can you say that we are mistaken if you have never read any of them?” the professor asked. Rav Yerucham responded: “Observe the fruits that your books have produced, versus the fruits that our books have produced. Our books have produced outstanding and righteous people, whereas your books have produced the worst murderers like the Nazis.” Only do the words of our sages which stem from Sinai have the ability to produce and create a great person, as opposed to those books that are sourced from man-made thought.
A person, as well as a society with its much needed moral fabric, can only run and function through the lens of Torah. Absence of it can easily lead to moral decay.
In parshat Acharei Mot, the pesukim state: “Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying: Speak to Bnei Yisrael and say to them: I am Hashem your God. Do not perform the practice of the land of Mitzrayim in which you dwelled; and do not perform the practice of the land of Canaan to which I bring you, and do not follow their traditions. Carry out My laws and safeguard My decrees to follow them; I am Hashem, your God” (18:1-4).
The Torah says “I am Hashem, your God” twice in these few pesukim. Why? The midrash explains that Hashem is essentially warning Bnei Yisrael: “I am the One who exacted [retribution] from the generation of the flood, from [the people of] Sodom, and from [the people of] Egypt, and I will exact [retribution] from he who acts as they act” (23:9). In other words, by stating “I am Hashem Your God” twice, the Torah is alluding to both the punishment that was meted out in the past to those societies, and also to the punishment that will be meted out to Bnei Yisrael if they follow their ways.
The midrash goes on to show how immoral the generation of the flood was: “Rav Huna said in the name of R’ Yose, ‘[the members of] the generation of the flood were blotted out from the world only because they wrote marriage documents for [males marrying other] males and for [people marrying] animals.” The Maharzu (Bereishit Rabbah, 26:5) says that their leaders and judges would instruct them to write a ketubah when getting married.
Rav Henach Leibowitz observes that we learn from here that not only was that society involved in the immoral deeds itself, but the people even developed an entire “ethical” construct and philosophy that engaging in such actions are proper, fitting and holy. Rav Leibowitz further points out that although such deeds are intellectually understood as being wrong, as even the intellect alone can understand they are abominable, yet, they erred to even think that such deeds are proper and holy. Without the Torah, says Rav Leibowitz, it would be impossible to know [and thus abide by] even the mitzvot that the intellect alone can understand on its own (Chiddushei Halev, Acharei Mot).
We see from here how immoral an entire generation can become if there is no Torah guiding their lives, where even basic morality that would otherwise be easily understood can erode.
In the aforementioned pesukim, we see that of all the other nations, Mitzrayim and Canaan are being singled out. Rashi explains that this teaches us that the practices of those two nations are the most degenerate of all nations. The Maharal (in Gur Aryeh) asks that Rashi implies that specifically the practices of Mitzrayim and Canaan shouldn’t be followed since they were so degenerate, but that the practices of other nations wouldn’t be an issue to follow in!
Pirkei Avot lists four types of people who go to the beit midrash: 1) One who goes, but doesn’t do. 2) One who does, but doesn’t go. 3) One who goes and does. 4) One who doesn’t go and doesn’t do.
The Ponovezher Rav asked, why is the fourth category of “one who doesn’t go and doesn’t do” count as a type of people who go to the beit midrash if he [seemingly] has absolutely no connection to the other three types of people!
The Ponovezher Rav explained: A yeshiva boy might sit in the beit midrash and experience great difficulty learning. His heart feels closed—he is just not feeling it. The excitement and desire seems to have disappeared. He can’t seem to innovate novel ideas. And thus, at some point, he entertains thoughts of leaving. But then he sees those people who “don’t go (to the beit midrash) and don’t do”; he sees those who have no connection whatsoever to the beit midrash and how they appear, how they look, how they present themselves, how they act, how they live their lives. And then this boy realizes that, indeed, his place is right here in the beit midrash—this is, in fact, where he belongs. And all of a sudden this boy is enveloped with such energy, and experiences a major turnaround. His heart opens, his ability to grasp the material returns and he soars in learning. Who caused this to happen to him? That fourth type of people—those who don’t go and don’t do. Therefore, they are counted as one of the four types.
Based on this, Rav Yaakov Galinsky offers an explanation for the question of the Maharal. A person might look at the Torah, and ask, why are there so many safeguards, prohibitions, etc? Says Rav Galinsky, it’s for this reason that Hashem brought us to Mitzrayim, a land steeped in immorality and impurity, in order to caution us: See with your own eyes where one could end up if one is not careful! (Vehigadta, Acharei Mot).
This could be why Rashi makes a point of singling out Mitzrayim and Canaan, to teach us that without Torah, even Mitzrayim and Canaan—their unparalleled immoral culture—can become a reality for any person and any society.
Upon witnessing terrible pogroms in his time, Rav Baruch Ber Leibowitz commented, “now we should be even more joyous when we bless Hashem for giving us the Torah, for we see how far people can go due to a lack of Torah.”
It could then be understood when the Maharal (Derech Chaim, 1:2) says that without Torah, a person becomes similar to any other creature of the Earth.
Pirkei Avot states, “If there’s no Torah, there’s no derech eretz.” This shows that for a person and society to function morally and thrive, it must be guided by Torah.
Binyamin is a graduate of Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchok Elchanan, and of Wurzweiler School of Social Work.
