I’ve recently been re-reading Seeking His Presence, a set of conversations between Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein and his interlocutor, Rabbi Haim Sabato that was published back in 2016. I’d meant to do this because I didn’t make much of it first time round: it was a poor choice of reading material for a rather uncomfortable and disrupted airline flight and I didn’t do it justice. Second time through, I came across the following thought of Rav Lichtenstein:
All of this must be taken into consideration
as I construct my ethical world. I must ask myself to what extent I am capable
of inculcating in my consciousness and my lifestyle that which is written in
Proverbs and other books of the Bible and to strike the proper balance.
Oftentimes the question is one of balance.
In conclusion…I understand that there are
certain aspects of our ethical teachings that, in practice, are subject to
change. But to be subservient to the worldview of the Bible and Hazal [our sages, of blessed memory] is the central
touchstone of Torah ethics.
Several things caught my eye this time round.
One was the reference to the construction of an individual’s ethical
world, an apparent acknowledgement of the fact that, while we do not have to
construct our own halachic world and are not supposed to, the elasticity and
subjective quality of ethics demands that we each construct our own ethical designer-world.
Both Proverbs and Avot provide the raw materials for this act of personal
construction and the general foundations on which the work may be done, but not
the architect’s plans for the final product.
Incidentally, the association of Proverbs with Avot is no mere flight
of fancy. In the five perakim of mishnayot in Avot, there are 31 citations of verses
from the Tanach. Proverbs is over-represented here, claiming six of them, or around
one-fifth. In the sixth perek, which consists entirely of baraitot, there are
34 citations of Tanach, of which 18, that is to say 53%, come from Proverbs.
Comments, anyone?
