Do it deliberately!

Ahead of Yom Kippur -- the Day of Atonement and the occasion on which we think of God's judgement of us as being irrevocably sealed -- here's a short thought on the exercise of one's judgement, taken from Rabbi Reuven Melamed's Melitz Yosher.

The first actual teaching in Pirkei Avot, one that emanates from the Men of the Great Assembly themselves, is הֱווּ מְתוּנִים בַּדִּין, be deliberate in judgement. These words have a judicial flavour to them and many commentators emphasise how important it is for judges to be cautious and meticulous when seeking to reach a decision in the cases before them. This is because a judge's long experience of similar cases can lead him to favour a decision that is similar to those reached in previous cases even though the facts before him may be slightly but significantly different; there is also a danger that long-time familiarity with the relevant laws will result in them being misremembered if their words are not carefully rechecked.

Rabbi Melamed observes that being deliberate in one's judgement is actually the foremost principle that a person should employ in every walk of life. When thinking about performing a mitzvah, avoiding the transgression of a prohibition or just making routine decisions in one's life, we should stop and think, weighing up the wisdom and the real meaning of what we do.

In his seminal work, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman explains that we cannot in practice cogitate upon every action we undertake. Much of the time we act on autopilot. If we have to stop and think each time we take a step, life becomes intolerable, normal existence impossible. This does not however affect Rabbi Melamed's view of the advice of the Men of the Great Assembly, which is clearly addressed only to the sort of decisions we should make consciously (but often do not).

One final thought: can we presume that the decisions we make as to which decisions are the ones that we have to think carefully about are themselves decisions that require us to think carefully?