Necessary and Sufficient:
The Role of G-d’s Law in Jewish Life

Missionaries often assert that the Commandments that G-d gave are too heavy a burden for man to keep. We are inevitably going to sin, and we have no way of receiving forgiveness for wrongdoing since there are no blood sacrifices. (See article A Kind and Forgiving G-d). G-d decided that since keeping the commandments was too hard, He would eliminate them. In place of having us earn Paradise through living an ethical and moral life, He sired then killed a son. Through the death of this son the commandments were made non-applicable, and acceptance of Jesus replaced being good for earning Divine reward.

Judaism has always taught that G-d gave us the commandments for a few reasons.

First and foremost, it was G-d's system of allowing us to get close to Him. Each commandment is a line of connection between G-d and us. When we do a mitzvah, with mindfulness and joy, we take a step closer to G-d, and draw Him into our lives as well.

Secondly, the commandments as a whole offer a way of life that is essentially utopian. Together, the mitzvot constitute a system that teaches ethics, love for our fellow human, self-discipline, respect for others and their property, ethical community life, child-raising, honesty, and most of all, personal self-perfection as the way to emulate G-d Himself. When an individual conscientiously follows the path of the Torah, he or she lives a life of pleasure and integrity. When a community as a whole energetically and lovingly follows the path of the Torah, they create a society that is peaceful, pleasant and ethical.

Thirdly, the Kabbalists describe the commandments as being part of the fabric from which the universe is woven. When we do a mitzvah, or violate one, we are having an effect on the universe itself. One model to understand this is a Chinese puzzle. Such puzzles are wooden baseball-sized spheres, or cubes, that are made up of many interlocking pieces of different shapes. Each piece has a particular place to be and fits and locks into several pieces around it. When the last piece is slid into place, the puzzle is a solid, unbreakable whole. If a single piece is missing, however, the puzzle loses its integrity and begins to fall apart.  

The spiritual construction of the universe is similar. Each commandment is a piece of the universe, and the Jews have been given the job of maintaining the spiritual strength of the universe by doing the mitzvot. When we violate a commandment we cause damage to the universe. When we accomplish a mitzvah, we are in harmony with G-d's will and therefore in harmony with the universe that He created to support us. All of the commandments, like the pieces of the Chinese puzzle, are necessary for the spiritual universe to be whole. All of them together are sufficient for mankind to fulfill its role as partners with G-d in creating universal harmony.

The above are rational or abstract reasons for keeping Jewish law. There may be many more reasons for G-d to have created the system of commandments; those are just a few to consider. As always, for Jews the most compelling reasons are those that are based on the text of the Hebrew Bible. In the following section we will bring sources for the concept of the beneficence of the Law.

The Commandments in G-d's Own Words

There are many places in the Torah where G-d tells us to observe the commandments. The first mention, as far as specifically Jewish history is concerned, is to Abraham. G-d tells Isaac,

"And I will make your seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give to your children all these countries; and through your descendents will all the nations of the earth be blessed. Because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes and my laws." (Genesis 26:4-5)

After that, one can find many statements that declare explicitly that not only does G-d insist that we keep the commandments, but that doing so is beneficial to us:

"Wherefore you shall do My statutes and keep My judgments, and do them; and you will live in the land in safety." (Leviticus 25:18)

"Now therefore listen, Israel, to the statutes and to the judgments which I reach you, to do them, that you may live…" (Deuteronomy 4:1)

"Look, today I've put before you life and goodness, as well as death and evil. In that I command you this day to love the L-rd your G-d, to walk in his ways, and to keep His commandments and his statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply. And the L-rd your g-d will bless you in the land that you go to possess." (Deuteronomy 30:15-16)

So important is the observance of the commandments to Jews, that the Torah specifies it as the defining characteristic of our nation:

"And what nation is there so great, that has statutes and judgments as righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?" (Deuteronomy 4:8)

On his deathbed, David tells the future king what should be the focus of his reign:

"Now the days of David drew near that he should die, and he charged Solomon his son, saying, I go the way of all the earth; you, be strong, therefore, and show that you're a man. And keep the charge of the L-rd your G-d, to walk in his ways, to keep His statutes and His commandments, and his judgments and His testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do, and wherever you go." (I Kings 2:1-3)

It should be very clear that G-d gave Israel the commandments as a perfect system of life. That we would sometimes falter and violate the commandments was a given. A system of repentance and forgiveness was built into the commandments themselves. G-d knew we would break the commandments; He only expected that we would sincerely do our best to keep them, and return to Him after doing wrong.

"Oh, that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!" (Deuteronomy 5:26)

The assertion that G-d "relieved us of the burden" of the commandments implies one of two things. Either G-d didn't mean it when he told us that the commandments were forever, or He changed His mind midstream about how He was running the world. So, according to that, either G-d is a liar, or He's fickle.

The Tanach teaches us the opposite. G-d gave us the commandments forever, and for our benefit. If we sin, we can return, but G-d will always expect us to keep the mitzvoth as our way of life. G-d is honest and consistent, and our loving, guiding Father:

"For I am the L-rd, I do not change…Return to me, and I will return to you, says the L-rd of hosts." (Malachi 3:6-7)