Is Torah considered something of Hashem's imagination, or does it have intrinsic value?
ANSWER:
As far as we're concerned, not only Torah has intrinsic value, but an orange and an apple have intrinsic value, because Hakadosh Baruch Hu's imagination has intrinsic value, too. If Hakadosh Baruch Hu imagined an orange into existence, it has intrinsic value.
And you can spend your lifetime studying that orange, because you'll learn from it the wisdom of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. How wonderful it is that it has a capsule. The orange peel is a capsule that preserves the contents. You could put an orange on your table without refrigeration, and it'll last for days. It's a wonderful capsule, and it's beautiful. The color is appealing for the purpose of making you enjoy what's inside.
Inside is a delicious beverage, and when you cut it into quarters it doesn't spill out. Can you cut a bottle of ginger ale into quarters? It's so planned, that the cells imprison the liquid, so when you cut it into quarters the liquid doesn't spill… a few drops because you rupture some cells, but otherwise it's all there. It's healthful and nourishing, and it's fun too. When you finish there are seeds inside, you spit out the seeds and the seeds are like tickets for a refill. The seeds fall on the ground and another tree grows.
And so, certainly everything has intrinsic value, but compared to Hakadosh Baruch Hu's existence nothing is considered as intrinsically existing.
Good Shabbos To All
Question # 136
QUESTION:
Please prove the authenticity of our Torah? That's a question I like to get!
ANSWER:So we say to the questioner, you have the floor, please disprove it. Please disprove the authenticity of our Torah. TheTorah is here. Here it is, and we are here. We are the nation that claims our fathers gave us this Torah that they received from their fathers, and we received a tradition that Moshe our teacher gave it to them, and our entire nation stood at Har Sinai and they heard Hakadosh Baruch Hu say toMoshe and give him a mandate in their presence. Moshe Rabbeinu, you're going to speak to this people for Me from now on, and therefore Moshe Rabbeinu when he gave us the Torahwas mandated by Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the presence of 600,000 males between 20 and 60 years of age, not to mention the elderly ones, the young ones and the women. That's our claim; no nation in the world everclaimed such a claim. Not the Mohammedans. Of course the Mohammedans claim that the Bible is true because the Jews say so. Christians claim the Bible is true, because the Jews say so. The Vikings didn't have any traditions, the Buddhists didn't have any traditions, they made no such claims.
We are the only ones who claim that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave it to us. And if you'll ask, how do we know that it's true? So we'll ask you a question: How do you know that there was a George Washington? ProveGeorge Washington. So you say there are books. We also have books. We have books, too. So you say Washington was recent and our claims are old. Anybody around here saw George Washington? Anybody sawa man who saw George Washington around here? How do you know he was there? It's emunah; you believe people. So should we believe nations of disorderly people, there were so many shikurim among them, and so many club wielders, so many roughnecks. Such a nation testifies that George Washington was present, and we accept their testimony. Well, there are so many documents; there are a lot of documents. You want documents? Josephus wrote two thousand years ago a big document. So that's thousands of years ago, so that's as good evidence as any evidence that you'll produce for anything that happened three hundred years ago in America.
Therefore we are standing on solid ground, we have a historic tradition. We are not one person, we are anation. And our nation always was united behind this. We never had a single Jew who disbelieved that Moshereceived the Torah from Hashem, up till a hundred fifty years ago. Not the Karaites, not the Sadducees, none of them disbelieved that, - they all believed. There wasn't a single Jew up to the time of the German assimilationists and reformers one hundred fifty years ago; there wasn't a single Jew who disbelieved in theTorah. So our entire nation was behind this tradition. Not to mention the fact that the Christians and Mohammedans all say the same thing about our Torah, that we received the Torah.
So therefore if anybody wants to bring proofs against the authenticity of the Torah, we'll give him the floor.
Question # 33
QUESTION:
Isn't it good enough just to be a good person? Why must we follow the Torah?
ANSWER:
And the answer is, why must you keep traffic laws? Isn't it good enough to be a good person? How many good people go through red lights? How many good people have killed innocent persons by driving drunk? Good intentions are not enough to be agood person. A man must be bound by a code. And if he is choosing a code, he might as well take the very best code there is. There is no such thing as agood person without Torah. A good person can be a mercy killer, he kills his old mother because he can not see her suffer. A good person can be a selfish man, who thinks he is doing good, when in reality he is only helping himself, because he is blinded by his own desires.
We have to know that nobody is able to live with standards that he himself creates. You see 50 years ago the reformers, the reform Jews, had certain standards that they considered good, moral, and today they are changed entirely.So whatever people consider as standards in one generation can change in another generation.
It's only those who live by the eternal standard of Torah, who remain good forever and ever.
This is transcribed from questions that were posed to Harav Miller by the audience at the Thursday night lectures. To listen to the audio of this Q & A please dial: 201-676-3210
Important Numbers
