Can We Speak Wish "Values" Today?
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' ,, , ,t m:, . ,. , , ARNOLD EISEN Can We Speak wish "Values" Today? ~hadHa'am, reflecting about eighty national cultures held true especially in ears ago on the subject of this essay, il- the Jewish case, because the Jews had strated what he meant by Jewish long been kept apart from other nations, es in a way which I believe and were justly famous for the moral lights the difficulties still inherent in focus of their culture. Jewish morality, it such discussion. His,concern in the is true, had ,until recently been tied to y, "The National Morality,"' was and fused withJewish religion. But now Jewishness of the nationalist *and that morality had achieved ligious Jew. If the national iden- liberation from its religious fetters, it was to serve as an effective replace- would be shown clearly that the Jewish for the' religious, he wrote, it moral sense was not only unique but un- have to be every bit as com- iquely ele~ated.~That moral sense, com- ve in its obligation of the in- bined with the other elements of , and every bit as profound in its national life which it informed, would tion to the depths of his soul. ,lend meaning to the life of every Jew. a'am's coniidence that participa- In order to illustrate these points, n national life could confer such Ahad Ha'am invoked two dramas ess - could be a "guide to all the recently published, coincidentally of lifeH2and reach "to the depths . enough, by those other Zionists, Herzl heartn3 - stemmed from his belief and Nordau. In both, thenational hohor very national spirit, if left free to of the Jewish protagonist is besmirched , found expression in a unique by a gentile's slurs. In both the hero res- e, literature, history, and - ponds by challenging the slanderer to a all - morality. This general rule ,duel. And in both, these being realistic ing the uniqueness and fullness of dramas, the Jew loses, and is killed. The virile Zionist hero to come had not yet .occupied center stage in the Jewish im- her is a professor in the Department of agination. N~~ should he, ~h~dH~~~~ f Columbia University and is a mem- Steering Committee of the Continu- emphasizes, and that is precisely the ar on Zionist ~hought. point of the illustration. This sort of 69 43: ZIONISM heroism might be fine for goyim, but it admit of any single answer, even if could, by no stretch of the imagination, also does not admit of just any answ be called Jewish. "I do not have to ex- My claim will be two-fold. First, plain how much this deed contradicts simply not possible for a non-Ortho the fundamental basis of our national Jew to identify a uniquely Jewish c moralitv., , not onlv the commandments stellation of values which can be of religion but the very essence of the mative to us in our situation. Seco moral sense which lives in our hearts." is very likely impossible, even Europeans might still be held in thrall by modern Orthodoxy, to ' actualiz such vestiges of primitive barbarism, he Amerlca the vast majority of the v continues, but our culture raised us which we can identify, barring cha above them. How should the Jew react in our lives .which I do not fores to slights on his national honor? "He What I hope to do here, then, is indi should give them a quick look of dis- the way in which we can speak a gust, and go his way." In this secular Jewish values, and the way in w dictionary of Jewish values, defending such values might be actualized in the national honor in a dual would not lives. Since the Orthodox case i appear. many ways the most straightforwa We would aeree.", I think. that Ahad shall begin with an excellent pape Ha'am was right, though only after Aharon Lichtenstein on the relation some consideration. Whether we agree ween ethics and the halakha, focu or not, the example forces us to realize, on the relevance which his discussio 'how difficult the identification ofjewish for our oyn. values becomes when undertaken Lichtenstein finds that halakha without the- volkeist theories which sense provides for its own inadequa enable Ahad ~a'a; to believe in and to the matter of morality. That is, ha locate each culture's uniqueness. For us, demands that we go beyond the let the matter of the nature. identification. 'the law, which Lichtenstein calls th and actualization of Jewish values is to a righteousness, which is in Ra therefore much more difficult. Ahad words, "the right and the good, Ha'am's question, with minor emenda- mi-shurat ha-din, beyond the letter. tions, is still ours: "What are the obliga- halakha is '6 multiplanar" and tions" - a word to which I shall return dimensional," and needs to be so. - "which the true national morality, every situation can be compassed i without any foreign admixture, imposes vance. Moreover - we can su upon us in our relation to ourselves and from his paper - individual initiat our fellows. and to what extent can we. crucial to the creation of moral s i and must we, adjust these obligations to Space must be provided in which I the needs of our life and viewpoints in initiatives can flourish. By insistin the present?" We shall be discussing and through law, that we go beyon precisely these issues. But Ahad Ha'am's law, and by creating af realm whic answer cannot be ours. Moreover I shall be less rigorous and more flexible t argue that the question thus put does not the law itself, halakha provides for a JEWISH VALUES 71 mal ethic in '6 large tracts of human about a century ago, does not know the rience" while containing the whole word values in the sense in which we in a single normative system. Lijnim and Rotenstreich now use it. Its mean- hurat ha-din stands as a complement ings proceed from equivalence in ex- the din, and must so stand, for we change, to monetary worth, to general d each in order to have the other. worthiness, and only then to the $Irelative status of a thing according to e need the realm of lifnim for the asons set forth above, and we need the real or supposed worth, usefulness or zvoth themselves if we are to arrive, importance. 9, Mathematic, musical and he principle described, at what artistic denotations are given, but not in calls their penumbra. There ours. Even a recent Webster'ss offers ns when, in keeping with the only '6something intrinsically valuable direction set by the letter, we may dis- or desirable." We need to go further hnicalities, exemptions, or surely, and Lichtenstein's discussion of erly narrow interpretations, in order mitzvoth and their penumbra helps take demand more strict adherence. us there. Values are valued, I would ithout the general goals, motivation, suggest, because they are means to or and context set by the din, aspects of that which is ultimately could not go beyond it. Without worthwhile, or Good or True. Thus the comprehensive whole, these in- implication of relative status which one dual efforts at the "morality of finds in the O.E.D. Values operate at ration" could not be reflected and what we might call middle-distance, n a life which is whole. closer to or farther from but never iden- annot judge the validity of this tical with their source: in this case God, ment, but only speak about its im- in others a grounding in Being, and in ance for our present task. That im- still others an ultimate such as one's na- ance is, I believe, three-fold. tion. Values are also never synonymous tenstein helps us to define with their instrumentalities, the par- thics," let us say, is a un- ticular actions or beliefs which we com- ciples of conduct govem- monly say values underlie. Talmud Torah an individual or group. But what of is a value because it gives us knowledge s?" The term is problematic, not of God and His way for us, Tzedakah ecause it has become a catchword because it is part of that way. But God, nition given by Nathan or any other ultimate, admits of no nstreich provides a start: 'Iprinciples further "becauses" and so is not called a guide action and self-awareness as value. Similarly, "arriving at the Bet the choice of goals toward which Midrash morning and evening" is valued dire~ted."~My emphasis behavior because it is the means to the e last words, on the ends value of Talmud Torah, but we would our actions with worth not say that it is a value in itself, any ning, and find articulation in more than dueling, the means in Ahad s. It is worth noting that the Ha'am's example to the upholding of rd English Dictionary,' .composed national honor. That value finds its ul- FORUM-42/43: ZIONISM timate in the nation's survival or the values in halakha, would we choose t preservation of one's identity. live by it? In sum, one has in the paper The dimension of lifnim mi-shurat ha- source for Jewish values - the din, I think, forces us to probe the letter and their penumbra - but two diffic of the law, the din, for the values under- questions are left unresolved. neath it - for how else will we know Non-Orthodox statements on how to penetrate inwards, and know matter of contemporary Jew that by doing so we actually further the "values," while explicit in th din and do not simply defy it? It also recognition that Jewish sources offer helps us to see, as do the definitions in single ethic on which one ma the dictionaries, that talk of values out- also stress the uniqueness of the conte side the context of obligation, where we porary Jewish situation.