{"id":68896,"date":"2020-01-22T11:43:23","date_gmt":"2020-01-22T09:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=68896"},"modified":"2023-08-16T10:33:29","modified_gmt":"2023-08-16T07:33:29","slug":"to-choose-or-to-obey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/to-choose-or-to-obey\/","title":{"rendered":"To Choose Or To Obey"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[660,387],"acf":{"old_id":"68896","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"400","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Taking pleasure in abominations (not)","content":"

In the previous chapter, we encountered a litany of idolatrous practices that ranged from unlawful sacrifices and incense to eating swine and other unclean things. In this, the concluding chapter of the Book of Isaiah, the prophet inveighs, again, against sacrifice and incense, saying: \u201cAs for those who slaughter oxen and slay humans, who sacrifice sheep and immolate dogs (or: \u201cbreak their necks\u201d), who present as oblation the blood of swine, who offer incense and worship false gods\u2014 just as they have chosen their ways and take pleasure in their abominations\u201d (3).<\/span><\/p>\n

At first glance, each misdeed seems to be paired with an acceptable one. Murder (\u201dslay humans\u201d) is paired with a legitimate act of killing, namely a sacrifice (\u201cslaughter oxen\u201d). Gratuitous cruelty to animals (breaking a dog\u2019s neck) is matched with a permissible act of sacrificing sheep. Malbim,* however, saw it differently.<\/span><\/p>\n

You, who bring sacrifices while remaining wicked and refusing to repent, should know that one who slaughters an ox for a sacrifice, one who strikes a person to commit murder, one who sacrifices a lamb, one who breaks a dog\u2019s neck, and so anyone who offers a sacrificial oblation, or offers swine\u2019s blood to an idol, or mentions God while bringing incense, or worships false gods\u2014know that all these opposites are alike in My eyes. Even the first [of each pair]\u2014i.e., slaughtering the ox, sacrificing the lamb, offering an oblation, bringing incense\u2014all have chosen their way, the way in which they seek to serve Me, are still not acting out of a sense of duty to Me but out of their personal choice. I am not interested in such sacrifices bereft of repentance and submission.<\/span><\/p>\n

Likewise the second part\u2014striking a person, breaking a dog\u2019s neck, etc.\u2014\u201cthey take pleasure in their abominations. It has been pointed out that one cannot properly say that a person chooses to do evil but that he desires it, because choice is the exercise of reason. Therefore, the text says they have chosen their good ways and take pleasure in their abominations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Malbim\u2019s distinction between action that is impelled by a sense of duty as opposed to the fulfillment of desire (good or bad) harks back to Sa`adyah Gaon (882-942), who wrote: \u201cThere can be no commandments without [recognition of] a commander.\u201d The very essence of a mitzvah, philologically and philosophically, is obedience and duty.<\/span><\/p>\n

*For the significance of Malbim\u2019s commentary to the Book of Isaiah,<\/span> see our introduction to chapter 1.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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