Arash Abaie's Lecture in the Series “Ethics as Common Ground for Interfaith Dialogue”

 ‌The Dialogue Group of the Baran Foundation's analytical website is holding a series of ethics-research meetings titled “Ethics as Common Ground for Interfaith Dialogue” with the presence of Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scholars and thinkers, during which commonalities among religions are discussed and emphasized. In the first session of this series, Arash Abaie, a researcher and instructor of Jewish religious sciences, explained ethics in Judaism. The text and audio of his lecture are presented below:

 The subject of our discussion is Jewish ethics or ethics in Judaism. Since not all friends may have a suitable or uniform background regarding the foundations of Judaism and knowledge of the details of this religion, it was decided to first provide a general introduction about Judaism. Therefore, we will dedicate half of the first session to Judaism in general, and then I will present the characteristics and generalities of Jewish ethics, and in the next session, we will go into more detail and examine the periods of the evolution of Jewish ethics, which consist of four periods.

• History of the Jewish People

First, we will give a brief history of the Jewish religion. We know that Judaism is one of the Abrahamic religions, and from 3,300 years ago until around 70 CE, this people primarily resided in the land of Canaan, or Palestine, or Israel, which was later divided into the two kingdoms of Israel and Judea. Although events occurred in between, for example, at one time they were taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar to Iran, and during the time of Cyrus, some of them returned. But in any case, there is a complete settlement period of 1,300 years there. This residence was sometimes accompanied by their own rule, and at other times they were vassals or a colony. From the year 70 CE, with the Roman invasion and the fall of the Second Temple of Jerusalem, the rule or dominance of the Jews over that land practically ended, and they were largely dispersed. Although they were never uprooted from there. That is, communities were present there. They even engaged in compiling the Talmud or other books. But the main rule or primary settlement departed from there. From 70 CE, the majority of them first came to Babylon (roughly present-day Iraq, Baghdad, and its surrounding areas) and parts of Iran. After some time, they divided into two branches. The main group went to Muslim Spain, and a group also dispersed throughout Christian Europe. That is, after the advent of Islam, the core of the Jewish community split into two branches. After a while, two groups formed: the Jews of Islamic lands and the Jews of Christian lands. Then again, after the Inquisition and the pressures that came, around 1500 CE, the central core of Spanish Jews and those Jews who were under the dominion of Islamic governments migrated to Ottoman lands and settled around the Galilee region or present-day Palestine. Some also remained in Europe. Some were also in Eastern countries like Iran and certain other Islamic countries. But that main core first migrated from the Holy Land to Babylon, and then dispersion to other places occurred.

• Sacred Texts of Judaism

The body of Jewish law is based on texts that are primarily in Hebrew: the Old Testament, or Tanakh, and the Talmud. The Old Testament is, of course, a term Christians gave to the sacred scriptures of the Jews, in contrast to the New Testament, which they believe was established as a new covenant with the advent of Jesus. However, the collection of Jewish sacred scriptures, which took shape over a thousand-year period up to 2,300 years ago (that is, from the time of Moses to the last prophet of the Israelites), is called the Tanakh and is divided into three sections. The first section is the Torah, meaning the Book of Moses, which consists of five volumes. According to Jewish belief, this entire section of the scripture was written down during the time of Moses, in the 40 years he led the Israelites, and was delivered to them. This book, beginning with the creation of the world and the stories of the prophets, contains the commandments that form the basis of Jewish law. In total, 613 commandments or religious precepts have been enumerated in the five volumes of the Torah. After Moses, other prophets came; some delivered prophecies that were written down, and the accounts of their lives and the events of their times were recorded in books known as the books after the Torah, which are divided into two parts: the books of Nevi'im, meaning Prophets, and the books of Ketuvim, meaning Writings. Nevi'im contains the history of almost all the Jewish prophets, from after Moses to the last prophet, and encompasses the events that occurred in the Holy Land—the kingdoms, defeats, wars, and all that happened. Ketuvim, or the Writings, also comprises a part of Jewish history from this same era, and a portion of it consists of the works of some prophets. For example, the lives of David and Solomon are mentioned in the Book of Kings from the Prophets or Nevi'im collection, but the works of these two figures—one being the Psalms of David, and the three books of Proverbs, the Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes of Solomon—are part of the Writings. In this way, the collection of books that formed the Jewish sacred scriptures amounts to 24 volumes: 5 volumes of the Torah, 8 volumes of the Prophets or Nevi'im, and 11 volumes of the Writings. Later, Christianity adopted almost these same books as its own sacred scriptures, in addition to other books including the Gospels, the Epistles, and other texts. However, among these, doubts later arose regarding the validity or sanctity of some books. The sacred scriptures of Jews, and later Protestants, are almost identical in the section of the Old Testament or Tanakh. Catholics accept a few more books beyond that Hebrew collection, which is a point of dispute. But in any case, the sacred scriptures you commonly see in the market are usually those of Protestant Christianity. Although its Old Testament section is listed as 39 volumes, it is exactly the same text as the Hebrew Old Testament, which has 24 volumes. The division of their books differs. In the Jewish division, some prophecies of the prophets that were very brief—for instance, perhaps less than 10 pages or a few very short chapters—were not considered separate books, and a collection of 12 such works was brought together into one book. But Christians themselves considered these as 12 separate volumes. In other words, the divisions differ, but the volume and content of the Old Testament, or the Hebrew or Jewish sacred scriptures, are almost identical between Judaism and Christianity. Whenever we speak of the Bible, we mean the Old Testament and the New Testament, where the Old Testament is the sacred scripture of the Jews, which is also shared in Christianity.

As I mentioned, the commandments or Jewish law are derived solely from the Torah. That is, the books of the other prophets, although they contain prophecies, narratives, and sayings from them, did not add any new law or religious commandment to the Torah. They mostly emphasized the same commandments of the Torah, addressed ethical aspects, forbade sins and injustices, or tried to stress a precept that had been forgotten or was considered less important by the people. In any case, as a matter of Jewish law, no new religious ruling is derived from the books of the Prophets or the Writings, except for citations, emphases, or historical evidence. This part is called the "Written Torah," meaning that which was given to Judaism in written form as sacred scripture.

There is another part which, according to Jewish belief, is considered the Oral Torah. Because many of the Torah's commandments—those 613 commandments I mentioned—are stated in the Torah in just a single sentence, and the manner of their implementation is not specified at all. The most famous example is in the Ten Commandments, where the Torah says not to work on the Sabbath. Working on the Sabbath is forbidden, but what does "work" itself mean? Everyone can have their own interpretation of work, and its instances are not mentioned in the Torah in such an extensive and precise way. The belief is that Moses either actually specified the instances regarding this matter, or the scholars and clergy deduced what constitutes work. There are many other commandments that are mentioned very briefly in the Torah, and their executive details are not given. According to Jewish belief, these were transmitted orally within the Israelite community over those 1,300 years, passed down from generation to generation, until after the exile I mentioned, when it was no longer possible to preserve them orally, or in circles, or through a master-disciple relationship. The necessity to compile them was felt, and in three stages, the collection of executive regulations for the Torah's commandments was codified. The first collection is called the "Mishnah," which was compiled about 1,800 years ago (in 6 volumes and 63 tractates) and contains the executive details of all the Torah's commandments. That is, those 613 commandments, when entered into detail, perhaps resulted in several thousand executive rulings. Then there was a need to also record the discussions among Jewish scholars that led to these rulings, and about a hundred years later, those discussions were also gathered, leading to the compilation of the Jerusalem or Palestinian Talmud, which had a larger volume. Of course, the rulings were the same, but their elaboration and jurisprudential contexts were mentioned there. Another 200 years later, around 500 CE, the Babylonian Talmud was compiled, which was almost four times more voluminous than the Jerusalem or Palestinian Talmud and was compiled in Babylon, that is, in ancient Persia, around present-day Baghdad. The Babylonian Talmud comprised 37 tractates. That is, for each tractate of the Mishnah, which was written in 63 tractates, a Talmud, meaning a much more voluminous elaboration, was usually written. With the compilation of the Babylonian Talmud, the gate of independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) and Jewish law was practically closed. That is, from that time, 1,500 years ago, onwards, Judaism had two collections—the Tanakh, i.e., the Old Testament, and the Talmud—as the sources of its religion, law, and jurisprudence, and these remain the primary sources of Jewish law to this day. After that, any jurisprudential and religious efforts that took place involved simplifying the Talmud, organizing it, indexing it, reducing its volume, and possibly issuing new legal opinions (fatwas) that were formulated according to the exigencies of the time. Ultimately, one of the last works done in jurisprudence was about 500 years ago, during the presence of some Jews in the Ottoman Empire, when a four-volume collection called the "Shulchan Aruch" was compiled, similar to the practical treatises (Tawdih al-Masa'il) of Shia religious authorities today. In that collection, jurisprudential discussions and topics that were not applicable were set aside, and the rulings were gathered in a listed and very well-edited form, to serve as a handbook on the desk of a rabbi or an observant individual. This book presents the rulings in much simpler language and was almost the last work done during the period of Jewish jurisprudence. But it can almost be said that nothing changed relative to the Talmud, except that after it, up to today, if a new issue arises, that issue is also mentioned in the jurisprudential books.

This was the course of the formation of Jewish law that I mentioned to you. In addition to these sources, which are written and to which a scholar directly refers, there are other sources for Jewish law as well. Such as traditions that have reached our era, secondary rulings or secondary legal opinions that have been declared, customs that existed in communities, the conduct of certain scholars that became a criterion for law, and that same jurisprudential understanding or deductions. But in any case, it can be said that the difference with Shia jurisprudence is precisely independent legal reasoning (ijtihad), the gate of which was closed, not completely, but to a large extent, with the compilation of the Babylonian Talmud 1,500 years ago. After that, it is only if a new event occurs and there is a need for a new legal opinion. However, Jewish jurisprudence and law are fixed and, of course, very voluminous. That is, in terms of the precautions and expediencies involved, we observe the course of the formation of rulings becoming stricter and more voluminous, period by period, up to today. This is regarding the sources upon which Judaism relies in its law.

• Beliefs in Judaism

Judaism is a highly text-centered religion. That is, as I said, it is very dependent on its written sources, whether the Torah, the Old Testament, or the Talmud. Everything is sought in the text, whether the sacred text or the text written by the ancient Talmudic sages, and therefore it is very dependent on its writings. Consequently, it has a very extensive body of religious law. That is, from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to sleep, and for every action you perform during the day, there is a religious ruling for it, and in this respect, the law is very extensive. Another characteristic of Judaism is its duty-centeredness. That is, the main issue in Judaism is not meaning, philosophy, or ontology. The most important subject with which Judaism begins is duty. A Jew does not ask, "Who is God?" That is not their first question. Nor do they ask, "What has happened to the world?" The first question of a Jew, according to Jewish law, is: "What must I do for the satisfaction of that God?" After that, if circumstances permit, then we might ask who that God was, or what our history was, or what the meaning or reason for these things is. But the core of the matter is duty-centeredness and action, and this is a very prominent characteristic of Judaism. I mention these things because ethics also arises from this same foundation and inherits these same characteristics.

Regarding beliefs, Judaism does not begin with theology but with the text of the Torah and these very commandments. Therefore, for many years and centuries, there was almost never an independent discussion of theology or beliefs in Judaism. Whatever existed was what was written in the Torah, and the form of Jewish theology and beliefs was, at most, belief in God. In other words, the difference between a Jew and a non-Jew in its time was belief in the one God. But with the emergence of other religions, namely Christianity and Islam, and their encounter with Judaism, a kind of dialogue and confrontation between religions took shape, and in this context, Christianity had a creed and principles, and later Islam also had principles and beliefs. The question arose: "What do you Jews have?" Despite the vast volume of religious law, what are your beliefs? One could not respond by referring to the entire 5 volumes of the Torah, or the 24-volume set of the Old Testament, or a very voluminous and obscure 37-volume Talmudic collection. In any case, principles had to be articulated, and these principles were ultimately finalized by Maimonides, a Jewish jurist and philosopher, about 900 years ago. He was someone who held a position in the court of the Islamic caliphs and lived in an era when interfaith dialogue was taking shape, and thus the necessity of compiling a Jewish creed was felt more strongly. Therefore, from the five volumes of the Torah, he extracted that doctrinal or faith-based essence and compiled the set of Jewish beliefs into 13 articles. Although this work by Maimonides was met with opposition from the scholars of his time, who asked, "Why do you want to express the entire Jewish belief in 13 sentences?" Some said the number was more, and some said it was less, but in any case, 13 were finalized, and to this day they have been accepted as the principles of Jewish faith and belief. Each of these 13 principles may have several pages of explanation and Torah-based documentation, but their summary is as follows: 1- The blessed God exists, meaning He is present and watchful; that is, He both exists and exercises control and supervision over actions. 2- He is single and unique. 3- He has no body and bears no resemblance to a body. 4- He precedes every ancient being in the world. 5- Worship of any being other than Him is not permissible. That is, worship is only befitting God. 6- He is aware of the intentions and thoughts of human beings. It can almost be said that these six articles deal with God Himself and His divinity. 7- The prophecy of Moses is true. 8- Moses, in terms of prophecy, meaning his prophetic degree, is superior to the other prophets of the Children of Israel. That is, according to the testimony of the Torah, he was the only one who spoke with God without an intermediary. 9- The Holy Torah is revelatory, meaning it is divine revelation. 10- The Torah is unchangeable, meaning it has not changed and will not change. This section can be considered the prophetic part of the Jewish faith. 11- God has ordained reward and punishment for human actions. 12- The Messiah, meaning the promised redeemer of the Jews, will come. 13- The dead will be resurrected in the future. It must be said that all these thirteen articles were not a personal belief or a set of agreements among scholars; rather, from all the verses of the Torah, these items were extracted and accepted as the doctrinal section.

But there is another perspective Judaism holds regarding itself and the other. Judaism views its religion as a path to both worldly and otherworldly felicity, as well as human salvation. In the terminology of the Talmud, this is called “having a share in the World to Come.” That is, the goal is for the individual to gain entry into the World to Come and have a share. By “share,” a lofty station is meant. The very commandments of the Torah are the means to this entry. But the question was, what about the other? What about those who are not Jewish? The answer to this question lies in the Torah itself. That is, when the Torah recounts the history of the world according to its own view, from Creation to Moses, and after Moses when the Jewish law is granted, we also see commandments before Moses that are known as the “Noahide Laws.” Of course, we see these in the Torah from the time of Adam, but one commandment, because it was given to him after Noah’s flood, is recorded under the name of the Children of Noah. Judaism holds that any human being in the world who observes these Noahide Laws is saved and has a share in the World to Come. But Judaism says: I signed a heavier contract, and consequently, if I observe it, I will have a better station, and if not, I will also face a heavier penalty. These 7 commandments, which Jews believe any human being in the world, regardless of their religion, should observe to attain salvation, are: 1- Prohibition of idolatry, 2- Prohibition of blasphemy. That is, belief in God and the avoidance of polytheism are in these two commandments. 3- Prohibition of murder, 4- Prohibition of adultery, and 5- Prohibition of theft. 6- Prohibition of eating the limb of a living animal, that is, the commandment of ritual slaughter. Because the Jewish belief, according to the Torah, is that before Noah’s flood, humans were vegetarian and did not consume meat, and this commandment of slaughter was given to him after the flood, and he was permitted to consume meat as well. 7- The establishment of just courts to pursue justice and the observance of these commandments.

The Children of Israel themselves initially received the Ten Commandments, which are considered the fundamental and foundational basis of the Torah. Later, during those 40 years, the other commandments were given, reaching a total of 613 commandments. These 10 Commandments, which are roughly similar to those 7 commandments, are: 1- I am the Lord your God. 2- You shall have no other gods besides Me. Again, monotheism and the prohibition of polytheism. 3- You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, which is the prohibition of swearing falsely or the sanctity of God’s holy name. 4- Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, and do not work on it, which is specific to Judaism. 5- Honor your father and mother. 6- You shall not murder. 7- You shall not commit adultery, 8- You shall not steal. 9- You shall not bear false witness. 10- You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods, nor lust after them. These were the Ten Commandments given to the Children of Israel at the very beginning of the Exodus from Egypt and liberation from bondage, and then during those 40 years, other commandments were given that constitute the body of Jewish law. In this way, we have gained a general, summarized overview of the history, sources, and law of Judaism. From here, we wish to enter the main topic, which is Jewish ethics.

• Characteristics of Religious Ethics

It is necessary first to offer a philosophical and general definition of ethics: ethics is the avoidance of inflicting unnecessary suffering on human beings. I have adapted this definition from Mr. Mostafa Malekian, as I am his student. This is secular, or general, or philosophical ethics, according to which no unnecessary suffering should be inflicted on any human being, whether oneself or another. This is the foundation of ethics. But alongside this philosophical ethics, we also have religious ethics. Religious ethics can be roughly defined as performing a good or benevolent act, but in accordance with the command of religion, based on the religion we believe in or within whose framework we operate. Since religion is usually theistic, its goal is to attain God's satisfaction. That is, the ethical act is performed based on that religious framework, and its aim is to fulfill a duty and attain God's satisfaction. According to that general definition, as soon as we impose any qualification on the initial definition—such as religious ethics, Jewish ethics, or the ethics of any other religion—ethics loses its absoluteness and freedom, and we create a framework indicating that I have a specific meaning in mind for this ethics. Otherwise, there would be no need to hold this session and ask what Jewish ethics is or what Christian ethics is. We would all know the general meaning of ethics, or we would refer to philosophical books on ethics. But when we say religious ethics, it means something that differentiates it from general ethics. That general definition, which was the avoidance of inflicting unnecessary suffering on human beings, changes in religious ethics and becomes something else. That is, suffering may be inflicted on a human being, but because of its religious nature, or for the sake of attaining divine satisfaction or fulfilling a religious duty, we may deem this suffering necessary. Whereas in non-religious ethics, this might not be considered ethical, and sometimes it might even be considered anti-ethical. In any case, we enumerate four characteristics for religious ethics, within which Jewish ethics also falls—and of course, whatever I say about religious ethics and Jewish ethics is not necessarily absolute, and I mention these four points to the best of my own understanding. The first is that the origin of religious ethics is divine. That is, in human or philosophical ethics, the human being determines what is ethical and what is not, based on their own reason and deductions. But religious ethics is, so to speak, determined by God. Even if its appearance is reasonable and humane, the value of religious ethics lies in its divine origin, not in its logicality or its ethicality as such. Two, its goal is to attain God's satisfaction, not necessarily to avoid inflicting suffering on human beings. That is, the primary goal is God's satisfaction; if, in the process, that definition of philosophical ethics is also realized, so much the better. We are fulfilling a duty more than we are considering the well-being of human beings. Third, its executive guarantee is divine or religious-legal. In non-religious ethics, we usually either have no executive guarantee, or custom and social judgment serve as its backing. But in religion, there is a God who punishes or rewards. In any case, it has a divine or religious-legal backing. Fourth, the result of religious ethics is not necessarily this-worldly. Its result is seen in another world. Unlike general ethics, where we consider the well-being of human beings or observe the prohibition against inflicting suffering only for this world. But since the result of religious ethics is also to be seen in another world, the very foundation differs, and behaviors are not necessarily consistent with general ethics. This was religious ethics, whose difference I wanted to explain from the ethics we know as non-religious ethics.

Again, this religious ethics has presuppositions that are almost identical to those we mentioned. First, its primary presupposition is the existence of God. That is, with the existence of God, and whether God exists or not, the foundation of ethics changes. Philosophical ethics has nothing to do with whether there is a God or not. The human being is its addressee, and the absence of human suffering is its concern. But in religious ethics, besides the human being, there is also a God. He too is involved in this ethical relationship and ethical conduct. Therefore, the presupposition of religious ethics is the existence of God. This presupposition does not exist in non-religious ethics. The second presupposition is the dual-aspect nature of the human being: that the human being has a material or worldly aspect and a spiritual or divine aspect, and later continues their life in the Hereafter. This assumption, again, introduces behavioral changes in ethics that may not be present in philosophical ethics. Third, the existence of a system of divine reward and punishment. That is, apart from human society, there is another authority that is supposed to control or evaluate the outcome of our religious ethical conduct. The fourth presupposition is the existence of the Hereafter, meaning a world other than this world, either parallel to it or in continuation of it, upon which religious ethics is again formed (these points were mentioned from the lectures of Dr. Sadegh Nia). With this very brief and concise definition of religious ethics, we enter into Jewish ethics, to see what characteristics Jewish ethics possesses, in addition to this religious ethics which, in principle, all religions should share.

• Characteristics of Jewish Ethics

First, we must say that there is no such thing as Jewish ethics in the Torah, or fundamentally, there is no such thing as ethics. In the Torah, everything is an executive commandment. Now, our perception is that this commandment is ethical, and that other one is ritual or devotional. But the Torah itself has no such division. The Ten Commandments are God's decrees. We say the commandment "Do not worship idols" relates to God, but "Do not work on the Sabbath" is a ritual matter and not ethical at all. It says do not work for one day; this is a convention. However, honoring parents is an ethical commandment, like "Do not steal," which is also an ethical commandment. In the Torah, no such division exists. Judaism believes that the stated commandments must all be performed without discrimination and without us picking and choosing. But in any case, there is a foundation upon which Jewish ethics is later formed, and later even other schools draw upon it. Two verses appear in the Torah that have become the basis of Jewish ethics and what we today call ethics. The most famous one in the Torah is in the Book of Leviticus (the third volume of the Torah, chapter 19, verse 18). It says, "Do not take revenge and do not bear a grudge, and love your fellow as yourself." This phrase "love your fellow as yourself" became the principle of Jewish ethics, which later, as the Golden Rule, all ethical schools—whether religious, non-religious, or philosophical—have been founded upon this verse. The initial definition I mentioned, that of not inflicting unnecessary suffering on another human being, has its root in this "love your fellow as yourself." Later, another Talmudic sage about a thousand years later, named Hillel, recounts a story. Someone came to him, standing at the threshold, and said, "Tell me the entire Torah right now while I am standing here." He expressed this very verse. He said, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow." This is the summary of the entire Torah; the rest of the Torah is commentary on this verse. Now, go and learn at your leisure. In truth, that original definition of philosophical ethics uses the negative aspect of this verse. "Love your fellow as yourself" means do something for him. But "what is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow" or "do not wish upon another." That is, if you do not cause harm, you have observed the minimum of ethics. This has become the minimum of ethics, the foundation of philosophical ethics, and Jewish ethics is also founded upon this verse. There is another verse that has also become one of the foundations of Jewish ethics in the Talmud. Although the verse I read, meaning loving your fellow as yourself, is more famous and cited more often. That is a verse in the Book of Genesis (the first volume of the Torah, chapter 2) when God creates the world and then creates humanity, it says, "God created man in the image of God," meaning in the spiritual image of God. This, again, is another basis for ethics. Some scholars even considered this higher than the first principle. Because when we say "love your fellow as yourself," or "what is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow," ethical behavior depends on me. Whatever I like, I do the same; or whatever I dislike, I do not do to another. Perhaps I am accepting of oppression, perhaps I lack self-esteem, and I treat another the same way. But when it says God created man in the spiritual image of God, it means all humans have a standard degree. All humans are divine, and no one is lower than another. All are situated at a specific degree, and their sanctity or their dignity must be preserved. In any case, these two verses in the Torah form the basis of Jewish ethics. Although that first verse, meaning loving your fellow as yourself, is mentioned more in texts and traditions.

After these fundamental generalities I mentioned, we arrive at the characteristics of Jewish ethics, which, again, I have compiled, and they could be more than these or broader than these. But what I have understood, these are from Jewish ethics, and in the next session, we will delve into their details and examples.

The first case is being text-centered. Because the Jewish religion relies heavily on the verses and texts of the Old Testament and the Talmud, it seeks everything within them. We said this is religious ethics, meaning it is not for the human being to discern something on their own. Having a divine root is sufficient. This divine root is in the Torah, that is, in the Old Testament (the Bible) and the Talmud, or at most, the interpretation of these verses and sentences. In other words, nothing exists outside this religious framework.

The second characteristic is its ethnocentricity. Or, in other words, its Judeo-centricity. Judaism begins with an ethnicity, as the Children of Israel: 12 tribes formed from the 12 sons of Jacob. But over the course of history, admixtures and interminglings occurred. Ethnicity or race became irrelevant. This ethnicity, in a racial form, was not even that relevant from the beginning. Because, in any case, marriages and interminglings occurred, but the point is that this ethics is Judeo-centric. Its addressee is the Jew, its addressee is the Children of Israel. In the Torah, it addresses both humanity in general and the Children of Israel. Parts of the Torah address humankind, but in many of the commandments, which, as I said, overlap with the Law, it says: you who are My people, you who are the Children of Israel. That is, the primary addressee of Jewish ethics is the Children of Israel or the Jews. Therefore, it has an ethnic and exclusive form.

The third characteristic is its communitarianism. This feature of the ethics is, of course, more Torah-based, although we will later see that evolutions occur in this characteristic, but in its initial form, it is communitarian. That is, when it commands or prohibits a moral matter, it addresses everyone, it addresses the community. Something like a barracks where they say if one person errs, everyone is punished. That is, it deals with everyone. The individual is not important here. Torah-based Jewish ethics is mostly like this. I am speaking in generalities. That is, it addresses the community, saying you must be this way. If you commit a sin, you will all be displaced and go into exile. That is, calamity befalls everyone. These punishments and rewards are upon the community, not necessarily upon the individual.

The fourth and fifth characteristics, which we also mentioned in the characteristics of religious ethics, are that its origin is divine and its goal is also divine, and the satisfaction of God. That is, it is rooted in God, or the word of God and revelation, and its goal is again to attain His satisfaction. Although the claim is that by observing it, humans become prosperous and happy, the source and destination in Jewish ethics is God.

Sixth is the sanctity of ethics. This is an ethics that is sacred. Being sacred means divine and religious commands have been given, some of which are considered ethical, but sanctity governs all the commandments. 613 commandments are given in the Torah, and by observing these commandments, you become sanctified and join and draw near to God. One of the ways to reach God, as stated in the Torah, is to become like God, meaning to act like Him. Now, how can we act like someone? By knowing His attributes and acting accordingly. Therefore, God's attributes, which are moral attributes, are mentioned in the Torah. Of course, many attributes are mentioned, but 13 special attributes for God are mentioned in one verse, and we must observe these 13 traits from a moral standpoint, not because these traits are good in themselves, but because God is this way and we want to become like Him. That is, again, ethics itself possesses sanctity and is a divine command.

The seventh point is the type of orientation of Jewish ethics. In the contemporary view of moral philosophy, ethics is divided into three schools: the deontological school, the consequentialist school, and the virtue ethics or aretaic school. Deontological ethics is an ethics that places a rulebook before the individual, enumerates moralities, and says I must do these things. It is famously said that Kant says, tell the truth even if the heavens fall. That is, my duty is truthfulness. Consequentialist ethics says I evaluate my truthfulness or lying based on its outcome. Perhaps my lying leads to happiness and good. That is, it is the outcome that makes my action appear ethical. Perhaps lying is ethical in one place, and telling the truth is unethical in another. In the virtue school, they say the human being reaches such a degree that whatever they do is ethical, like a prophet or a saint whose every action is the very essence of ethics and the manifestation of ethics. In Judaism, although we do not see this separation, and in any given place there may be traces of all three, the principle of Jewish ethics and its main body is deontological. That is, the ethics of Judaism and Torah-based ethics is deontological in form. Later, in the Talmudic or post-Talmudic era, we see expediency or consequentialist ethics to some extent. But the principle of Torah-based ethics is deontological, which commands that this action must be done and sets no conditions, meaning in that case, this is a ruling that must be carried out. Therefore, Jewish ethics (in general) is deontological.

The eighth characteristic is that there is no boundary between jurisprudence (fiqh) and ethics. That is, what exists in Judaism is the very essence of religious law and jurisprudence. It is we who label it worship, ethics, jurisprudence, or anything else. Like the Ten Commandments mentioned earlier. You could place theft in criminal law, you could place it in ethics, or respect for parents, or not coveting, or anything else in the same way. The Torah says it is God's command, whether those 10 commandments, their expansion into 613 precepts, or later the nearly several thousand executive Talmudic rulings, all of which must be observed. It doesn't matter what label you attach to it; all precepts must be observed equally. No one can say that among these precepts, devotion to God is the core of the matter and respect for parents is something peripheral. Devotion to God, respect for parents, Sabbath rest, all stand on the same level, have the same measure, and must all be seen in the same light.

The ninth characteristic of Jewish ethics is the absence of infallibility. Judaism absolutely does not believe in infallibility. We have no one higher in Judaism than Moses, but even Moses himself errs. The Torah also states that he is punished for his error. This is a form of ethics that seeks to say this is not a heavenly ethics. It is an earthly ethics, and humans do err, yet they can still be ethical. As the saying goes, we have no perfect human. A human placed in the heavens, beyond our reach. Everyone is earthly. Moses, who was a prophet, was also earthly and erred. This makes ethics much more tangible and attainable. No one says this ethics is for the superior ones, the intimates, and the prophets. Whatever it is, it is practical, and everyone can attain it. There is a term in Jewish religious literature, "Hasid" or "Chasid," meaning pious and devout. This is a form of ethical living. The pious or devout individual is one who takes recommended acts (mustahabbat) as seriously as obligations (wajibat) and observes them. Such a person, in Jewish religious literature, is considered an ethical individual. Jewish mystics are considered Hasidim. Some schools of Jewish mysticism are called Hasidism. Because these were people who were also stringent about recommended acts, and part of these recommended acts were ethical matters. They observed these ethics, and according to what I will say, they even observed the precepts of religion ethically. What does the ethical observance of religious precepts mean? This is the next characteristic of Jewish ethics.

That is, it is recommended that we observe religious precepts and jurisprudential laws in a more ethical manner. For example, murder in Judaism is not pardonable by the victim's next of kin. But let us suppose such a thing were possible. That is, the law and jurisprudence have given you the power to exact retribution, and it is your jurisprudential and religious right. But you can go beyond jurisprudence and forgive. This means acting ethically. That is, apply jurisprudence more ethically and go beyond jurisprudence. Although you can punish the thief, punish the murderer, or punish the adulterer, you can also relent and act beyond jurisprudence. This is what being a Hasid is. It is acting ethically regarding the precepts of religion. In this connection, a saying is mentioned in the Talmud and post-Talmudic literature, paraphrased of course, which says that with the Torah one can build the world, and with the Torah one can destroy the world. That is, 613 divine precepts and divine law have been given, but how you observe this very law of God, you can build the world with it, and you can destroy the world with these very same things. That is, through stringencies and lack of expediency. That is, it is the ethical part of the matter that allows these same precepts to be observed somewhat more leniently, which has been discussed in Jewish ethics.

The twelfth point, as I said, is that Jewish ethics is practical and real, and has practical instances. That is, it is not an ideal. It is something that flows in daily life and is usually traceable. Apart from two or three cases of lust, malice, and envy, the things we recognize as ethics in Judaism can be determined whether a certain person acted that way or not. That is, it is traceable. A characteristic here is that no worldly trait is abandoned. That is, in Judaism, under the banner of ethics, we have no ascetics. No one abandons marriage or abandons earning an income. Ethics is attainable within ordinary, daily life.

The thirteenth point, which is very important, is that refraining from committing a sin takes precedence over performing a righteous deed. In short, the end does not justify the means, and here, a moral end does not justify an immoral means. In Judaism and Jewish law, the 613 commandments we mentioned and their derivatives are divided into two categories: positive commandments, i.e., prescriptive laws, and negative commandments, i.e., prohibitive laws—things one must avoid. With the exception of one or two positive commandments (such as the command of circumcision), if you disregard God's command, one can hope for forgiveness, but this is not the case with negative commandments. That is, if someone has observed none of the positive commands of the Torah and Jewish law, and in a single moment says, 'I made a mistake'—that is, repents, whether in heart or word—that is it; they are forgiven. However, if someone violates the prohibitions, the punishments for them differ. For some of those sins, verbal repentance is required; for some, a specific day (Yom Kippur) in Judaism must come, and one must fast and repent. For some sins, in addition to the previous conditions, one must be punished or accept life's afflictions upon oneself. For some sins, in addition to the previous conditions, one must remain in a state of repentance until the moment of death, and the pain of the moment of death will absolve them. And some are deferred to the Hereafter, where the principal punishment lies. That is, the difference between a positive religious command and a negative religious command is as vast as the distance between heaven and earth. For this reason, this principle of law also extends to ethics, where it is said that if someone sits in their place and commits no sin, they will be saved. Therefore, an individual cannot say, 'I committed 4 sins, but in return, I also performed 12 righteous deeds.' Those 4 sins go with them, and 8 remain. It is not like that in Jewish law, and consequently in Jewish ethics; we do not have a simple arithmetic of addition and subtraction. It is absolutely impossible to achieve a moral end through a sin or an immoral act. There are examples of this in the Old Testament. God commanded fasting, but later He Himself, in the words of the prophets, protests: 'Did I tell you to fast and sit performing acts of worship while, on the other hand, violating the rights of the widow and the orphan?' Therefore, if an injustice was committed and in return you said, 'Instead, I fasted and worshipped,' the Bible explicitly states that this is unacceptable. Or in the Torah itself, there is a verse that says God does not take a bribe to close His eyes. You cannot pay God off. That is, you cannot close God's eyes with moral acts while doing something else in return. It says God does not exchange this for that—that is, idiomatically, He does not take bribes. Therefore, a moral end cannot justify an immoral means. There is a fast, a day in Judaism called the Fast of Kippur, Yom Kippur, which is a long 24-hour fast, and all day, similar to the Muslims' I'tikaf, one must sit in the synagogue, pray, and fast so that once a year, sins are forgiven. But it is stated in the Talmud that this fast commanded in the Torah is between you and God; it is not between you and other people, so that you can say, 'I cheated people, and now I repent.' It says no, you must give him his due or obtain his consent. This fast and repentance concern matters such as: you should not have worked on the Sabbath, but you did. You violated a few religious precepts between yourself and God, and now you repent. But worship of the Lord does not cleanse the relationship between people.

The fourteenth point is the relativity of ethics. Relativism in Jewish ethics exists both within Judaism and between Jews and non-Jews, and we also see temporal relativism in it. Its relativity stems from the fact that it is entirely within the Law, and ethics is a part of Jewish law. The addressee of the Torah differs depending on whether they are a woman or a man. That is, there are commandments that are not obligatory for women or not obligatory for men, or the treatment of women and men differs. Therefore, ethics sometimes takes this form and is not universal; its ruling differs depending on whether you are a woman or a man. Even among Jewish men, there are tribes. There was the tribe of the priests, the tribe of the Levites, and the tribe of the rest of the Children of Israel. Again, each of these differs in relation to Jewish law. The Jewish king also has his own specific rulings. Thus, Jewish ethics also differs in some cases between Jews and non-Jews. Therefore, in Judaism, ethics in some cases, with the explanation I gave, is not intrinsic but ritualistic and declarative. Ethics itself has no essence. Ethics is relative, depending on who your addressee is. Moreover, we see today that a part of Torah ethics was considered ethical in its own time and was an ethical matter, but today, with changing circumstances and times, it may well have lost its relevance as being ethical and may even turn into the opposite of ethics. Of course, Judaism itself does not hold this belief, but if we look as an impartial observer, this is the case. One example concerns the laws of male and female slaves. Three thousand years ago, slavery was part of people's lives and society. Instructions are given in the Torah on how a Hebrew slave should be treated. At the end of a required period, which was a seven-year cycle, in return for the debt he had or the sentence he had received and for which he was sold into slavery, he had to be freed. If it is a woman, she must be treated differently. Or that upon being freed, provisions or capital for living must be given to him. Or in the Talmud, in detailing the laws of slavery, there is a famous saying that one who buys a slave has, as it were, acquired a master for himself. Meaning that if you, as the slave owner, sleep in a soft place, the slave must also sleep in a soft place. If you eat this food, your slave must also eat the same. This was, in its own time, when slaves were not even considered on the level of animals, the most ethical ruling. But today, the very principle of the matter is unethical. That is, we see that a part of Jewish religious ethics may lose its ethical character or even turn into its opposite.

The next characteristic of Jewish ethics is the condemnation of so-called "Sodomite" ethics. Sodom is the name of a city in the Torah whose people were punished by God because of their indifference. Sodomite ethics means the condemnation of ethical indifference. The story in the Torah is this—in its interpreted narrative, of course—the people of Lot (Abraham's nephew) were a people who apparently did not commit injustice, but were indifferent. That is, when a stranger entered the city, no one was obligated to give him shelter, food, or refuge. No one committed injustice. That is, no court could convict those people. But from an ethical standpoint, they were indifferent. Meaning, they cannot be convicted. It is like when we see an accident scene and an injured person, we do not help the injured and pass by. We are not criminals under the law, but we did something unethical. We could have saved their life, but we were not the killer, we did not hit this person, we just passed by. This is called Sodomite ethics in Jewish ethics. That is, the ethics of the people of Sodom, whom God ultimately punished because they were indifferent to ethical response. They were not active. For this reason, one must necessarily perform an action. There is a verse in the Torah that says whenever you see the donkey, even the donkey of your enemy, lying under its burden, do not ignore it; go and help it put its burden aside so the animal can get up. That is, it says you neither placed that burden on its back, nor is that donkey yours. You are not even friends with that person, but you must not be indifferent to the ethical matter and must help. Therefore, in the Torah and later in Jewish ethics, indifference is considered immorality.

The next point is that there is no distinction among ethical behaviors from a religious perspective. That is, we cannot weigh them and say this ethical matter is small and another is more valuable. Usually, for religious rulings in the Torah, punishments are mentioned but rewards are less frequently mentioned. For example, there are two cases whose rewards appear to be identical, yet one is very great and the other is not considered, or is not even regarded as a commandment. The first case is in the Ten Commandments, where the fifth commandment says, Honor your father and mother. Following that, the Torah verse says, “so that you may live long in the land you are living in.” That is, the reward is long life. On the other hand, there is a commandment that says if you come across a bird sitting on its chicks along your way and you want to take the chicks and use them, do not take the mother together with the chicks. Let the mother fly away, and then take the chicks. This is, for instance, an ethical matter or for the preservation of the species. Following this verse, it says do this, “so that you may live long in the land you are living in.” That is, its reward is exactly the same as honoring parents, but there is a world of difference between the two, yet the outcome and reward of both are considered the same. This is an indicator showing that ethical matters in Judaism have no small or great; they are all on the same level of importance.

Another point, which is perhaps more of a slogan than a jurisprudential and practical one, is a statement in the Talmud that says, “Observance of ethics takes precedence over and is prior to religious law,” which mostly encourages social conduct with people. Essentially, one of the names for ethics in Jewish religious literature is social conduct with people. It says your conduct with people is more important than what you do from a religious or jurisprudential standpoint. That is, it has preferred ethics over jurisprudence. Although jurisprudence does not accept that I, for example, eat forbidden meat or violate the sanctity of the Sabbath and in return be a good-natured person. But sometimes it seeks to place the value of ethics on the same level as jurisprudential and ritual matters.

And the last point I found among the characteristics of Jewish ethics is that these very ethical behaviors, if performed in public and within society, their value is much greater, and violating them also carries a greater punishment. Whether I do something with my friend or in a small group, versus committing a positive or negative ethical act in public, the reward and punishment for these are considered much heavier.

These are the 18 characteristics of Jewish ethics that I found, which are, in a way, the general features of Jewish ethics that arise from the context of Judaism itself and are extracted from within the texts of the Torah, the Old Testament, and the Talmud. After this, in the next session, we will come to the historical periods of the formation of Jewish ethics and the characteristics of each.

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Arash Abaie's Lecture in the Series “Ethics as Common Ground for Interfaith Dialogue”

Audio of Arash Abaie's Lecture

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