ייִדישער מחשבֿה אויף קהלת 1:13

Our philosophy is reflected in our daily morning prayer which commences with the words "My G'd, the soul You have placed within me is pure. You have created it, You have formed it, You have breathed it into me." In Deut, 4,4-7, Moses describes the need to preserve a state of purity, when he refers to the nations describing Israel as "this great nation clever and full of insights." All the above explains the last line in the book of Psalms "the whole soul praises the Lord." When we read in Avot that man is beloved because he was created in G'ds image, this too refers to the pure soul that man has been endowed with. All of the foregoing was meant by Bar Kapparah when he described the soul as "the Divine illumination."

This reasoning is based on Kohelet 10,17. "hail to the country whose king is truly free," meaning that the king is obedient to the Torah's commandments, and humbles himself before G'd, as is explicitly required of him. (Deut. 17,18-19) "When he sits on the throne, he must write for himself a copy of the Torah, which shall reside with him, and in which he shall read throughout his lifetime in order to revere the Lord His G'd, to keep all the commandments of this Torah and all its statutes to carry them out, so that his heart shall not become haughty above his brethren and so that he will not depart from the commandments of this Torah either to the right or to the left; in order that his reign should be long; both his and that of his sons." In other words, the Torah tells us that the king is truly free when he does not give in to the temptation to amass women, money and horses. His freedom is due to his attitude towards his Master (G'd) being similar to the attitude of his subjects towards him. We find throughout the Bible that ministers are referred to as "servants of the king." The more dedicated to the service of the king, the more truly free is the minister in question. For this reason, alternate descriptions of such ministers are chorey Yehudah, "the freemen of Yehudah." (compare Jeremiah 27,20) This is also the meaning of Psalms 116,16, "G'd, when I am Your servant, I Your servant, the son of Your handmaid, then You have truly loosened my bonds." David says that his bonds have been loosened by his having become G'ds servant. The Jewish nation's stature as a princess amongst the nations of the world, flows directly from its subservience to its G'd. (Deut. 26, 17-18) "You have acknowledged G'd this day...and the Lord in turn has acknowledged you." Our greatness is due to our having enthroned G'd as our Sovereign. There are four areas in which subservience to G'd has to express itself. 1) Since everyone has a tendency to want to be his own master, irrespective of the benevolence of any authority he may find himself under, the Torah states that "you have expressed the wish that the Lord be with you." (26,17) 2) Man does not like to be thought of as a carbon copy of someone else, nor to imitate someone else, robot like. He feels that by doing that he deprives himself of all originality and that he will never be thought of as an independent individual. Man desires to receive credit for action stemming from his own initiative. The book of Kohelet is full of emphasis of the originality of its author's thinking. "I thought," "I did," I concluded" etc. The desire to "do one's own thing," is so natural that already the Torah refers to it. (Deut 29,18) "For in the autonomy of my heart I will walk." When these tendencies are given up voluntarily by our following the ways of the Lord, (26,17) this is a further expression of the true freedom found in disciplining oneself by recognising the superior wisdom of the Lord. It is not our task to boast about our own way of life, but we are to pursue a way of life in accordance with G'ds instructions. When we read in Genesis 18,18, about Abraham commanding his descendants to perform acts of righteousness, this transforms what would otherwise have been a spontaneous act, an impulsive gesture, into a way of life that serves as a model for the Jew. Denying oneself pork should not stem from a distaste for the product, but should be rooted in G'ds injunction. (Torat Kohanim 9, Parshat Kedoshim) Similarly, in the confession we recite when we offer the tithes for the poor, (Deut 26,14) we emphasize "I have hearkened to the voice of the Lord my G'd, and have done all You have commanded me." 3) It is natural for man not to accept suggestions, instructions etc., when these suggestions do not make sense to him. A classic example is that of Yoav, David's commander-in-chief, who was ordered to conduct a headcount of men eligible for army service. He reacted by demanding a reason for this order, (seeing it was contrary to Torah law) Yoav never carried out the full task, and was involved in what must be considered intentional inaccuracies, (compare different results given in Samuel II chapter 24 and Chronicles I chapter 21) Yoav also failed to count the tribes of Levi and Benjamin. Presumably, lack of adequate performance stemmed from lack of interest in a task that seemed senseless and even counterproductive in Yoav's eyes. When the Torah demands obedience also to statutes that defy our understanding, it says "and to observe His statutes, commandments and social laws," to emphasize that it is the source of the instructions that matter, not their content. 4) Lastly, there are things which run counter to human instinct, and which if performed are seen as inviting hazards to one's health or one's property. A case in point, is the outrage expressed by Navot, when king Achav wants him to trade his ancestral vineyard. In all such situations, the Torah stresses "and listen to His voice," meaning that even when the instructions are completely contrary to our instincts, our freedom expresses itself when we discipline ourselves to listen to G'ds wishes. In these four ways we crown G'd as king over ourselves. But, more than anything, in this way G'd crowns us as king over the remainder of the nations. "To place you supreme over all the nations." (26,17) This latter promise goes beyond the one when Israel became the Lord's "precious nation and holy people" at Mount Sinai. The part of the verse saying "to walk in His ways and to observe His statutes," is part of the covenant in return for which Israel was promised to be the highest ranking nation. This makes the Jewish people custodian of "the way of the Lord,," something not entrusted to anyone else. In Psalms 147,19, G'd is described as "He reveals His words to Jacob, His statutes and social laws to Israel,...He has not done so to any other nation." David described the nature of the mutual covenant there.

Yea, in wisdom to study all that is done under the sun,