Ki hamitzvah hazot asher Anokhi m’tzav’cha hayom lo niflei’t hi mimcha v’lo r’chokah hi.
For this commandment that I command you this day is not too hard for
you, neither is it far off. (Dvarim
30:11)
One of the
problems rabbis and teachers of Judaism often has is a misunderstanding of what
halakhah requires of us. This is
especially true in the world of Conservative/Masorti Judaism. All too often I hear the movements
described in this way: “The Orthodox do everything; the Reform nothing, and the
Conservative are somewhere in the middle.” This description does a disservice to all involved. The ideology of the movements is not
about whether we do all or nothing, but how we view the mitzvot that God has
commanded us.
Conservative/Masorti
Judaism is not merely the one in the middle. Conservative ideology believes the Torah shebichtav was given at Sinai.
The Torah she’b’al peh are the words of
the Hachamim and Rabbis in the Mishneh and Talmud, taught by those in whose name we learn, with an additional eye
beyond towards history. The
mitzvot as given in the Torah are divine and required. Mitzvah means commandment. How we observe them changes due to
culture and history.
Torah tells us
that the mitzvot are meant to be easy for us to observe. They should not be a hardship. They should not be so far from our life
in this world that we have to separate ourselves from the world to observe
them. Nevertheless, the mitzvot
are binding. They are commandments. Whether kashrut, Shabbat observance, or
t’fillah, daily prayer, these mitzvot are required of each of us as Jews. If we have not been observing them in the
past, we should strive to do so in the future. Franz Rosenzweig was once asked if he wore tefillin. Rosenzweig answered, “Not yet.” We may not yet observe all 613 mitzvot,
but let us remember they are not too hard, nor far off. Let 5773 be the year you add a mitzvah
to your observance, drawing them ever closer.
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