At the end of this week’s Torah reading of Mishpatim (Exodus 21–24), Moses reads the terms of the Sinaitic covenant to the Israelites, who then proclaim, “All that the Lord has spoken, we will do and we will obey.” Surveying some of the various rabbinic interpretations of this statement, Jonathan Sacks focuses on that of the 15th-century Spanish scholar Isaac Arama, who reads the word usually rendered “obey” (literally, “listen”) as “understand”:
According to this explanation, when the Israelites put “doing” before “understanding,” they were giving expression to a profound philosophical truth. There are certain things we only understand by doing. We only understand leadership by leading. We only understand authorship by writing. We only understand music by listening. Reading books about these things is not enough. So it is with faith. We only truly understand Judaism by living in accordance with its commands. You cannot comprehend a faith from the outside. Doing leads to understanding.
Sacks then contrasts this declaration with two other similar ones: “All the people answered as one, saying ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do” (Exodus 19:8) and “they [the Israelites] responded with one voice, ‘Everything the Lord has said we will do’” (Exodus 24:3). While the two verses that only mention “doing” emphasize the people’s unity, that which also mentions “listening” or “understanding” does not:
At the level of the Jewish deed, we are one. To be sure, there are differences between Ashkenazim and Sephardim. In every generation there are disagreements among leading halachic authorities. . . . Yet these differences are minor in comparison with the areas of agreement on the fundamentals of halakhah.
This is what historically united the Jewish people. Judaism is . . . a community of deed. That is where we require consensus. Hence, when it came to doing, the Israelites spoke “as one” and “with one voice.” . . . At the level of understanding, however, we are not called on to be one. Judaism has had its rationalists and its mystics, its philosophers and poets, scholars whose minds were firmly fixed on earth and saints whose souls soared to heaven. The rabbis said that at Sinai, everyone received the revelation in his or her own way.
What unites Jews, or should do, is action, not reflection. We do the same deeds but we understand them differently. . . . This does not mean that Judaism does not have strong beliefs. It does. . . . But we should allow people great leeway in how they understand the faith of our ancestors. Heresy-hunting is not our happiest activity.
Read more on Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: http://rabbisacks.org/mishpatim-5780/