Breishit (Genesis), the first book of the Torah, recounts the lives of the first members of the Jewish people, the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo questions how the patriarchs can be considered Jews if the rules defining who is Jewish were given to Moses hundreds of years later on Mount Sinai. Wouldn’t it have been more logical, then, for the patriarchs, especially Abraham, to have received the Torah instead of Moses? Thus, divine commandments would have governed the life of the Jewish people from the beginning.

The answer to this question is very important, Lopes Cardozo tells us: “No law, not even divine commandments, can work if it is not preceded by a narrative of the human moral condition and by the introduction of basic moral and religious values. These values ​​cannot simply be given; they must grow within the person through life experience. Such values ​​are not learned from a book; they must be developed gradually, on an existential level, shaped by the values ​​that God grants to each person from birth.”

Genesis 1:26-27 says: “And God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, like our likeness. Let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over the livestock and over all the earth and every creature that moves on the ground.’ So God created humankind in his own image; in the image of God he created them. Male and female he created them.” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks refers to these verses as perhaps one of the most transformative ideas in human history: the idea that all men were created equal. It might seem like an obvious truth, but in many societies it hasn’t. Even Socrates spoke of three types of men: those with souls of gold, those with silver, and those with bronze. Those with gold were destined to be leaders, those with silver to be warriors, and those with bronze to simply obey. The idea that all men were created equal wasn’t, and isn’t, so obvious. It still takes time to become so.

Cardozo continues: “This is why God did not give the laws of the Torah to the patriarchs. They first had to learn through personal trials and tribulations. The patriarchs and matriarchs needed to see with their own eyes what happens when humanity is not governed by law. They had to become aware of basic moral values. Only after man has been deeply immersed and affected by these ideas and values ​​can the law be introduced as a way of putting them into action.” Maimonides said it in his Guide for the Perplexed: it takes a long time for people to change.

The Book of Breishit undoubtedly established the ethical foundations of Judaism based on narratives: Creation, the expulsion from Paradise, Cain and Abel, the Tower of Babel, the Flood, etc. The people of Israel had to assimilate these ethical foundations before they could receive divine commandments. Therefore, Abraham Avinu could not have received the Torah. The people weren’t ready.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Nathan Lopes Cardozo: “The Desecration of Halacha.” Jonathan Sacks: “Essays on Ethics.”