When studying the commandments given by God to the Jewish people, we are naturally drawn to trying to understand the benefit to mankind each one offers. Some commandments seem focused on social justice, whereas others help us focus on our understanding of God. There are those dedicated to family purity and those dealing with life events. Quite often, our intuition leads us down a path where the rationale seems quite obvious.
In this past Shabbat's Torah portion of Ki Teitzei, the Sefer HaChinuch offers an insight to a commandment that ensures a person recognize the tremendous depth of wisdom contained in these directives from God.
The obligation to build a fence on your roof is presented as follows (Devarim 22:8):
“When you build a new house, you shall make a guard rail for your roof, so that you shall not cause blood [to be spilled] in your house, that the one who falls should fall from it [the roof]”
On a basic level, this commandment makes perfect sense. One should build a fence on his roof as a common sense “gesture” in light of his concern for his fellow man. In fact, many laws are extrapolated from this specific commandment, such as filling in a deep hole or repairing a defective wall. All of these help prevent injuries and death through negligence.
However, the Sefer HaChinuch takes a much different approach concerning this commandment. He begins with a broad philosophical tenet (516):
“At the root of the precept lies the reason that even though the Eternal Lord pays careful attention to the details of human beings and knows all their deeds; and all that happens to them, good or bad, is by His decree and His ordainment, according to their merit or their guilt”
Clearly, God has complete and total knowledge, and that includes knowledge of man’s actions.
He then recounts a famous dictum of the Sages:
“’A man does not hurt his finger below unless it is proclaimed from him above’ – nevertheless, a man needs to guard himself from chance occurrences that are usual in the world”
If indeed we live in the deterministic model proposed here, why would someone need to be careful in this world? After all, based on this literal understanding, we in fact are not in control of whether we are or not being careful. The idea of being more guarded seems foolish if in fact we have no control over our actions.
The Sefer HaChinuch continues, emphasizing how God created a world with laws of nature, and therefore should a “huge stone should fall on a man’s head, it will crush his brains”. While man has the “sense to guard the body from every mishap”, ultimately God “subjugated the body of man to nature”. He then concludes with a summation:
“For nature, to whose power he is subject, will wreak its effect upon him if he will not be guarded against it”
The author then offers one exception to this rule:
“In fact, though, there are some few humans whom the King delights to honor on account of the immensity of their kindly piety and the devotion of their spirit to His ways.”
Who are these people? He cites the Patriarchs, such as Avraham, as well as luminaries like Daniel, Hannaniah, Misha’el and Azariah. What took place? He writes:
“At their beginnings, nature was master over them, but ultimately, because of the great exaltation of their spirit, it was turned about: they became masters over their natural state.”
He cites the example of Avraham surviving being thrown into the fiery furnace. He then contrasts these great people with the average person:
“The great majority of people, however, being sinful, would not merit to attaint this great level.”
As such, we have no right to rely on a miracle possibly occurring when we are in a dangerous situation. Instead, we must be careful of our surroundings, removing hazards to ensure nobody perishes due to neglect.
The Sefer HaChinuch is offering an extremely important fundamental idea about our relationship to God and the surrounding world. It is important to distinguish between God’s complete knowledge and His involvement in this world. Is God actively involved in this world in a manner where He is pulling the strings and controlling man’s actions? According to the Sefer HaChinuch, the answer is a clear “no”. However, that does not mean any knowledge of man escapes Him. Knowing man’s actions in no way effects man’s relationship with the world around him. God is not intervening to push man in one or another direction. Rather than look at God as actively causing every action man engages in, we must understand God as all-knowing. Therefore, we understand the natural world is one guided by laws and reflecting a clear sense of order.
The above concept does not exclude the idea of Divine Intervention for the individual. Of course God at times intervenes on man’s behalf. The wording used by the Sefer HaChinuch, in describing this, is quite amazing. Rather than speak of the breach in nature, he writes that nature conformed to man. Does this mean that Avraham had complete domain over the natural world? Could he snap his fingers and fly, or point and create fire? It is difficult to take such an assumption literally, and the Torah never presents these people as walking miracle-makers. What then is he referring to when he claims that nature was subservient to them?
When we look at the examples given, it appears each of these individuals experienced similar unique moments where God intervened. In those scenarios, the laws of nature should have resulted necessarily in the death of each one. Avraham should have succumbed to the flames that surrounded him. Yet each one survived.
Without question there was some change in the laws of nature. If so, why not just say that? It could be the Sefer HaChinuch is stressing a different point. Inscribed in the laws of nature is the fact that man is subservient to those very laws. At the same time, there is another system of “law”, a metaphysical realm of Divine Intervention where man is judged based on his actions. According to the Sefer HaChinuch, it is an anomaly for man to ever merit any type of direct interceding. It is only when he reaches a high level of perfection where he naturally receives some type of intervention.
In other words, it is natural for man, in certain instances, to rule over the natural world. One should not perceive what happened to Avraham as an external intervention on his behalf. This concept was built into Creation itself, and is capable of being manifest when a human being merits it. Rather than have the emphasis placed on the breach itself, the Sefer HaChinuch is shifting our focus to man’s relationship to the universe as a whole.
When one builds a fence around his roof, it is tempting to view this simply as an act of caring towards his fellow man. The Sefer HaChinuch, though, ask us to reflect and think into the complex nature of our relationship to our surrounding world. While we know God has complete knowledge, we must internalize the frailty our existences, where the natural world plays havoc with us. Simultaneously, we stand back and recognize the heights man can achieve through his adherence to the ways of God, reaching a point where there is a complete reversal of relationships.
All this from building a fence.