Command or commit? – T’tzavveh
Like many other chapters, this sidra has a series of commands: do this, don’t do that!
Does it give a reason for its commands? Not specifically. Its thinking is this: if you believe in God and wish to serve Him, you will obey His commands.
What happens if a person likes the commands about one part of Judaism – for example the laws of Pesach, or the rules about honesty in business – but has misgivings about other things such as the laws of forbidden foods or the rules about personal purity?
The answer is that the Torah is not like a supermarket, where you can pick and choose. The Torah, like the human body, is one entity in which every element is connected with the others.
There may be times when a person feels strongly about a particular command, but one should say, “I accept the Torah as a whole and if there are things about which I am uncertain I pray that time and patience will help me to understand why God put them in His Word.”
