Parshat Re’eh 5768: What is Good?

Goodness and straightness are two different ethical ideas. Being good, is doing something on a microcosmic level, something that may be small and very local, yet it has universal, macrocosmic benefit. Beingstraight is different.

Both in our Parsha (12:28) and in Va’etchannan (6:18) the wordsYashar (straight) and Tov (good) are phrased together. In ourParsha, after warning us about the severity of eating blood, even the droplets of blood contained in meat that has not been properly slaughtered and prepared, the Torah says in a general way: “For you shall do that which is good and that which is straight, in the eyes of Hashem your G-d.” In both places the Targum translates “goodness” as deTakkin, meaning “improvement.”

A “good” action is an action that improves the world. And herein lies the complexity of the very idea of goodness, an idea whose meaning and definition has been debated by philosophers and moralists for millennia. Many actions are improvements for some but damaging to others. Converting trees into timber is good for industry but can be bad for the environment. Warning a woman about negative character traits in a suitor is good for her but bad for him. We cannot be guided by John Stuart Mills’ concept of utilitarianism, seeking the greatest good to the greatest number of people, because in our world the value of each individual is infinite. To us, the total of the human population is in many ways no more valuable than is a single soul. “One who saves a single soul is as if they have saved the entire world,” say Chazzal.

The Hologram Idea

How then do we determine what is good? Consider the Universe as a hologram where every particle of it contains the “genetic code” of the whole. The human-being in turn, is a microcosm of that hologram. Each cell of ours contains the genetic code of our whole bodies. However, as part of the universal hologram, each of our cells also contains the genetic code of the entire universe.

When you change one element of a person’s DNA you change their whole body. Similarly every action performed on one part of the world, changes the spiritual and energetic balance of the whole world in some way, altering the universal “DNA”. Any action, therefore, that you perform in a given place and time, simultaneously affects every part of the entire universe. Every thought, every word and every deed has infinite impact way beyond an individual’s immediate environment.[1]

How then can you or I possibly understand the full impact on the universe of what we do? How can we ever be sure that our thoughts and deeds are improvements to the world, and not unintentionally damaging to someone somewhere?

The answer is that we cannot be sure of this, using our own rational capabilities. “Goodness” cannot be determined by human reason alone. Our reason is linear; it is limited both in space and in time. The only way we can know what is cosmically good, is to know from the designer of this intricate latticework of a universe what microcosmic actions of ours are in fact macrocosmic improvements. The Torah is the work that makes the linkages between our actions and their cosmic outcomes. Only the Torah defines what constitutes universal “good.” This is why Rashi, based on the Sifri, clarifies that “good” means “Be’einei Shamayim” – good in the eyes of Hashem.

Yashar: Straightness

Not so with Yashar: Straightness, Rashi says it is determined by what is straight “be’einei adam” in the eyes of humanity. TheRamban explains in Kedoshim (Vayikra 19:2) that a person can fulfill all the halachik minutiae in a particular area and still fail to be doing the right thing. One can be halachikly meticulous, but lack the human refinement and personal nobility implied by the general instruction to practice sanctity. One can keep the laws of business, and fail to beyashar, straight.

Too often we abdicate our internal sense of what is straight and defer our moral judgment to a rabbinic authority. Our Rabbis, using their Torah wisdom, guide us as to what is good. They teach us how to create macrocosmic improvements with microcosmic actions. However they are not the authorities on what is yashar, straight.

The authority for straightness is the man in the street, human society. If society sees an activity as crooked, it doesn’t matter how manyhalachik heterim (permissions) an individual has. They are invalid, because while dealing with halachik detail they do not deal with the Torah’s imperative to be not only good, but also Yashar. Yashar is determined not by halachik creativity but by ordinary human insight. As Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi says (Pirkei Avot 2:1) “What is the straight way people should choose for themselves? Whatever they find to be both honorable within themselves and honorable in the eyes of others.”

I find it helpful to ask myself two questions when in any doubt about the correctness or appropriateness of an action, a thought or a word: firstly, in order to be sure that this action is a macrocosmic improvement, is it supported by halacha? Secondly, if people were aware of what I am about to do, would they consider it “straight?” A “yes” to both is a “yes” from shamayim. Actions supported by both criteria are both good and straight, Tov and Yashar. They are honorable actions that bring honor both to us and to G-d. They are actions that improve the Universe in ways beyond anything we can imagine.