By Rabbi Dr Elliott Karstadt

In this week’s portion, Moses tells the people: ‘You shall not add anything to what I command you or take anything away from it, but keep the commandments of the Eternal your God that I enjoin upon you’ (Deuteronomy 4:2). Medieval commentator Rashi gives examples of what this means: ‘By, for example, adding a fifth text to your tefillin, a fifth species to your Lulav and Etrog at Sukkot, or a fifth fringe to your square garments.’ Rashi takes the idea of adding or subtracting from the commandments of the Torah quite literally – we shouldn’t add or subtract things for which God has prescribed a specific number.

Later commentators do not accept Rashi’s interpretation, arguing that instead Moses is referring to any situation in which the people take on the role of adding to God’s revelation. For example, Spanish commentator Nachmanides refers to the time when King Jeroboam of Israel ‘dreams up’ a new festival to rival Sukkot, a month after the original festival. He then describes how as many as 180 prophets served Israel without adding or subtracting from the laws … apart from the addition of the commandment to read the Book of Esther at Purim. The rabbis were incredibly exercised about this addition – why could this be allowed!? After all, as another Spanish commentator, Ibn Ezra says: ‘You shall not add anything you think up yourselves, even if you do so for the purpose of worshipping the Eternal.’ Even though the reading of the Book of Esther at Puirm is designed as a way of worshipping God, it is not contained in God’s original

They are finally comforted when God shows them that in fact there are verses in the Torah that allude to it. And that is the ultimate get-of-jail card for the rabbis. If it does not say so explicitly in our revealed texts, all you need to do is find a verse that can be re-interpreted to mean it! So, the rabbis brought in the ability to add and subtract to God’s law – through interpretation and constant re-interpretation.

But this method of interpretation and re-interpretation will not always serve us as it served the rabbis. Apart from anything else, our intellectual honesty should require that if we are innovating, sometimes we own that innovation is ours rather than that we are simply re-interpreting the verses of our ancient tradition.

Writing at the beginning of the twentieth century, Rabbi Dr Leo Baeck wrote: ‘Jewish religious philosophy had as its purpose the constant renewal of the content of religion, by means of which it was best preserved and protected from the deadening rigidity of formula. It was a religion which constantly imposed upon its adherents new labours of thought’ (Essence of Judaism, p. 16). In other words, as Jews we are not allowed to stop thinking. We are called upon constantly to use our brains and our bodily instincts to respond to the challenges of the world. If we can find a verse from the Torah that helps us, that’s great; we can also justify it by knowing that it is simply the right thing to do. At this time of global moral crisis, nothing is more important.

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