Hebraic Musing – Are
we moving the fence(s)?
Rabbis have
been known to establish Fence Laws - created rules to protect one from
violating G-d’s commandment. It’s better to be extra safe than to be sorry by
offending Almighty G-d, so Fence Laws can be a good thing. A classic example –
rather than trusting a sign at the edge of a cliff, build a fence twenty feet
back to eliminate any chance that someone might get hurt. Fence Laws and rules are designed to be extra
careful to avoid offending G-d or neighbor.
This reminds
me of a Sunday School lesson I taught years ago. I told the 10 – 12 year olds “Today
we are going to play a game; a fun game called Bochici Ball. It is so much fun because there are no rules.
So the questions came – How do you keep score? Any Way You Want, There Are No
Rules. How many balls? AWYW,TANR. How many to a side? AWYW,TANR What’s out of bounds? AWYW,TANR etc. etc. etc.” It did not take them long to decide that a
game and/or life is no fun and can’t be played without rules.
A related
verse in Deut. 19:14 says “Do not move
your neighbor's boundary stone set up by your predecessors in the inheritance
you receive in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.” NIV Boundaries are to be
honored and this verse could easily be applied to rules established in prior
generations by our elders that should be honored if we expect to receive God’s
blessings.
Human nature
wants to “push the envelope.” As a kid,
I used to call it “boundary breaking.” I would deliberately and knowingly sneak
past the electric pole that was my boundary according to my Mother.
Non-theistic and/or
atheistic groups can cavalierly or rebelliously proclaim their liberation from
Judean/Christian morality. They need to hear the old expression “Whenever
you move any fence, always pause long enough to ask why was it put there in the
first place?” Society, and we as
individuals, cannot survive in a boundary-less existence. Your neighbor has his
own self-serving boundaries; so who is going to provide and respect the ethics
between yours and his boundaries? If there is no objective law, relativism takes
hold, and ultimately leads to self-destruction.
I can’t help
but still be thinking of the recent Musing – “Whatever happened to Biblical
Marriage” and the rules changes (or fences moved) that have been changing –
notably since the 1960’s.
Have we
entered a post-Christian era while still trying to hang on to the blessings of
our Judeo-Christian value system? Philosopher
Will Durant once said, ‘The greatest
question of our time is not going to be East vs. West, North vs. South, or Communism
vs. Capitalism. The greatest question of our time is going to be, ‘can man
live without God?’ … pragmatically, ‘yes’ but coherently, ‘no’. And when coherence breaks down, there’s an
implosion and a self-destructive mood sets in. And once those values have been
expended, and we no longer have the roots from which to draw, then we will find
out the ramifications of it.”
Maybe this is
why when I kiss the Mezuzahs on our doorframes I say “Thank you Lord for your
Commandments”?
Point to ponder
How many fences have been moved
recently?
July
7, 2015
Yosef a.k.a.
Joe Brusherd, Author::
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