On The Relationship of Mitzvot Between Man & His Neighbor & Man & His Maker

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This study seeks to examine the relationship between the two major categories of commandments (mitzvot): ritual commands (between man and his Maker) and social interpersonal commands (between man and his neighbor). It is argued here that when there is a clash between these two categories, and one cannot carry out both, the interpersonal mitzvot almost always override those of a ritual nature. Different scenarios from a broad spectrum of Jewish law are cited to prove this contention, and the conclusion is underscored through the examination of the behavior and rulings of several leading Jewish legal authorities. Finally, the implications of this conclusion and their impact on religious educational direction and rationale are also discussed.

About the author:

Rabbi Professor Daniel Sperber taught in the Talmud Department of Bar-Ilan University, was the dean of the Faculty of Jewish Studies and serves as the president of the Jesselson Institute for Advanced Torah Studies. The descendant of a line of distinguished Orthodox rabbis, Professor Sperber was born in 1940 in a castle in Ruthin, Wales and studied in the Yeshivot of Kol Torah and Hevron in Jerusalem. He earned a BA in art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art and received a PhD in classics, ancient history and Hebrew studies from University College, London. He also serves as rabbi of the Menachem Zion Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem. The incumbent of the Milan Roven Chair of Talmudic Research, he received the Israel Prize in 1992 for his research in Talmud and the history of Jewish customs, and served as the chairman of the Council for Religious Education at the Israel Ministry of Education for a decade.

Professor Sperber has published thirty books and more than four hundred articles on the subjects of Talmudic and Jewish socio-economic history, law and customs, classical philology and Jewish art. Among his major works is a well-known eight-volume series,''Minhagei Yisrael,'' on the history of Jewish customs. Most recently, he has written two books on halachic methodology and rabbinic decision making in confrontation with modernity, and the present work continues these avenues of inquiry.

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