Word Prompt – CHOK – Moshe Kurtz

Oftentimes, I receive requests from local faith leaders to tour our shul. During one instance, a young seminarian asked me to define our core function.

I kept it simple: “Our goal is to serve G-d.”

“That’s it?” he replied stunned.

“Yup. Serving G-d is our raison d’etre. The rest of what we do is figuring out how we can best accomplish that.”

In a sense, a chok – a mitzvah without any apparent rationale – is the most authentic expression of religious dedication. 

The literature about the permissibility of the pursuit of ta’amei hamitzvos is beyond our scope, but one of the most resonant lessons that R. Soloveitchik was fond of was that the word ta’am means “reason” and also means “flavor.”

For instance, Tehillim (34:9) states, “Ta’amu u’reu ki tov Hashem” – taste and see that Hashem is good. 

We keep the Torah simply because G-d said so. If we can begin to scratch the surface of the thought-process behind it – great. But that is just additional flavoring, a cherry on top. The Torah is inherently nutritious and subservience to G-d was and will always remain the hallmark of Judaism. 

Yes, we hear ad nauseum that Judaism values machlokes, disputation. But every form of open discourse adopts its own Overton Window. For our faith, the guiding question has not been about bending the Torah to our preferences, but asking how we can be the best servants of God. 

“Yismach Moshe b’matnas chelko ki eved ne’eman karasa lo” – there is no great privilege than being called a servant of Hashem. And a chok is the ultimate expression of that.