God’s Gift and Mindfulness of the Ethical Dimensions as Human Response: Response to Rabbi Dr. Barry Freundel

Abstract

Rabbi Freundel writes about ethical norms in the Hebrew Bible that arose, either from God's direct command or implicitly from His actions, and established a model for human conduct. Near the end of his essay, however, he shifts focus to discuss occasions in the Hebrew Bible when human beings "challeng[e] God ... with ethical thinking.' In this response, I want to focus on these extraordinary occasions. Two related possibilities seem to follow from these occasions, at least so far as the Hebrew Bible is concemed: First, the possibility that God is not the source of all moral norms; Second, that human beings can be independent authors of moral norms - or can have independent capacity to recognize moral norms-that bind God Himself.