It hit me full force while attending a lecture on ethics and halacha. The rabbi informed his audience that Jewish law knew no kind of independent moral ethic, nor could it ever be influenced by ethical developments in human society.

Every answer was derivative and the system was not penetrable by outside influences. Further, there could never be recourse to new revelations of God’s will; and besides, “Heaven forefend, we would never want to be prophets!”

Each year, as we prepare to celebrate Israeli Independence Day on the 5th of Iyar, we hear murmurings as to the halachic appropriateness of playing music at these events. What is behind these murmurings? In some people’s minds the period between Pesach and Shavuot is somehow associated with mourning, hence the qualms as to the propriety of rejoicing and especially playing music during this Omer period.

History has proven that a society can be governed by laws, its people law-abiding, and yet be thoroughly unjust. Sodom and Gomorrah, as depicted by the Talmud (as well as Pharaoh’s Egypt), were regimented by elaborate legal systems, and their citizens were by and large obedient. Bearing that in mind, we can perhaps better appreciate the following teaching from the first verse of this week’s Torah reading, “and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment” (Deut. 16:18). Here Torah reminds its readers that law and righteousness are not the same thing, nor are they inevitably linked.