The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Babylon (4)
He has told you, mortal one, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 NASB
What is good – The simple truth. Three things God asks of us. Do justice, love kindness, walk in His ways. That’s it. No lofty theoretical propositions. No statements of faith. No creeds. You will notice that each of these three is a relational action. mišpāṭ – justice. Really “exercise governance.” Bring order to living. ḥesed – much more than “love kindness.”[1] Everything about ḥesed is relational and active (just search this word on my web site). In essence, it’s about connectedness. And ṣānaʿ hālak – humbly walk. Dutifully observe. Follow through. Do it!
What Micah reveals isn’t new. It goes all the way back to Genesis. We are created in His image. Relational. We are to fear Him (yirat ha-Shem), not from trepidation, but from majesty. Fearing God is walking humbly.
“ . . . the meaning of yirat ha-Shem . . . is contained in the phrase ‘walk in His ways.’ This phrase, a classical expression of imitatio dei, suggests the deeply held Jewish idea that our relationship to God is a living rather than a thinking relationship. It is not speculation on the being of God, or even on how we can speculate about God, that claims the attention of Jewish intellectual effort. Rather, it is living in the mode of God as we have experienced it in both our personal and communal histories.”[2]
The living God desires a living relationship. What does that mean? Back to Genesis.
“What constitutes a human being is this conformity to ethics and justice [‘the standard of uprightness and morality’], as expressed in my free translation . . . ‘all that leads to the end of true good, namely, strengthening of Torah and furthering human fraternity.’ Here, the true good, which is the ethical and the just, becomes almost synonymous with Torah and humanity combined. . . The implication here is that Torah and community are predicated on the implementation of the good, that is, ethical conformity to God’s acts, or ‘walking in God’s ways.’”[3]
Luzzatto directs us to the path of the righteous. What is that path? “To walk in His ways.” And what is that? It is to express Torah personally and communally. It is to be related to God and others in such a way that it enhances my own humanity and yours. It is to be connected. “It’s not good for man to be alone” is much more serious than isolation. Being alone unravels what it means to be human.
Step 4: Get connected.
Topical Index: Moses Luzzatto, yirat ha-Shem, ṣānaʿ, humble, hālak, walk, Micah 6:8
[1] This translation is a result of the LXX’s conversion of ḥesed into the Greek eleos.
[2] Ira F. Stone, in Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright, p. 11.
[3] Ibid., p. 12.
