The Torah talks about Chokim as a class of mitzvot, commandments which have no reason, i.e. are irrational. There is no obvious benefit to performing that mitzva beyond, perhaps, demonstrating ones commitment to and membership in Am Yisrael, the Jewish People.

Merely doing something irrational, because it’s irrational, of course is of no benefit to anyone and we should avoid that.

How can we know the difference if intellectual and/or logical analysis yields no data?

Perhaps that’s the value, in itself, of being part of a people. A people with three and a half millennia of traditions and practice, rather than just aiming to be an “inspired individual”, hoping for a flash of insight or motivation and then going off on our own to fulfill that vision.

Merely following what’s been done in the past because it has been accepted also leaves us wanting. Our situation is always different and today, as a sovereign people, at least those of us lucky/bold enough to live in Israel under our own, imperfect as it is, sovereignty, differs from that of Jews any time in the past.

But being part of community, not merely individual and independent agents, but being part of a living, growing, changing and developing society forces us to consider our effect on others and on the group also.

There isn’t an easy answer, and we would’t want one because that would limit the infinite which is our Neshamot and their connections with the Ultimate Spiritual Source, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, The Holy One Blessed Be He.

Each day is a challenge, which is a good reason to wake up every morning filled with love and gratitude and hope.

Shabbat Shalom