Torah Big Idea #21 A Good Society Needs Spirituality

Dvarim (Deuteronomy)

Do we really need God or Torah to live with integrity? It’s a fair question. And the easy answer, “Yes, because the Torah says so,” isn’t good enough.

We’re continuing our studies with Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z”l  in his series Covenant and Conversation on the Book of Deuteronomy. He starts with a surprising claim: Deuteronomy is not primarily about our souls. It aims at nothing less than the construction of a society that would moralize its members, inspire others, and serve as a role model of what might be achieved were humanity as a whole to worship the one God who made us all in His image. 

The whole project isn’t “how do we get into heaven?” It’s “how do we build something worth living in?”

The vehicle for that project is brit, covenant. A covenant is not a contract. A contract is transactional: perform or it’s over. A covenant says something deeper: I am bound to you. Your flourishing is my business. 

Maimonides sharpens the picture. He taught that a good society is the precondition for the spiritual life we were made for. People consumed by hunger, fear, or injustice cannot access the higher reaches of what it means to be human. The soul, like the body, can be healed and strengthened. It evolves. And that evolution has a direction: toward goodness, and then toward something deeper, a life lived in the presence of God.

Deuteronomy’s most repeated word is shema. Not “obey.” Listen. Understand. Respond. God is not a tyrant ruling by whim. God is a teacher who expects us to understand as well as keep the rules. That’s the covenant: a relationship that gives our lives direction, holds us accountable to one another, and keeps drawing us toward the people we were born to become.