Mitzvot Seemingly Unsuitable for the 21st Century

I actually arrived prepared for this week's class. I deliver a lesson on the weekly Torah portion to retirees, and they thoroughly enjoy hearing the reasons behind the commandments from all interpretations. This week's portion, Tazria, deals with laws far removed from our current lives—impurity, leprosy, offerings by a woman after childbirth—so I prepared thoroughly, summarizing all the commentators' points, and felt completely ready. At least, that's what I thought.

This week, however, one of the veteran participants, after recovering from COVID-19, was assisted by his son. The young and energetic son sat with his father in the front row, and even before I could finish a sentence on the portion's topics, he interjected: "Really, all these laws, the impurity of a woman after childbirth, counting this many days, sending birds away, it's just not suitable for the 21st century. Neither are any of the explanations you bring from the commentators. Just move forward to the 21st century; it's not appropriate today."

I hadn't prepared for this question, so I tried to think: what's behind this "argument"? What is it about the 21st century that we should advance towards? Must we?

This timeless statement essentially says: "It doesn't matter if you explain things logically, if you provide reasons, if you quote very wise people—regardless of your logic or justification, there are things that are simply not suitable." But why?

There are cultural norms in the world. They're not things dependent on arguments or connected to logic or explanations. The demand for people to do only what is "appropriate," meaning what's accepted in contemporary culture, is essentially a call to "be a herd," don't think, don't express a different opinion, and even more so: if you do something, however well-reasoned and logical it may be, as long as it's not accepted in our culture—it will be dismissed, because it is "outdated," "unsuitable," without any other reason needed.

What's interesting is that this argument comes up with full force in every generation and, of course, each time in a different direction. Even Abraham heard from Nimrod that what he was doing "was not suitable for the 17th century BCE," it was simply outdated, not fashionable, not accepted, and ridiculous to question idol worship. Also, our ancestors in the generations of the Tannaim, who struggled against Roman culture, received explanations as to why everything they did "did not suit" the Roman enlightened cultural spirit, and so on.

We, as descendants and followers of Abraham the Hebrew, who stood on one side of the world while everyone else was on the other, don't consider herd-like considerations, statements of "not suitable today" or "not suitable yesterday." These are passing statements, signs of weakness from people who lack the strength to break away from the herd.

Adapting to the year 2021 belongs to the technological realm. We prefer a car that's not a clunker, a computer that is fast and efficient, and so on. But on the value and moral level, we do not see that the nations kill each other more morally than before. Just in recent weeks, a war is raging in Europe without any reason, only greed and malice are behind the war, and no shred of values, morality, or goodness is revealed there. We have no reason to conform to the norms of our time; rather, we should be ready and able to question them as needed, befitting the children of Abraham our Father.

We look at the laws of the Torah, knowing they are the laws that sustain the world, that thanks to them our nation has survived so many years, more than any other nation on earth, and we adapt our lives to the laws, not the other way around.