transgression

While washing dishes, a splash of cream fell into a plastic tub that had previously contained a meat-based sauce. Instinctively, I winced; this visceral reaction was followed by a brief inquiry into the nature of transgression.

Religious Jews, who believe that it is forbidden by divine law to consume meat and dairy in the same meal, spend their entire waking lives doing their best to live according to an ideal standard of morally sanctioned action in the world. Many of the rules and regulations may seem arbitrary, anachronistic, or even foolish to an outsider. Indeed, many of them cannot be justified by human reason.

One of the most common questions posed by moderns about the relatively restrictive life of the devout Jew is why anyone would willingly consent to nonsensical rules devised by ignorant, superstitious men centuries ago. This question, while making a reasonable critique, fails to take into account the fundamental assumption on which it is predicated: on what evidence do moderns base their belief that human beings are capable of, let alone ought to, decide individually for themselves how to live?

Transgression, far from an outmoded concept, conveys a sense of wrongness that is hard to grasp in modern terms. When one abstains from transgression, he does so not for fear of punishment, but rather to aspire to a higher purpose through righteous conduct. One who abstains from transgression believes that the rules exist for his benefit, that they have been handed down over the centuries as a "self-help guide" for a better life.

It is not a coincidence that anxiety and depression are endemic to the freest, most individually liberated society in human history. Perhaps the imposition of some limits, particularly imposed from beyond this realm, beyond reason, is not so unreasonable after all?