Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof speaks of his people's loyalty to "Tradition" where the original Yiddish version of the story has "Torah." The change may have been unconscious but is revealing. The idea of Jewish observances being carried out because such is the Jewish way of life or the tradition is comparatively new. The classical sources prefer to speak of the Torah, which has to be followed because it is true and not because it is a way that others have tried. For the religious mind there is even a kind of betrayal in the appeal to tradition in that it might pander to ancestor worship and act as a barrier between the individual and his God. Kierkegaard, for instance, protested against the notion that he should obey the demands of his religion because millions of others had obeyed in the past. For Kierkegaard, the fact that others had obeyed was a reason for him not to obey. The religious man wishes to know what God would have him do, not what the tradition would have him do, even whe nhe sees the demands of God conveyed to him through the tradition. Rabbi S. Zevin has acutely said that in modern times some Jewish thinkers have inverted the old saying that the minhag ("custom") of Israel is Torah, so that it reads: the Torah of Israel is minhag. That is why in the later development of Jewish law not every custom of the past has to be followed and one frequently comes across such sayings as "This is a foolish custom," "This custom is unfounded," "The Hebrew word for custom (minhag) has the same letters as those of the word for Hell (gehinnom)."
The classical Jewish view in this matter is that tradition is of great value but only insofar as it serves as a means of worshiping God. Judaism as a historical religion naturally gives considerable binding force to the ways of the past because it is in these that God's will becomes revealed. There is an appeal to tradition in Moses' song (Deutoronomy 32:7):
Remember the days of old,
Consider the years of many generations
Ask thy father, and he will declare unto thee,
Thine elders, and they will tell thee.
David Gans (1541-1613), the author of Zemah David, one of the earliest works on Jewish history, quotes this verse as Biblical support for the study of Jewish history. A Talmudic interpretation (Berakhot 35b) understands the "father" in the verse: "Hear my son, the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the teaching of thy mother" (Proverbs 1:8) to be God and the "mother" the Community of Israel. Solomon Schechter's idea of "Catholic Israel" as the source of Jewish teaching and its deciding factor is based on Rabbinic views of this kind. The verse in Proverbs is also applies by the Rabbis (Pesahim 50b) to local and parental customs which are binding upon those affected by them.
In short, the Jewish tradition itself is that of Jewish tradition deriving its authority not from and in itself but from God. Tradition is helpful as a guide. It is not a god to be worshiped.
- What Does Judaism Say About...? Louis Jacobs, pages 320-321
