When Hakadosh Baruch Hu informs Avraham Avinu of the impending destruction of S'dom and its four neighboring cities, Avraham Avinu asks that they be spared in the merit of nine righteous individuals per city. [Hakadosh Baruch Hu would join with each group of nine to comprise a quorum]. But Avraham Avinu does not simply pray. In a remarkable display of love for his fellow man and intimacy with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Avraham Avinu actually challenges Hakadosh Baruch Hu. "Will the judge of the entire Earth not do justice?" (1).
Primo facie, Avraham Avinu is measuring Hakadosh Baruch Hu's actions against a natural, independent standard of justice. If Hakadosh Baruch Hu's actions define and establish the standards of justice, it is logically impossible to question Him or His actions. Thus, Avraham Avinu's challenge seems to indicate the existence of an absolute, natural law, binding even Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
In truth, however, careful study of Avraham Avinu's entire prayer belies this interpretive inference. Rashi (2) explains that Avraham Avinu limits his prayer/challenge; he grants that a minimum of nine righteous individuals is necessary to save each city. Why, for example, did Avraham Avinu not request that the merit of even five righteous individuals should not suffice? Rashi answers that Avraham Avinu was guided by the precedent of the deluge. In that generation, the merit of Noach, his three sons and their spouses was insufficient to save the world. Accordingly, Avraham Avinu knew that minimally nine righteous individuals (together with Hakadosh Baruch Hu) would be necessary to save each city.
Upon re-examination, equipped with Rashi's insight, we are now able to correctly understand Avraham Avinu's challenge to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. In effect, he was saying, "will you, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, not be true to Your own standard of justice?" According to the divine standard of justice which You established, eight righteous individuals do not suffice. But, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, doesn't Your divine system recognize ten as a microcosm, representing an entire community? [This is the underlying philosophy of a minyan.] Accordingly, do not Your standards dictate that each city be spared in the merit of nine righteous individuals per city?
In fact, Judaism does not recognize a natural moral independent of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the source of all morality. Rambam opens his magnum opus by declaring that the fundamental principle which underlies all others and the pillar of all wisdom is knowing of the existence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Creator of heaven and Earth (3). Rav Soloveitchik zt"l commented that Rambam clearly indicates that all wisdom depends upon knowledge of Hakadosh Baruch Hu; i.e., there is no ethical or moral knowledge independent of Him.
The famous Talmudic passage in mesechet Eruvin (100b) which states that if the Torah had not been given, we would have learned modesty from cats, to abstain from theft from ants, etc. should be understood in light of our discussion hitherto. These examples would have been normative because Hakadosh Baruch Hu created cats and ants and instilled these virtuous traits within them. Nature is a source of morality because - and only because - Hakadosh Baruch Hu encoded elements of His moral code within nature.
Similarly, the great medieval Jewish philosophers - Rav Sa'adya Gaon and Rabeinu Bachya inter alia - who speak of "rational" commandments and concepts which our reason mandates should be understood in this vein. Reason is an instrument for discovering truth because - and only because - our reason is God-given and, when correctly applied, divinely directed.
In truth, this epistemological principle is highly intuitive. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the source of everything. How can one imagine anything - morality or otherwise - existing or operating independently?
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