Au commencement était la pratique

Abstract

One of the main characteristics of rabbinic ethics is that it does not presuppose that a perfect knowledge of the truth is necessary to the practice of good. In this it differs from other ethical discourses, Christian or philosophical, of the Greco-Roman world. By studying this particularity of the rabbinical ethics, the present article tries to answer the following question: If knowledge of the “truth” does not lead to the practice of the “good”, how does rabbinic discourse articulates a motivation of the application of the law on an individual level?