The essentials of Torah are
(1) Monotheism. God made the world from nothing. And He is one simple being, not a composite. Nor does He have any substance or form. The world is not God, nor is the world godliness.
God did not make the world out of Himself. He made it from nothing. Since this is an essential aspect and belief of Torah it is no wonder the Gra signed the letter of excommunication against people that denied these basic beliefs and yet made a whole show an dance about how Jewish they were.
(2) Midot Tovot =good traits.
(3) Belief that the Torah in divinely inspired.
[The middle point is this: that nothing matters until one has good traits. The good traits are what makes one a mensch [decent human being]. So without good traits, doing any commandments is not all that different from a dog keeping Shabat. This is explained in detail in the Guide of the Rambam and I have mentioned this before.
In short, the Rambam explains the commandments of reason חוקים שכליים were revealed to Abraham the Patriarch was the for there to be the giving of the Torah to Moses, there first needed to be the level of commandments of reason. Otherwise the commandments of Torah would be indistinguishable from superstitions. The Reshash {Rav Shalom Sharabi} makes a similar point in his Nahar Shalom that the soul of a person is his character traits and the commandments are to food and clothing of the soul. So without good traits, one lacks the very soul which makes the commandments of Torah significant.
[This issue came up on Shabat when I was asked what my opinion about what are the essential aspects of Torah.]
(1) Monotheism. God made the world from nothing. And He is one simple being, not a composite. Nor does He have any substance or form. The world is not God, nor is the world godliness.
God did not make the world out of Himself. He made it from nothing. Since this is an essential aspect and belief of Torah it is no wonder the Gra signed the letter of excommunication against people that denied these basic beliefs and yet made a whole show an dance about how Jewish they were.
(2) Midot Tovot =good traits.
(3) Belief that the Torah in divinely inspired.
[The middle point is this: that nothing matters until one has good traits. The good traits are what makes one a mensch [decent human being]. So without good traits, doing any commandments is not all that different from a dog keeping Shabat. This is explained in detail in the Guide of the Rambam and I have mentioned this before.
In short, the Rambam explains the commandments of reason חוקים שכליים were revealed to Abraham the Patriarch was the for there to be the giving of the Torah to Moses, there first needed to be the level of commandments of reason. Otherwise the commandments of Torah would be indistinguishable from superstitions. The Reshash {Rav Shalom Sharabi} makes a similar point in his Nahar Shalom that the soul of a person is his character traits and the commandments are to food and clothing of the soul. So without good traits, one lacks the very soul which makes the commandments of Torah significant.
[This issue came up on Shabat when I was asked what my opinion about what are the essential aspects of Torah.]
