QUESTION: Isn’t it good enough just to be a good person? Why must we follow the Torah?
ANSWER: And the answer is--Why must you keep traffic laws? Isn’t it good enough to be a good person? How many good people go through red lights? How many good people have killed innocent persons by driving drunk?
Good intentions are not enough to be a good person. A man must be bound by a code. And if he is choosing a code, he might as well take the very best code there is. There is no such thing as a good person without Torah.
A good person can be a mercy killer, he kills his old mother because he cannot see her suffer. A good person can be a selfish man, who thinks he is doing good, when in reality he is only helping himself, because he is blinded by his own desires.
We have to know that nobody is able to live with standards that he himself creates.
...whatever people consider as standards in one generation can change in another generation. It’s only those who live by the eternal standard of Torah, who remain good forever and ever.
"A Moment with Rabbi Avigdor Miller, Z’ tl
