Mishpatim
The name of this weeks Parshah translates as “ordinances” or “laws” or ” judgements”.
Have you switched off already!?
Yep so many of us do when we get to this weeks Parsha which deals with the nitty gritty details of life:
An ox or other animal gores and kills another person or another animal- what is the law? A paid custodian looking after an article claims it was stolen. Is he liable? It depends whether he was a paid or unpaid custodian. Reuven is fighting violently with Shimon (yes Jews fight too) and accidently strikes a pregnant women causing her to miscarry or even kills her. what is the law?
I borrow an article from a friend and look after it carefully and an unavoidable unforeseen accident occurs and the object is destroyed or broken. Am I liable?
My ox enters another persons field and eats the produce am I liable? and what if this occurred in the public domain?
All these questions are about real life which is complex. Every situation is unique. Life is about the details.
The Torah addresses all the above questions in general in the written Torah and in elaborate form in the Oral Torah (now the Talmud and ongoing commentaries). (Sorry not going to answer them in this article!)
People talk in general terms about being a good and moral person but what does that actually mean?
For example in UK law abortion is now legal until 24 weeks but a simple google of the image of a fetus at this stage of pregnancy would shock most people. We might like to be good people but this question of abortion requires a definitive answer. It is either the destruction of life/potential life or not?
The secular ethic is focussed around rights as opposed to the Jewish ethic of responsibilities which completely transforms the language and meaning of ethics itself.
An ethic of rights is “I” or “Me” focussed whereas an ethic based on responsibilities is “other” focussed.
It asks “What can I do to help you?”
Judaism could be summed up as :”Don’t ask what God can do for you. Ask what you can do for God”.
Mishpatim begins with the words “And these are the laws which you shall place before them”.
The Torah sometimes teaches us more profundity in one letter than a whole paragraph or Parsha. Rashi based in earlier Midrashim points out that the Parsha begins with the word “And” as it connects us back to last weeks Parsha “Yisro” when God revealed Himself at the giving of the Torah.
In other words we are being taught that these laws too were part of the giving of the Torah. God did not only reveal general principals to the world. God is not a remote distant “universal energy” disinterested in the universe he created or in human life and its conditions of vulnerability and fragility! God is infinite and unlimited. As much as God is in heaven above He is down here on earth too. And He expresses Himself through the moral and spiritual language of the Torah that directs and guides our behaviour in every given circumstance.
In this sense Halacha is not some man made ritual/moral code that is antiquated. On the contrary Jewish Law is an ongoing dialogue with God unravelling the spiritual and moral code of creation.
In the ongoing unfolding present the “person of halacha” must ask themselves “What does God want of me NOW?”
Nature is beautiful. It can even instil a person with a sense of awe in their creator. Awe-walks are all the rage right now but the concept was already written about hundreds of years ago where he describes how through meditating on the works f creation a person can be led to love and awe of the Creator.
BUT nature is silent on morality. It does not reveal to us what is the god life or why we are here and how best to live our lives. Yet if we listen carefully to what underlies our current zeitgeist at least as portrayed in our mainstream media and the political classes – it is scientism. This is the idea that science alone can render the truth about reality. This is a fallacy.
Rabbi Sacks OBM wrote that the “meaning of a system lies outside the system”. In other words we can study the universe in all its complexity. But the universe will always be silent on the question why?
The three questions every thinking person asks “Who am I, Why am I here and How shall I live?” can not be answered by scientists in lab coats.
We are so privileged to be heirs to a tradition that deals head on with the circumstances of life and guided by the principals bestowed upon us by Hashem Himself we have the tools to navigate the ups and downs of life. Of course there are some situations in Jewish life where Halacha has yet to find an adequate solution: the chained women and the Mamzer are two well known issues. These are difficult and sensitive issues beyond the scope of this article but suffice to say that the Jewish people since they received the torah at Mt Sinai have never stopped wrestling with God’s word so as to apply it to every new circumstance.
The ultimate purpose of creation according to the Torah is to bring God’s presence into everyday life. S Halacha has a very practical yet also very spiritual function.
An honest look at the post-modern western world today can only lead us to the conclusion that we are beset with confusion. 76 years post World war II and our society has become unmoored from religion and the Judao-Christian values that underpin our existence.
Is it any wonder that so many young people are suffering with confusion over their identities.
Secular culture sold us the lie that the supreme value is the licence to do and be what we want as long as it does not hurt others. A world that denies the existence of God cannot possibly properly nurture the soul that is so desperate for real connection and true intimacy and authenticity in relationships.
“And these are the laws” might sound like a boring Parshah but it is this weeks Parsha that underlies the very moral fabric of society. It teaches us that morality is NOT as preached today by the priests of university, media and ruling elite – a matter of taste or relative.
Morality is sourced in God Himself who is the engine of creation. When we break a moral law or spiritual law for that matter it is as real as “Newtons” apple falling from the tree. They are eternal consequences to all our actions.
It is time to get back to the moral foundations of western society that underpinned the enlightenment.
Only then can we hope for true liberty and freedom and not just licence and self worship.
Shabbat Shalom