What--More Commandments? Mishpatim.21

 What—More Commandments?

By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman

Shabbat Mishpatim 2021

Because obviously one can never have too much of a good thing, the Torah doesn’t stop with just Ten Commandments. (That is so LAST week!). In this week’s portion, Mishpatim (“Judgments,” Exodus 21:1—24:18) the Torah gives us 53 more commandments, 23 thou-shalt’s, 30 thou-shalt-not’s. 

Not all these commandments are applicable today. We no longer fear witches as people did in old days, and we don’t persecute them today as people used to. Thank God for that.

Some other commandments in this portion deal with slavery—not only how we are supposed to set our slaves free every seven years, but also how we are to treat them while they ARE in our possession. They are not to be seen as property—say, land; or animals. They are, after all, human beings, created with the image of God inside them. We do wonder, however, why a people who had so recently been freed from slavery didn’t just outlaw the terrible practice altogether! 

Still, some other of the commandments are important and valid today. What to do if you see a lost animal—even if you know it belongs to a person you seriously dislike. Obviously (or not so obviously to some!) you have to return the animal to its owner. Everyone—even animals—deserve to be in their own home.

With 53 Commandments in these short four chapters, we could spend days discussing them—which ones we can follow, which we can’t, and which need to be changed.

And that’s the whole point of the Torah. While some people interpret the commandments literally, what we are really supposed to do is to study them, understand the point the Torah is making, and then reach a decision about whether they are still valid today or perhaps need to be adapted—or altogether discarded.

But where would we be without this basis for civilization? Without rules we would have chaos; nothing would ever get done, because we would argue about what’s right and what’s wrong. Or else we would have some dictator making the decision—right or wrong—for us.

Democracy is all about discussion, all about give-and-take. It isn’t an easy or simple way to conduct our lives, but it does allow everyone to voice their own opinion, to contribute to the entire community and people by simply casting a vote.

Of course, nothing is perfect—and democracy has its problems too. Over the past few months we’ve been watching our own system of government come dangerously close to collapse. Yet another problematic situation can arise, one that has been termed “tyranny of the majority.” In a government system—democracy—where the majority rules, what happens to the minorities? Are their voices suppressed? Do we listen to the minorities? Do we pay attention to them?

And that too, we have been watching over the past few months. The rights of Blacks; of women; of non-binary gender identification.

The Torah teaches us to listen to everyone’s voice, because everyone matters. Yes, times have changed since the Torah first appeared in our civilization, 3000 years ago. But what hasn’t changed is that its laws still form the basis for our law system. We have changed many of its laws: slavery, thank God—at least in our own country—is now illegal. Some laws, however, such as capital punishment still await for a brave society or leader to amend or annul. 

One of the commandments I see as very important in this parasha is the one that says that we must not follow evil or wrong decrees; that we must not be party to injustice, no matter how many people around us participate in this evil. Just because “everybody” around us does something doesn’t necessarily make it right. It isn’t easy to stand up and say: “This is wrong.” It takes courage. It takes a hero to do that.

One such hero was President Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday we observed today. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation stands as a huge monument to freedom and liberty today, but when he proclaimed it, it was revolutionary. The Civil War was fought around the idea that ALL people—regardless of color, race, religion or gender—are equal. There were many who didn’t share President Lincoln’s belief, and he paid the ultimate price for it. And yet the changes that he effected are still around today. While we still see inequality and injustice, because of this amazing and important Proclamation we are much closer to the vision the Torah holds before us: of a free and just world, where people, animals, the land, air and water are treated with respect, with dignity, with wonder, with gratitude.

That’s what the Torah contributes to our lives. That’s why we still study it, still looking for the truth behind its many ancient and perhaps primitive laws. It still holds a beacon of light and hope for all humanity, no less today than it did 3000 years ago. It still gives us hope and courage to be God’s partners, to make the world a better place for all its inhabitants.

© 2021 by Boaz D. Heilman