Overview:

In this week's parashah, Mishpatim, Exodus 23: 10-17 that Gina just read and translated, is a continuation of God revealing to Moses, “These are the rules that you shall set before them.” These rules or laws are a lengthly list, which encompass a diverse range of topics dealing with civil and criminal laws, agriculture, and sacrifice. There are also mitzvot dealing with the observance of the Sabbath, the Sabbatical year and the festivals of Pesach, Shavout, and Sukot and fasting on Yom Kippur.

Focal Points:

While this portion is entitled Mishpateem, Judgments or Civil Laws, it contains mitzvot that pertain to almost every aspect of Jewish life, both the secular and sacred. Gina has just read and translated, from Torah verses that I have personally struggled with in my understanding of early Jewish Law; that is Laws that define the Civil, Secular and Sacred and the relevance of these laws in our modern times. First let us define what these two distinct groups of laws are. According to Rashi's commentary on Leviticus 18:4, these mitzvot fall into two categories: mishpateem and chukeem.

• Mishpateem are defined as those laws that, in the absence of Torah, we, more than likely, would have established. They include laws that pertain to our sense of ethics, morality, and social justice. The mishpateem make rational sense and govern mostly the secular world. As Gina read and translated: 10) Six years you shall sow your land and gather its yield: 11) but in the seventh you shall let it rest and lie fallow. Let the needy among your people eat of it and what they leave let the wild beast eat.
• Chukeem, are those laws that in the absence of the Torah, we, more than likely, would not have established on our own. Examples of the chukeem are festival observances, kashrut, and b'rit milah. These laws pertain mostly to ritual observance, and while there are many varied opinions on why the Torah contains such laws they are in the Torah simply because they are what God has commanded. As Gina read and translated, 14). Three times a year you shall hold a festival for Me: 15) You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread 16). And the Feast of the Harvest 17). Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Sovereign, the Lord.

Lesson:

In today's modern world we generally act according to our understanding of what is right and what is wrong. In our daily interactions with others and in business our behavior reflects our ethics and our sense of fairness. Ideally, following the mishpateem, the laws that pertain to the order of our society, should happen almost instinctively in accordance with our own individual moral compasses.

However, in today's modern world following the chukeem, for the Reform Jew, doesn't happen instinctively. These laws challenge our intellect and our rational minds. Since they don't deal with our daily interactions with others, we perform them for other reasons: some of us follow chukeem because we feel we are commanded by God to do so; others because of their commitment to our Jewish tradition and heritage; and others observe chukeem to raise their spiritual awareness.

Living in today's challenging modern world requires that we exhibit moral and ethical behavior and adhear to certain rules and laws. The mishpateem represent the highest ideals of all humanity, and we practice them because it is the right thing to do in our every day lives. As Jews because of our unique relationship with God, we have been given the chukeem which is our own unique way of relating to God. The chukeem present the highest ideals of Judaism.. We strive to practice them because by doing so we can enrich our spiritual lives that lead us to a higher sense of God.

We modern Reform Jews have recently begun to make strides to explore our sense of ritual and the spiritual aspects of our heritage. As we acquire more knowledge from our exploration of Torah, may we fulfill the ultimate goal of Judaism, which is to “perform the Mishpateem, the laws governing our everyday lives, with the same level of awareness and understanding that we use when we approach the chukeem, the rituals that lead us to a more spiritual experience of God”.

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