Mishpatim 5777 - English

By Rabbi Dario Feiguin

B´nei Israel Congregation, Costa Rica

“Chukim uMishpatim”

The Rabbinic tradition makes a distinction between two types of laws: the Chukim and the Mishpatim.  

The Chukim are laws whose rationality is incomprehensible for human beings.  Laws like “the red heifer” or “the beheaded calf” are considered “Chok” and the Jew must apply them, period. Apparently, early in the development of Israel as a People, it was necessary to say “just because”, thereby reinforcing through the Chukim the monotheistic notion from which the ethical-religious system was constructed. 

I do not want to make a case for the Chukim.  In fact, the Chazal themselves took care of transforming and modifying this type of decrees.  They began by delimiting and restricting their field of action.  And they ended up by changing them or finding a logical reason after their creation that gave new meaning to the law.  

Along with the Chukim, the Torah is full of Mishpatim.  And that is the name of our Parashah: Mishpatim.  These are the laws for which we know their raison d’être. 

Hundreds of laws, some of them applicable only to specific cases, are weaved together into what is known as Hebrew law.  A case-based system, it manages to develop the concepts and essential values of monotheism. And perhaps most importantly: they add to this monotheistic notion an ethical content, inseparable and just as important as the very existence of God. 

Theologically speaking, it does not change faith very much whether it is one God or many.  But if it is changed from the ethical foundation: it there is one father, we are all equal as brothers before Him.  We were all created as Adam harishon, in his image and likeness, and God cares about all of us. 

All human beings have the same red liquid flowing through our veins.  All human beings!  Whites and Blacks, Jews, Christians, Muslims and Buddhists, slim and large, women, men, gays, lesbians and trans.  We all must eat and go to the bathroom.  And we are all fragile and wobbly in the face of disease, love and happiness.  None of us will live eternally or will take to the grave any possessions, not even the desire of what is missing. 

The Mishpatim, especially those that build ethical Judaism, hold these basic ideas that our people knew how to quietly pass on to human civilization. 

And just so, case by case, in a typical Jewish disorder, the frame we know as Halacha was constructed. 

Another clarification: It is false to believe that the Halacha is only the dry law of Judaism.  The truth is that these laws hold a particular spirit in their foundations.  And though laws are modified and even annulled when new ones are generated, in the development of Jewish thought there was always an attempt to take care and preserve the spirit of the law.  Sometimes successfully, and other times, not so much.  But law is important.  Not only was it crucial in that infancy in the desert.  I believe it is still important as the structure that allows for growth, and not only does it not limit but it even promotes creativity. 

And something else.  It was sometimes said that Judaism was the religion of law, and then came Christianity and transformed it into the religion of love.   More than intellectual short-sightedness, this claim shows spiritual blindness.  Every Mitzvah, every Chok and Mishpat is a product of the love of God.  Or are we to believe in a sadist God that enjoys the suffering of his creatures?  And each law from the Torah is not there to strangle our self, our reason and our free will.  On the contrary!  It comes to help us live with a purpose, and to give us a guiding hand in our search for meaning.

I believe that if we had the discipline to fulfill them, the sensitivity to understand their spirit, and the joy of bringing them into practice, these Mishpatim would make life on this world a little bit better.

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Darío Feiguin

B’nei Israel Congregation, Costa Rica