How to Apply the Ten Commandments.
This is a special Shabbat…Shabbat Shekalim, when, according to the Torah, we were to bring our offerings to build the Mishkan, to the Creator. Next week’s Parashat Terumah will speak about how we are to bring our offerings to God–willingly and joyfully. It is sad that some people find it so difficult to give; they are so attached to their belongings that they are not free and suffer for it. This week’s parashah, Mishpatim, begins with slavery, and we may ask why. The First Commandment states, “I am YHVH your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of slavery.” One of the most precious gifts our Creator gives us is Bechirah Chofshit, Free Will. No other species in His creation has this ability. The use or abuse of this gift is what forms us, and Free will, in turn, teaches us “responsibility”. It is easy to blame others for what happens to us, but things change when we take responsibility for our choices.
Religious people and politicians are very similar. They promise to improve our lives and entice us with handouts in order to vote for them, but once they are in power, all they do is use people to make their own lives better. There are others who won’t make a move without consulting their gurus, but the bottom line is that the Creator has placed the responsibility for making good decisions in our own hands. It is important to ask people for advice, but do not follow blindly. GOD doesn’t ask us to have blind faith!
This parashah begins with: “V’eleh ha mishpatim, וְאֵלֶּה, הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים these are the judgments…” or regulations given to us by our Creator so that we can learn how to apply His Ten Commandments. They are the basis of the constitution, meant not only for Israel but for the entire world. They contain everything about right and wrong. If we ever have a question or doubt about what to do, turn to these ten, and they will light the way for us to make the right choice.
Mishpatim opens with the Hebrew servant (עֶבֶד). This word is very different from how we understand the term “slave” today. Our sages tell us that if we had a slave, he would become our master since we were responsible to take better care of him than even ourselves. Before we could eat, or dress, or rest, the servant needed to be provided with all these things, even to keep the Shabbat.
The man who sold himself as a servant to a master was generally because of debt. If he came alone, he could leave alone after seven years. If he brought his wife and children with him, they could leave together; but if he came as a single man and his master gave him a woman with whom he had children, his wife and children remained with the master. He could choose to remain a servant “forever” because he loved his wife and children. “Forever” here means only until the next Jubilee year (50 years), which could be quite a while for someone. There is a principle depicted in this story. The Creator is showing us that it is unfortunate that when He has freed us, we choose the security of remaining slaves, where someone else takes care of us, instead of trusting in God to see what true freedom can bring.
There are many forms of liberalism, progressivism, and socialism, and they all sound beautiful. They supposedly seem to care about others, whereas they insist that capitalists don’t. But what does the Torah teach us? It’s neither about capitalism nor socialism; it’s about being responsible. If we have a business, we provide work for others. The Torah teaches us not to abuse our workers, because they are the ones who produce and provide us with wealth. We need to share some of that wealth with them. In socialist and communist societies, the state takes everything from the people and decides to whom it gives and to whom it doesn’t. To tell you the truth, when I was young, I was a strong socialist. It’s easy because I came from a wealthy family. The idea was that it was like being in Utopia, but I learned very early in life that we can be very idealistic. The problem is that socialism can never work, because we’re humans and we’re selfish.
The Creator knows that about us, which is why He allows us to be responsible for what we do. We can’t force people to become righteous, but we can teach our children certain rules at home. However, it soon becomes obvious from an early age that there’s a little bit of rebellion in most of us, and as soon as we turn our back, they do exactly what you tell them not to do. That’s in our nature. Don’t you think the Creator knows who we are, so when we read Mishpatim, let’s read it with this as our base: “I am responsible for my neighbour; I am obligated to do certain things for my neighbour; I need to look out for my neighbour, not just myself.”
For example, if I’m working on my house and dig a hole, and an animal or (today) a car falls into it, who is responsible? You know it’s interesting… that happened to me while I was driving home one late night in winter. I couldn’t see anything, and my car fell into a huge hole. My left tire blew, and it nearly destroyed my car. The city already knew about this hole; we had reported it to them, but they didn’t even put up a warning sign. The person at the City Hall could have been responsible for my car, but they just said, “OK, good luck.” That’s the answer they gave me: “Good luck,” and they refused to take responsibility despite the high taxes we pay. That’s the socialist system – they take whatever they can and give back as little as they can. However, that is not what the Torah teaches: everyone is responsible according to their means.
In the days of Moses, tradition, information and news were passed down by word of mouth. They couldn’t write it in books, so they used a system called mnemonics to memorize its principles and pass them to the next generation. For example, in Ex.20:15-17 it says, “And if a man entices a virgin who is not engaged, and lies with her, he shall surely pay a dowry for her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of a virgin. You shall not allow a sorceress to live.” What does this last sentence have to do with the first two? It is important to think about the context of that day. In pagan cultures, a sorceress had to be a virgin to retain her psychic powers. The use of mnemonics helped the Israelites remember the subject matter; in this case, it would be to protect the rights of a virgin.
Ex. 23:19 is another example of this: “You will bring the best of the first-fruits of your land into the house of YHVH your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.” Again, what does boiling a kid in its mother’s milk have to do with the first fruits of the land? Our sages have applied this to the laws of kashrut, which state that we can’t eat milk and meat together, but I do not agree with them. It had to do with superstition and idolatry, from which the Creator was weaning the people and slowly replacing them with His principles.
To put this into perspective, the Canaanites worshipped many gods, including Astarte, the goddess of fertility. Archaeologists in Israel have discovered small statues of a woman with many breasts. A Canaanite ritual involved boiling a kid (baby goat) in its mother’s milk. It was believed that if a barren woman ate this kid, she could conceive. The bringing of the first fruits, i.e. the firstborn male, human or animal, was related to bringing the best of the first fruits of the land. (Again, mnemonics.) The Bore Olam was showing the Israelites that He is the Giver of life, not the goddess of fertility.
We can see how the Torah teaches us principles that are sometimes lost in translation. There are 53 mishpatim in this parashah, and I challenge each of you to read them and identify which of the Ten Commandments they relate to.
Next in Exodus 23:20, we read “הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי שֹׁלֵחַ מַלְאָךְ hine anochi shole’ach malach Behold I am sending an angel” … which has been interpreted to neatly fit into theology, but let’s examine what it really says. Malach means angel, but it also means messenger or emissary. If we continue and read to the end of chapter 23, putting it in context, we see that the Creator is sending (present tense) his messenger – Moses, to deliver the people from Egypt. Most, however, prefer to apply spiritual “hocus pocus” to the Torah because they love to live in the clouds. The Torah, in contrast, brings us down to earth, to deal with real things here and now. It does not teach a theology of escapism…“Oh, the Messiah is coming, I’ll just sit and wait for him to fix everything.” It’s important that we live in the present and let God deal with the future.
Exodus 23:1 tells us: “lo tisha shema shav : לֹא תִשָּׂא, שֵׁמַע שָׁוְא You shall not make a false report”. Compare it with the third commandment in Ex. 20:7” lo tisha et Shem YHVH Eloheicha lashav אֱלֹהֶיךָ לַשָּׁוְא ,לֹא תִשָּׂא אֶת-שֵׁם-יְהוָה Do not take the name of YHVH in vain.” It amplifies the Third Commandment,which refers to the Creator, while the first applies to how we treat each other. Hebrew is a wonderfully descriptive language, but sadly, much is lost in translation.
I also challenge you to examine which of the judgments relate to the decisions we have to make in our daily lives. It is obvious that we cannot apply every judgment from that era, but if, for example, we substitute the ox for a dog or a donkey for a car, they make perfect sense. We may not find a neighbour’s ox in a ditch, but if we see someone stranded on a highway in need of help, we can stop and help them. If we cannot do anything for them, we can wait until the tow truck arrives, if necessary. This applies even to someone we don’t like. Another example is that if we own a swimming pool, we are responsible for building a fence to prevent a neighbour’s child from wandering into our backyard and drowning in our pool.
The mishpatim, judgments, reiterate our responsibility toward our neighbour and community. They teach us to protect and treat animals humanely, to protect the widow, the orphan and the stranger among us – the most vulnerable among us. The Torah doesn’t ask us to give them all our money, but it reminds us of our responsibility to help them become self-sufficient. That is how the Jewish community has always functioned, basing its behaviour on the Torah.
Our community, Kehilat She’ar Yashuv, is not a social club. We intercede in prayer for each other but also provide help where we can. We are responsible for each other and for the upkeep of our congregation. This is not a selfish mentality but a caring one. The most precious gift given to us by the Bore Olam is our Free Will. When we abuse it, we have no one to blame but ourselves for the consequences. When we use it wisely, it defines us and allows us to be a light to others, but it always entails “responsibility”.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Netanel ben Yochanan Z” l (Ranebi)