Beth Shalom
Oceanside Jewish Center

Lessons for a Just Society

Parshat Mishpatim
February 1, 2003  -  29 Shevat 5763

(This sermon was to be delivered during Shabbat Mishpatim but due to the late hour and Children's participation in Hebrew School Shabbat was not given. Instead, the Rabbi wanted to share this with you on-line)

In preparing a sermon each Shabbat, a Rabbi carefully reads the weekly Parshah. One never knows where the message will emerge or where it's hiding. Sometimes the lesson is based on the entire Parshah, sometime on a chapter, sometimes on a verse, and sometimes on one little word. The message I'd like to share with you this morning comes from a single letter - the very first letter in Parshat Mishpatim.

Today's Torah portion opens: "V'eleh Ha-Mishpatim." "And these are the rules." Having read the story of the Exodus, the dramatic tale of Keriyat Yam Suf, the splitting of the Red Sea, and Matan Torah, the revelation at Mt. Sinai, the Torah now switches gears from narrative to legal material. In just a few chapters we're presented with no less than fifty different Mitzvot which touch on every aspect of life. Here we find rules of civil engagement (What happens if you own a goring ox or I dig a hole in on Oceanside Road?), business (Are there rules for borrowing money and hiring workers?), criminal injunctions (What's the difference between murder and manslaughter, and how does the Torah view abortion?), and family life (Did you know that cursing your parents is punishable by death?). Judaism isn't just about diet, prayer or holidays. There's no aspect of life which the Torah doesn't seek to regulate especially when it comes to interpersonal relations.

What's significant about the commandments in Parshat Mishpatim is how they begin. "V'eleh Ha-Mishpatim" "And these are the rules…" The very first letter of the first word is "Vav," the prefix 'And.' While Parshat Mishpatim is a law code and a unit unto itself, it begins by connecting what we're about to learn with what the Torah has just described. The medieval commentator, Rashi, tells us that the laws of Mishpatim are to be understood as a continuation of the Ten Commandments. "Just as the Ten Commandments were given at Sinai, so these rules were given at Sinai."

At first glance this doesn't seem to make much sense. Usually "Mishpatim" are judicial rules, decisions made by judges in a court of law. Many of the commandments in this Parshah are formulated, "If X Y Z happens, then this is what you should do…"
This is very different from the "thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots" of the Ten Commandments. One can almost hear two plaintiffs coming to a court, or maybe to Mosheh Rabbaynu, and saying, "We have a problem. This is what happened." And then the court official or Moses would tell the people, "OK - the rule in such a situation is…" It would be easy to write off the laws in Mishpatim as simple day to day decisions from "The People's Court." But the 'Vav' tells us that they are much more.

The opening Vav tells us to note the importance of the rules and regulations in Parshat Mishpatim. Interestingly, most of these commandments deal with our relationships with our neighbor and not our association with God. While there are a few exceptions, these rules talk about the ethics of everyday life and the rules for creating an equitable and just society. From the perspective of the Torah, how I treat you is just as important as how I relate to God…

…and maybe even more important. After all, God is all powerful. God can deal with disappointment. But our neighbor is more vulnerable and frail. How I treat him can be devastating and scar him for life. So God says, "If you want to live by my covenant then pay attention to how you treat each other. I can overlook what you do to me but I can't overlook what you do to your neighbor."

The "Vav" in V'eleh Ha-Mishpatim may very well be the most important letter in the Torah. It presents us with some basic lessons for creating a just society.

First, it teaches us that God is in the details. It's easy to say that we believe in the Ten Commandments without considering what that means for the day to day details of our lives. You can't say you're a humanitarian in general but you just hate the people around you. And you can't say you believe in the Ten Commandments in general but are not prepared to apply them to the particulars of your daily life.
The Vav in V'eleh reminds us that a true commitment to the Ten Commandments demands that we take a look at the fine points of how we live each and every day. How do you treat the people at work or in school? What have you done for the weak and the needy around you? Are you attentive to your family and respectful of your parents? When was the last time you went out of your way to return lost property or you helped someone you really didn't like? That's what the "Vav" tells us to do.

Second, the "Vav" in V'eleh teaches us that it's actions and not words that count. The real measure of our character is not whether we can talk the talk but whether we know how to walk the walk. Small everyday actions add up to define who we are and how much integrity we have. It's easy to say that we believe in the Ten Commandments. It's much harder to come home at the end of the day and say we acted with integrity and compassion according to them.

Finally the Vav in V'eleh teaches us that laws and rules should exist not to entitle the powerful but to protect the weak. We Americans seem to have forgotten this. Our president and governor seem to think that we are helping the poor by seeing to it that we have provided large tax cuts to the rich. And that by lowering the deficit on the backs of the needy, the sick and the elderly, we will improve the economy of our country for everyone. It's no accident that the Torah warns us no less than thirty six times to protect the stranger. Rules and laws are there for those who need them.

V'eleh - And these… Parshat Mishpatim challenges us to think about what it means to be a truly religious person. In the words of one Chasidic Rebbe, it is to use both our eyes to see the faults within ourselves and the goodness in others and not the other way around. It is too easy to blame the victim, to excuse the weak, to ignore the unpleasant. This Parshah challenges us to recognize that a godly society must be built on justice. And justice is best expressed in judgments, in the way we protect those in need of our protection and our concerns.

So I ask you, what are we doing as a congregation to become a community dedicated to Mishpatim, to true justice? We need to reach out, to care for others, to recognize our responsibility not only to ourselves but to all people in need. And we need to remember that in the final analysis is that what God cares must about is how we treat each other. If we can do that then maybe the Ten Commandments will become not just a platform to hang on the wall but a true way of life!

Shabbat Shalom