Rules and a Social Contract

Mishpatim

Exodus 21:1 - 24:18

Précis: Having received, in the previous parasha, the Ten Commandments, Moses now reveals ordinances (“mishpatim”) needed to flesh out the legal system. The first group relates to the rights of slaves, followed by rules about murder, crimes against parents, personal injury law, offenses against property, and bailment. A list of moral offenses follows, including seduction, witchcraft, sexual perversion, polytheism, and oppression of the “widow, the orphan, and the stranger among you.” The parasha includes the command to observe a sabbatical year, the Shabbat, and then lists the requirements for the observance of the pilgrimage festivals (Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot). The command not to boil a kid in its mothers’ milk is included, and at the conclusion of the parasha, we find a ceremony where the People, represented by Moses and 70 elders, have an encounter with the Divine Presence and accept the laws and the Covenant.

Exodus 21:1 “Now these are the rules you shall set before them…”

One 9th grade student in a class I teach at a community midrasha asked a really important question: why is it that sometimes in Torah, lots of action takes place in only a few sentences (e.g., the beginning of the Book of Shemot, where within three short chapters the Jews are enslaved, Moses is born, kills the Egyptian guard, flees to the desert, and confronts the burning bush). On the other hand, we have the extended story of Joseph which goes on for parasha after parasha. I confessed that I did not have an answer for him, but I was proud of his insightful question.


Speaking of narrative, this week’s parasha provides a significant and stark literary style change, since we leave the narratives of Genesis and the first part of Exodus and focus on “law.” Narrative will hereafter be occasional. While Torah is much more than a “legal code,” law and its impact on society become the central focuses of subsequent Biblical (and then rabbinic) Judaism.

One key element of the Jewish concept of law in society is that justice is impartially administered: one law applies to everyone (including the "stranger in your midst"). A second theme is that justice needs to be tempered with compassion and mercy.

The lengthy list of commands in this parasha suggests that injustice results when society loses its balance, when the “social contract” that binds the society together is ignored, be it between employer and employee, debtor and lender, or between king and subject. We are to pay particular attention to the welfare of the weakest members of society: the widow and orphan or the stranger. As Ibn Ezra teaches, "The essential principle is that no one shall compel by violence one who is less powerful.”

POLITICAL SPOILER ALERT: In this election year of 2012, we have already witnessed a political debate focused on blame, attacks on personality, and the “gotcha” game of one-upping the opposition. Lies, exaggeration, and deception seem to have replaced much substantive debate. The GOP debates and President Obama's State of the Union portend a potential debate about the future of the American social contract. Will the 75 year old traditions of “liberalism” which have given us Social Security, Medicare, equal rights under the law regardless of age, race, or gender be replaced, and if so, by what?

I suggest that this week’s parasha gives us an important focus on how this upcoming debate should be measured. Will one law apply impartially to all, or will certain segments of society enjoy a favored status? How can we best maintain a just society, with compassion for even the least among us?

Like the student I mentioned at the outset, I don't know the answer, but at least I know the question.