Mishpatim
Exodus 21:1 - 24:18
Précis: Having received the Ten Commandments (in the previous parasha), Moses now reveals ordinances (mishpatim) needed to provide details for a more comprehensive system of laws. The first group of commandments (mitzvot) relate to the rights of servants (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 also 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 (a key proof text for the laws of kashrut) is mentioned, 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 24:12 “God said to Moses, ‘Come up to Me on the mountain and be there.’”
Moses ascends Mount Sinai. It is clear that by climbing the mountain that he would “be there” so why do we read this seemingly unnecessary phrase in our text?
Perhaps the phrase points to an emotional state and not to a geographical location. This brought to my mind the 1979 film “Being There” starring Peter Sellers as Chance, an apparently simple-minded gardener living in Washington D.C. whose understanding of the world comes solely from watching television. He becomes famous, his simplicity (stated in terms of his garden-based knowledge) mistaken for wisdom. Chance is detached, calm, and secure in his own knowledge, unaware of his limitations. The film’s meaning can be debated, but my own interpretation is that its satiric thrust is intended to underscore that one must be actually self-aware to possess a real understanding of the world in which we live. We have to “be there” with our feet firmly planted in the real world to understand our place and purpose.
This concept has its Jewish parallel in the idea of kavanah (intentionality). Moses is thus directed to be present, and to “be there” with his whole heart and mind. This description of Moses is one to which we can all aspire as we engage in ritual, in prayer, and indeed in our places of work.
