Parashat Mishpatim

Erev Shabbat, 16 February 2007
Week of 11 to 17 February
Torah portion: Ex. 21:1-24:18
Haftarah: Jer. 34:8-22; 33:25-26
Sunday Readings, February 18: I Sam. 26:2-25; I Cor. 15:45-50; Lk. 6:27-38

The Seminary Setting: “Why do you give us these rules?” asked one of the seminarians. I replied, “Actually, they aren’t my rules. You are not responsible to me. You will need to see why the rules are important for you and decide if you will respond to them.” As a formator in a seminary in the Philippines, one of my roles is to bring students to the freedom to be able to choose God’s call for them. To achieve that fullness, each student needs to follow rules, and herein lies a possible problem. The rules need to lead to a freedom for the acceptance of the love of God. However, as we often experience, students can observe rules to please the formator, or because they think this will earn their way to salvation, or because they think that in following rules many of their problems will go away. Often their unarticulated hope is: “If I follow the rules, I will become a priest one day,” a hope that is quite often unrealized. Why, then, do rules exist?

The Sinai Setting: The Torah portion for this week is Parashat Mishpatim. The Hebrew word mishpatim means rules, ordinances. The root of the word means to judge, thus giving it a distinctly legal connotation. In the later interpretation, the term covered all Torah laws except those that could not be comprehended by human reason and were to be obeyed simply because God had ordained them. For example: “You shall not wear clothes made of wool and linen woven together” (Deut. 22:11). Why not? Because the Lord has commanded it. End of story!

Our parashah begins with a conversation between YHWH and Moshe: These are the rules that you shall set before them. It was now the third month after the Israelites had left their bondage in Egypt. Moses alone is summoned to the summit of the mountain by the Lord. You have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Moses reported the conversation to the people assembled at the foot of the mountain. They proclaimed, We will do everything the LORD has said, and this they shouted even before the LORD had commanded anything of them! We will do and we will hear! We will act immediately, Moses, and you can explain everything to us later on! This is the ‘blank check’ that the enthusiast often signs with full heart and intention and vigor.

So the LORD began the Divine instruction with the Ten Words, the ten commandments: I am the LORD your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. So, let there be no idol worship, no improper use of My Name; honor the Sabbath and your parents and your neighbor’s right to privacy and ownership. And the people responded, Yes! We will do everything the LORD has said. (Honeymoon talk, and it won’t last long, as we shall find out in the castigation by the prophet in the haftarah.)

The Divine instruction continued, a program for community life that would fashion a kingdom of priests and a holy nation from a tribe enslaved for centuries. The narrative continues; there follows a list of the mitzvot (commandments) that the Israelites must embrace, ordinances relating to slavery, murder, judging, cursing, damaging, the poor, and the observance of the Shabbat, the sabbatical year and the festivals. The Divine-human discourse ends on Mt. Sinai with the anthem ringing out across the desert landscape: All the things that the Lord has commanded, we will do (Ex. 24:3.) It is hardly three months into a mammoth wandering, the challenges of which that they do not yet suspect, but in their boastfulness and enthusiasm they are ready to proceed, whatever the cost!

Why Mishpatim? YHWH wanted to establish a relationship with His people clearly and firmly, with love and purposefulness, as does any wise parent, using a reasonable disciplinary code, and with realistic expectations of the child. The LORD did this in the form of rules. Many of the mishpatim are quite detailed and might even be seen as a code of behavior that is distant, stoic, without due appreciation of the human condition. However, YHWH ordained these rules to allow the chosen people a sure way to know their God and to make clear to the people his loving concern for them.

As they fulfilled the mitzvot, they would be reminded constantly of who was their Liberator, their Leader, and their Lover. Yes, some difficulties would arise on the journey, but the mishpatim would be the constant reminder of the One who bore them up on eagles’ wings. And whether seen by all the people as reasonable discipline or not, towards the end of this parashah, when YHWH is calling again to Moshe, it is made amply manifest that YHWH is an intimate, immanent God who wants to relate with love and compassion, and therefore gives clear and distinct rules ordaining how these are to be carried out.

The motivations for observing the mishpatim can be many:

(a) To improve our relationship with God through imitatio Dei, through our own efforts towards compassion, loving-kindness, and peace in the world.
(b) To fulfill the expectation of the LORD, the great gardener, whose creation is a wondrous orchard, and who instructs us to tend the garden so that it will thrive and bear fruit.
(c) To participate in the divine mystery, that the world is created anew each day, and that
by our actions we will be united with the Shechinah, the immanent and feminine reality of the Divine Presence in creation.
(d) To protect, ennoble, discipline, and inspire ourselves along the journey.

The Haftarah: But the human reality is that fidelity to the mitzvot and observance of the mishpatim is not a constant. In Jeremiah 34, we see how YHWH’s people turned back and profaned the covenant. They saw the rules as a burden and lost the focus of their destiny. When they withdrew from the covenant, the people lost their freedom and were forced into slavery again. One would think that YHWH’s reaction would be to punish them severely and to show no mercy. They were punished, yes, but YHWH was eager for their reconciliation and to show them His mercy.

The Gospel Reading: In the Gospel reading for this week, we also see Jesus giving clear instructions on how to follow Him. God’s rules are very distinct, clear and detailed. As the Gospel develops, what emerges is the clear evidence of God’s compassion for us. Our God is very merciful to sinners and those who hope for His love. We are called and challenged to love our enemies and not just those who love us. He loves us with a deep, intimate love. We are challenged to do the same. In the final verse of this chapter, Jesus refers to the love of the Father, which is the same love that YHWH wanted Moshe and the Israelites to understand in our parashah.

For Reflection and Discussion: [1] Do you find the rules that are part of your life freeing or oppressive? [2] Do you need rules to experience the love of God? [3] What rules are important in your life and help you to encounter God? [4] How can you help family and friends create rules which enable them to become freer to understand God?

Bibliography: Fox, The Five Books of Moses (New York, 1997); Plaut, The Torah: A Modern Commentary (New York, 1981).

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This week’s teaching commentary was prepared by
Fr. Gavin A. Foster, S.M., M.A.; Davao, Philippines. Bat Kol alumnus 2004