Dear TBZ Community,
This week we read parsahat Mishpatim, a Torah portion with one of the most concrete and direct messages about how to shape a just and equitable society. Sefer HaChinuch (“Book of Education”) lists 53 commandments, 23 positives and 30 negatives, in this parasha (portion); most are mitzvot bein adam lechavero (commandments between a person and another person). We learn about building a functional society that is fair and just, as well as a system of accountability. Examples include: not to afflict any orphan or widow (Exodus 22:21); to lend to the poor and destitute (Exodus 22:24); not to press someone for payment if you know they don’t have it (Exodus 22:27); judges must not accept testimony unless both parties are present (Exodus 23:1); and judges must not accept bribes (Exodus 23:8).
So much of our text and tradition focuses on laws for building a fair society, one that limits power and fosters equality and justice for all. Recognizing that human beings tend to forget that power can make us blind to the needs of our neighbor, everything is outlined clearly, reminding us to do what is right. It feels especially powerful to focus on this message of Torah as we witness what is happening in Israel today: the current government pressing ahead with plans to limit judicial influence, and Israelis going out to the streets to fight for democracy. Building a functional system that is fair and just with built-in accountability safeguards is what the Torah teaches – and it is being undermined right now by Israel’s government.
What makes this even more powerful is that we are still in the setting of last week’s parasha, at Mount Sinai where we received the Ten Commandments, where the people of Israel experienced God’s revelation with fire and clouds and silence. It is only after this long list of apparently mundane laws are received in this week’s parasha that we conclude the Sinai experience. We read at the end of parshat Mishpatim:
וַיַּעַל מֹשֶׁה אֶל־הָהָר וַיְכַס הֶעָנָן אֶת־הָהָר. וַיִּשְׁכֹּן כְּבוֹד־יְהֹוָה עַל־הַר סִינַי וַיְכַסֵּהוּ הֶעָנָן שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים וַיִּקְרָא אֶל־מֹשֶׁה בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי מִתּוֹךְ הֶעָנָן. וּמַרְאֵה כְּבוֹד יְהֹוָה כְּאֵשׁ אֹכֶלֶת בְּרֹאשׁ הָהָר לְעֵינֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל. וַיָּבֹא מֹשֶׁה בְּתוֹךְ הֶעָנָן וַיַּעַל אֶל־הָהָר וַיְהִי מֹשֶׁה בָּהָר אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם וְאַרְבָּעִים לָיְלָה.
When Moses had ascended the mountain, the cloud covered the mountain. The Presence of the LORD abode on Mount Sinai, and the cloud hid it for six days. On the seventh day God called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. Now the Presence of the LORD appeared in the sight of the Israelites as a consuming fire on the top of the mountain. Moses went inside the cloud and ascended the mountain; and Moses remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights (Exodus 24:15-18).
Parshat Mishpatim is an intrinsic part of the Sinai revelation of God to God’s people.
Many of the laws that we read this week are further learned, discussed, and explained in the Seder (Order) of Nezikin (Damages) in the Mishnah and Talmud. Nezikin deals largely with Jewish criminal and civil law and the Jewish court system.
In Bava Kamma (one of the tractates of Nezikin), Rabbi Yehudah asks what makes a person a pious one (chasid):
אמר רב יהודה האי מאן דבעי למהוי חסידא לקיים מילי דנזיקין
Rav Yehuda says: One who wants to be pious should observe the matters of Nezikin (Bava Kamma 30a)
A chasid, a pious person (which is different from how we use the word today, speaking about a specific group of people in the Jewish community) explains Rav Yehuda, is someone who observes and learns and pays attention to the teachings of Nezikin, of our tradition’s teachings about how we deal with the ways we act in the world in the most concrete and tangible situations. What do we do when we unintentionally or intentionally damage the property or the animal of our neighbor? What if we break something that doesn’t belong to us? What does Torah have to say when we don’t pay wages on time, or when we take advantage of the most needy in our society? What kind of systems (mundane systems) must we have in place in order to build a society which is functional, fair, and just? A pious person, or perhaps in the language I would use, a religious or a spiritual person, is one that concerns themselves with the mundane and who recognizes that the sacred and the mundane do not exist in different realms. Our tradition calls on us to build a just society, a fair society, one that sees the dignity of all human beings and does not put power over people.
This Shabbat is also Shabbat Shekalim, the first of four special shabbatot (sabbaths) prior to Passover. Two of these shabbatot occur in the weeks leading up to Purim and two in the weeks then leading up to Passover. On Shabbat Shekalim (“Shabbat of shekels” שבת שקלים), we read a special maftir from Exodus 30:11-16. In it we read about the requests from each adult male Israelite to contribute half of a shekel for the upkeep of the tabernacle, the mishkan (משכן).
One understanding of why each person contributes half a shekel (not more or less), is because you need someone else to contribute the other half to make a whole. To build the tabernacle you need a partnership, you need others to create something complete. It is also understood that everyone brings the same amount because we are all equally valuable and we all make equal contributions to our community. There is no half shekel that is more important than another half shekel.
Both of this week’s readings, Mishpatim and Shekalim, speak to what it means to be part of a society that believes in working together and in building a just society, where all of its inhabitants are treated with dignity and respect.
For several weeks, Israelis have gone to the streets weekly, protesting the threats to Israeli democracy. These protests are also happening outside of Israel; as many of you know, I was honored to be one of the speakers at the Boston rally a couple of weeks ago, in front of the Israel consulate downtown.
I share with you here, the words I shared at the rally and which I also shared last Shabbat at TBZ:
I am here today both as an Israeli and as an American Rabbi.
אני עומדת כאן אתכם היום, כרב ישראלית, וכרב אמריקאית.
I also stand here today, as someone who grew up under dictatorship in Chile and knows the horrible price that is paid when democracy is taken away by those in power. People lose their rights, their freedom, and ultimately, their lives.
We stand here today, joining the tens of thousands of Israelis that have gathered in Israel as well as in dozens of cities around the world. We are here to protest plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government that threaten to destroy Israeli democracy. We stand here to say no to weakening Israel’s Supreme Court. We stand here to say no to assaults on human and civil rights in Israel and no to perpetuating the Occupation. We stand here to say yes to protecting democracy and building a more just Israeli society.
What we are facing is an effort to give the ultra-right wing government a blank check to pass laws that violate fundamental rights while stripping away the ability of the High Court to protect these vital rights.
What we are facing are severe legal threats to the human rights of women, LGBTQ people, Palestinians, non-orthodox Jews, incarcerated people, and asylum seekers. This government also seeks to weaken human rights organizations and change the definition of who is a Jew according to the State of Israel. There is no question Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also seeks to weaken the judiciary in order to allow the passage of laws that would protect him against the multiple charges he faces for corruption and breach of trust.
According to Jewish tradition, one of the very first laws that God gave to all of humanity was the obligation to set up courts of justice. The multitude of Jewish legal debates about how to ensure fair courts testify to the need for an independent judiciary as an essential pillar of a just society.
For this and many reasons, I also stood a few weeks ago at the demonstration in Jerusalem, in front of Beit Hanassi, the President’s home, with my Israeli friends. And as I stood there, I stand here with you today.
I feel the call to be here – and have been urged by many of my colleagues and friends in Israel who have said clearly to me, that we, Jews living in the diaspora, religious leaders, all of us, whether Israelis or not, must raise our voices with them. Keeping silent now is not the way to go. It is imperative for us to condemn this new government’s attempts to institutionalize discrimination and racism, its attacks on the judicial system, its attempts to undermine the free press, its handover of law enforcement powers to extremist politicians, and its plan to change the Law of Return and bar from Israel those who are Jewish but may not fit their definitions of Judaism.
I stand here not just out of concern for democracy in Israel and justice for Palestinians, but out of concern for our Jewish soul. I stand here to protest politics that undermine the values that Torah and Jewish tradition teaches us.
As a Jew and a rabbi, I know that I have a moral obligation to speak out against those who use our tradition to justify harmful actions and policies. Netanyahu and his new coalition endanger both Israelis and Palestinians. We know, too, that Netanyahu has aligned himself with anti-democratic right-wing leaders in the United States, facilitated the ongoing de facto annexation of the West Bank, and is currently under investigation for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. Members of this new government have openly called for the deportation of Palestinian citizens of Israel, promoted bigotry against LGBTQ people, and called for violence against Palestinians and Israeli leftists.
Standing against this government’s policies is not standing against Israel; it is standing for Israel. It is the best way to support the Israel we dream of, that we don’t want to give up on, one whose declaration of independence reads: “will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel”
In response to a government espousing homophobia, racism, and intolerance, we must today, stand up and speak out.
We must say: not in our name, not on our watch.
לא בשמנו, ולא במשמרתנו.
May our efforts to build just societies, in Israel, and in the USA, and in the whole world continue to be a calling for each and everyone of us. Our Jewish values call on us to do this.
As the prophet Micah calls us:
הִגִּיד לְךָ אָדָם מַה־טּוֹב וּמָה־יְהֹוָה דּוֹרֵשׁ מִמְּךָ כִּי אִם־עֲשׂוֹת מִשְׁפָּט וְאַהֲבַת חֶסֶד וְהַצְנֵעַ לֶכֶת עִם־אֱלֹהֶיךָ
“God has told you, Adam, what is good, And what the Adonai requires of you: Only to do justice, And to love goodness, And to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8)
May we continue walking in the path of justice and goodness and walk humbly and in humbleness with God.
May this Shabbat bring renewal and blessings to all of you and your loved ones.
May we find strength, courage, and patience, and open our hearts with generosity.
May all those who are ill find healing. And may we have a joyful, sweet, and peaceful Shabbat.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rav Claudia