These 53 laws of Parashat Mishpatim come straight after the Israelites received the 10 commandments, which is generally considered to be the Jewish moral and ethical Constitution.
The laws range from observing Shabbat to not charging interest on loans to the poor, taking care of widows and orphans, which in those days meant people who, due to their misfortune of losing the bread-winner, struggled to make ends meet, to the laws of kidnapping, slavery, personal damages, treating animals and Nature with respect and many more.
Parashat Mishpatim in the book of Exodus is called “The Book of Covenant” – Sefer haBrit in Hebrew. Many biblical scholars believe that at some point it was a separate book.
As Professor Sarna points out: “the title is of major importance.” The source of this Covenant according to the authors of Torah is divine. Social rules, moral imperatives, ethical injunctions, civil and criminal laws are all conceived to be expressions of divine will; our ancestors received the Torah at Mount Sinai and signed a verbal commitment to follow this Covenant made with the Eternal One”.
And in the middle of this Covenant we are reminded that we are expected to follow all these laws so that we can be holy people.
When you hear the words “holy man”, who do you think of straight away? Prime-Minister Rishi Sunak? King Charles the III? The Bishop of Canterbury? Rabbi Mark or Rabbi Debbie?
According to the Torah any of these prominent people or even each of us can become holy if we choose to treat other people and the natural world around us, with respect and dignity.
The Torah makes it clear that you and I are only the center of the world in our thoughts but not in objective reality. In reality, as quantum physics teaches us, no one is the center of the world because our energies are interconnected and we all depend on each other at different points in our lives. Literally and energetically.
So, when we follow the moral precepts of the Torah and spread goodness around us it is as though we are doing something good for ourselves.
So, then I can finish my sermon right now because the message is clear: follow these 53 laws as well as the 10 Commandments and you will become holy and good and we will all live happily ever after!
So why then is the world around us not as good as it should be, taking into consideration the fact that 15 million (Jews, about 2.2 billion Christians and about 1.9 billion Muslims also respect Christian and Jewish moral teachings?
I am sure if I ask people whether they want to be good people and lead an ethical life then the majority will say yes. However, the mess in the world around us somehow points out otherwise!
Is it because many people lie to themselves first of all justifying their greed, selfishness and bloody-mindedness and not following their moral compass, which with more literal and figurative blood on their hands becomes weaker and weaker.
Theo Tait pointed out in his editorial peace in the week magazine a few months ago, that one of the curious features of the Ukraine War was the persistent demands from the global leaders as well as some other famous people that the Ukrainians negotiate with Russia:
Russia must not be backed into a corner, they said; difficult concessions must be made by Ukraine. And they are probably right. But go and tell this to the mothers and fathers who lost their children, the 10 million + refugees who lost their homes and have to find a new life in a different country and different language often starting from scratch.
We, the Jews, know how difficult it is.
And tell this to another roughly 30 million people who live right now through the hell of the war. They don’t know whether they might die today or tomorrow through fighting for their country or being bombed in their home.
The truth is Ukraine is a small country and has very little chance to win over Russia. It should but it might not be able to. Often the big and powerful get their way because they can and because others won’t do anything to stop them. It is almost impossible to have negotiations with people who do not adhere to the Torah’s moral and ethical Constitutions: all empires are the same.
But ordinary people can lose their lives not only during wars. Thousands of Turkish and Syrian people paid with their lives for other people’s greed and negligence, when their buildings collapsed during the earthquake because they were not build according to the regulations required in the area of high seismic activity.
Though, we cannot judge others either. It took a Grenfield Tower to burn together with its victims for us to address the issue of cladding.
The Torah does not say only the Jews should be ethical and moral or only people who are not in the government should follow the laws. So when our leaders are not as familiar with the Torah teachings, it is our responsibility to hold them accountable to their promises and the moral and ethical laws of our society, which are universal and are also based on the Torah laws.
But is it easy to hold our politicians to account? Notwithstanding dictators and tyrants.
And I am not even talking about what we have done to Nature, which in our Parashah we are also commanded to look after.
The amount of plastic rubbish, chemicals in the air, soil and water has now started damaging us: 7 000 000 deaths every year are linked to air pollution. But even today, lots of people are in denial about our irresponsible behaviour towards our shared home – Planet Earth.
Our world is not perfect because it takes courage and persistence to be a good person and to follow the ethical and moral principles of Judaism in our daily lives. But the Mishnah reminds us that even when we are surrounded by darkness and no one behaves like a human being that we should behave like one.
The world is not as bad a place as it could have been because many people choose to follow our moral and ethical precepts and thus make a positive difference to the world.
I hope that we can all nourish our courage and support each other in those moments of weakness to always follow the moral compass of the Jewish tradition and to have enough courage to make the right choices when they are required as well as to make a positive difference to our community and to the world. Because together, we can.
