Feb 5/05 — Shabbat Mishpatim: What You Do With What You've Got

Commentary by Rabbi Lawrence Pinsker

In a marvellous little cartoon by Dick Codor that I showed people last week, we see Moses on top of a cloud-shrouded Mt. Sinai. To his left is a single stone tablet, on which are inscribed TWO commandments. The first is “Thou shalt not do things that are bad.”  The second is “Thou shalt be nice to each other.”

Moses is saying to God, “It’s good …I like it…but I know these people…they’re gonna want specifics!”

The Torah text this week gives us the first list of specifics, because saying “You know what I mean by ‘be good’ and ‘be nice’!” isn’t helpful without details. The single, seemingly superfluous letter vav begins the portion with the words "And these are the rules..." (Exodus 21:1). Rabbi Ishmael points out: "These are connected to the verses above [in the Torah, the Ten Commandments] — just as they were given at Sinai, so these were given at Sinai." (Mekhilta, Nezikin 1)

Rabbi Ishmael knows that people run away from "specifics." They prefer the divine genius of the Ten Commandments, which show that our covenant is filled with exalted beliefs and high moral principles.

It’s therefore tempting to think of the "rules" and obligations in this week’s Torah reading as trivial and uninspiring. We become blinded by the idea that “real” religion and “true” spirituality deal only in cosmic truths and grand philosophies. They are not civil laws regarding damages, slavery, property rights; they are not the stuff that happens when we dig a hole but forget to fence it in or when an animal we own runs wild and injures others.

Yet Rabbi Ishmael tells us that these rules are as much a part of the covenant and of authentic spirituality as the awe and trembling we experience in God’s presence. Rabbi Ishmael reminds us that we have always believed that we must conduct ourselves properly in the Presence of God. And since God is everywhere, we have to act properly. Like Hindu dancers who spend years learning the precise positions for every part of their bodies during a sacred dance, we pay attention to the details of how to translate spiritual experience into a life worthy of our covenant with God and with each other.