Resetting the Moral Compass

Parshat Mishpatim comes as a bit of a surprise. It covers many issues of civil law, from property damage and criminal negligence to theft and assault, and it legislates the appropriate restitution for each case. The question is why the Torah expends its precious parchment and ink on such utilitarian matters.

G-d bestowed man with a moral compass and human societies have long demonstrated their ability to establish ethical codes of law. The Torah doesn’t have to get into the nitty-gritty of dollars and cents. All G-d has to do is tell us to create a just legal system; He can leave the details to us.

In fact, this is exactly the way it is for the rest of humanity – one of the seven Noahide laws is to establish courts of justice (cf. Maimonides, Laws of Kings 9:14). Societies are obligated to use their collective moral intelligence to compose a legal code and a court system. Gentile courts need not consult with the Torah (cf. Teshuvot HaRama 10) for G-d has confidence in man to know what is just and what is not. So why, when it comes to the Jews, does the Torah deem it necessary to dictate the letter of the law? Does G-d not have faith in His Chosen People? Is our moral compass any less accurate than that of the North Koreans or Singaporeans?

Moreover, while the rules laid down in Mishpatim do contain several unique elements, they don’t strike us as necessarily “more just” than alternative options. Compensation for the unexpected violence of a docile animal is set at 50% of the damage (Shemot 21:35), but would 75% or 25% be unjust? The same kind of question can be asked about virtually every law in the parsha. Another example: In addition to the obvious obligation to return a stolen item, the Torah slaps on a punitive fine of 100% the value of the item (Shemot 22:3). (The thief is exempt from this fine if he turns himself in, cf. Shemot ad loc; Talmud, Baba Kamma 14b.) This makes sense, but would a 50% or 200% fine be unjust? What about a jail term or community service? These options and many others also seem fair; certainly a gentile court is well within its rights to establish the laws of damages and theft as they deem fit. In the face of a host of valid and just options, why does the Torah restrict us to one particular ruling?

Our parsha begins with an “and.” “And these are the laws” (Shemot 21:1). Why the “and”? Rashi quotes the Midrash:

“And these” connects [our parsha] to the previous [teachings] (i.e., the Ten Commandments). Just as those were from Sinai, so too these are from Sinai.

The Sefas Emes (R. Yehudah Leib Alter, 1847-1905) asks the obvious question. All 613 mitzvot of the Torah are from Sinai! Why does the Torah need to stress the divine source of Mishpatim? The Sefas Emes answers the question with a quote from his grandfather, the Chiddushei HaRim (first Rebbe of Ger, 1799-1866).

The essential point that G-d wants us to understand is this: Despite the fact that the laws of Mishpatim are understood by the mind of man, they exist only because they are the will of G-d… Even the logic and the comprehension of man is the result of G-d’s will.

This, says the Sefas Emes, is why we need the “and.” It is the very logic of civil law and the recognized imperative for justice that requires us to emphasize the divine source of Mishpatim. We must never forget that it was G-d who gave us these laws. More than that, it was G-d who gave us minds that can understand them.

The Sefas Emes and the Chiddushei HaRim were central figures of 19th century Chassidism. However, this perspective is not uniquely Chassidic, it’s just plain Jewish. In fact, Reb Yerucham Levovitz (1874-1936) and the Alter of Kelm (R. Simcha Zissel Ziv, 1824-1898), proponents of the non-Chassidic Lithuanian school of Mussar of the same era, understood Mishpatim in the very same way. And they took the idea one-step further.

Like his contemporary the Sefas Emes, Reb Yerucham was intrigued by the Midrash that underscores the divine source of Jewish civil law. In explanation, he quotes a radical teaching of his rebbe, the Alter of Kelm.

Take, for example, the mitzvah of honoring parents. People commonly think that this mitzvah was given because parents exist… Actually, the exact opposite is true. The reason why people have a father and a mother is because the Torah wanted to command us to honor parents…

It sounds wild, but there’s really nothing original here. We know that the Torah predated Genesis (Talmud, Shabbat 88b) and the very first Midrash (Bereishit Rabba 1:1) tells us that “G-d looked into the Torah and created the world.” This means that every physical reality, from human reproduction through two parents to civil law, morality and logic has its source in the blueprint of creation, the Torah. If it’s out there, it’s because it’s in the Book.

When G-d created man, He built a moral compass into his genetic code. What did G-d use as the guide for the code’s design? Parshat Mishpatim.

Mishpatim is pure unadulterated justice. Filtered through the static of the human mind, our sense of justice loses its exactitude and multiple options appear equally just. In the courts of the world, no two legal systems match. But Mishpatim remains the eternal, unchanging bedrock of justice, the divine blueprint of human morality – and G-d gave it to the Jews.

He relates His words to Yaacov, His statutes and judgments to Israel. He did not do so for any other nation; He did not make Mishpatim known to them – Halleluyah!

Psalms 147