mishpatim
parasha mishpatim, exodus chapters 21—24
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and thoughts…
Mishpatim
Justice
Justice. This long litany of laws could have been given the name, “Rules,” but Justice better describes the overarching theme.
On a certain level, this parasha is about keeping peace in the community. It’s a moral code that determines how we’re supposed to act towards one another in a large number of special circumstances. With set penalties for each of them, everyone knows exactly what the cost incurred by any speculative situation will be. As such, it’s a safeguard, making sure that everyone is treated in the same way. The law, and life, should be fair.
But justice is more than rules and punishments. Remember, its icon is the balance beam. This is about repairing the world, about restoring balance when something has gone out of wack. It keeps human society in step with the universe, which is always seeking homeostasis.
But wait, there’s more. There’s the issue of slavery.
Both abolitionists and proponents of slavery in America used the same book, the Bible, to prove their side was right. It’s called “spinning” on the news channels. One can always find a way to interpret something in such a way that it supports their already held position, rather than earnestly seeking the truth of a matter.
Human nature.
Reading through all the details about slavery in this parasha is more than a little disturbing. On the one hand, God is clearly anti-slavery. The Torah is full of laws that protect people from being forced to do something by others who have power over them. So, why couldn’t God have said, “Thou shall not keep slaves?” The answer is simple. The people weren’t ready to hear that. And to institute such a major upheaval to the social and financial framework would have been devastating to the nation. Not only would the wealthier people lose their source of free labor to tend the crops, the poor would lose the ability to “sell” a daughter, or themselves, into bondage as a last resort, rather than have the family starve to death.
Change has to come slowly. Human evolution unfolds slowly. And God waits. And while God waits, God always meets us where we are.
So instead, we were given intricate laws pertaining to the structuring of slavery that made the Israelites stand out from among the surrounding nations. Even in slavery, justice was required. The laws about how to treat a young woman who was sold into slavery were very strict. A major difference was that among the Israelites, slavery wasn’t a life sentence. That meant that enslaved people weren’t mentally and emotionally plagued by living a life that was devoid of any hope for a better future. In the seventh year, bonds were to be broken, and slaves had to be set free. If a married couple went into bondage together, the master was required to let the man’s wife and children go free along with him at the appointed time.
The way slaves were to be treated was specific. Slaves were to be treated with humanity, compassion, and a certain level of respect. Shabbat wasn’t just for the master, his family, and their work-animals. Slaves also were to refrain from all work on the seventh day. Who else among the nations gave slaves a day off every week?
And then there’s this surprising fact…think about it—not every slave wants to be free. Freedom requires one to be responsible for one’s own welfare, and it comes with moral responsibilities as well. But to refuse freedom is a direct insult to the God who led us out of bondage in Egypt. A slave who chose to remain a slave had to undergo the degrading experience of having a hole bored through his ear, leaving him permanently disfigured. And what really strikes me is that this ritual was done against the doorpost of the house, the very object of our freedom! (Remember back in Egypt, how we schmeared blood on the door posts to protect us against the tenth plague!)
All of these tight restrictions on the institution of slavery were meant to lead us to grow into understanding that slavery is just plain wrong, and to lead us to abolish slavery on our own.
It leads us back to Justice. To the restoration of balance.
There was an incident in our national history that caused a rift in the fabric of the universe, and that rift, which altered the future of the world, is still not fully repaired. Balance has not yet been restored. Justice has not yet been served.
Interestingly, what it means to be a Jew today evolved from one act that took place almost four thousand years ago—when Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery.
Had Joseph not become a slave in Egypt, he would never have risen to power there.
Had he never risen to power there, all of Israel would not have gone down to Egypt.
If the nation of Israel had not all gone down to Egypt, we would not all have been enslaved there.
Had we not been enslaved there, had we not developed “slave mentality,” there would have been no need for redemption.
Had we not been crippled by slave mentality, there would have been no golden calf in the desert.
Had there been no golden calf, our Temples, first and second, would not have been destroyed.
Had the second Temple not been destroyed, we wouldn’t have been scattered across the globe.
I don’t think I need to take this reverse dayenu any further; we can all finish the story of the Jews in Europe.
Joseph’s brothers had repented their treatment of him and so he forgave them. But as a people, we’ve not yet repented our sins. We confess them at Yom Kippur, and the following year we need to confess them again.
At our Passover Seders, we lift a fifth cup of wine for our future redemption. Because our redemption is not complete.
Human evolution unfolds slowly. And God waits. And while God waits, God always meets us where we are.
So what shall we eat?
What shall we eat…
First, a disclaimer: This is a sensitive subject. It’s not my intention to tell others what to do, and it’s certainly not my intention to judge. I aim only to inform and offer “food for thought.”
Parasha Mishpatim discusses both slavery and the mixing of meat with dairy. There is actually a connection between the two. The Torah requires compassionate treatment of slaves, and we’re told that the reason behind the strict laws about how an animal is dispatched is also to show compassion. While this parasha only brings up the issue of mixing milk and meat, it makes me think about the whole gamut of the laws of kosher.
There is nothing about how animals are raised and live their lives in Jewish law.
There are many modern issues that the Torah doesn’t directly consider, due to the fact that they were not issues when Torah was written. One of those is factory farming. Lots containing hundreds of thousands of chickens living in filthy, deplorable quarters, so close that the birds can barely move, were unimaginable thirty-five hundred years ago, and so there are no laws, civil or religious, against the miserable lives that we afflict upon these poor creatures. The truth of the matter is that, with the exception of a few very expensive boutique brands, kosher chickens live under horriffic conditions—even the ones that are labeled organic (organic just refers to the feed they’re given, not the way they’re treated).
So, if kashrut is fundamentally (at least in part) about showing compassion for animals, we’d have to conclude that there’s nothing kosher about most kosher meat.
Even when we eat our steaks or our Shabbat chicken with kavanah, with appreciation for the privilege of consuming them, we don’t focus on the horror that is their reality. In my mind, there’s nothing we can do to turn this into the kind of consumption that releases holy sparks.
The way chickens are labeled in the market can be very misleading. The labels are designed to make the public feel good about their purchase, to make them think they’re being compassionate by the choices they’re making. But what do these terms really mean? Cage-free means that they’re not in cages, but they’re kept so close together that their whole lives are like Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Free range means that they technically have access to the outdoors, but in reality, they’re jammed in so tightly that most never get as far as those distant doors to see the ten square inches of ground that’s set aside for them. Pasture raised is more in line with what their Creator had in mind when the word “chicken” appeared in the Divine Consciousness. Happy chickens strutting around in a grassy pasture, pecking at bugs, scratching in the dirt, roosting on low branches of trees, and behaving according to their nature. Pasture raised is expensive. Pasture raised and kosher is very expensive. And pasture raised also tastes better and has better texture. Personally, I’d rather go that route, saving meat-eating for special occasions, rather than eating less expensive meat more often. I don’t want to eat torture. I don’t want to take that energy into my body.
With all of this in mind, I’m offering two entrée choices this week. One choice is to go with the absolute best version of Southern-Style Buttermilk Fried Chicken, for which I’ll be using pasture raised chickens. And yes, fret not, it’s kosher! The other, more in line with the original diet the Creator had in mind for us, is for a vegetarian version of the same dish (vegetarian if you use dairy, vegan if you don’t). These chicken drumsticks, an Asian invention made from tofu skins, are delicious and fun. Plus, unlike real chickens, their “bones” are made from sticks of sugar cane, so there’s an extra sweet treat to nibble on when the “meat.” is gone.
For me, whichever route you choose, nothing goes better with any sort of fried chicken than a huge pile of fluffy mashed potatoes, so we’ll definitely be having those.
My husband brought home a huge bunch of very fresh, beautiful, thick stalked asparagus. I started snapping off the bottoms, which I do, and then thought about how much delicious vegetable goodness was being wasted. I turned those bottoms into an asparagus purée, upon which I arranged my gleamingly green roasted asparagus. It was so good and it turned a simple vegetable dish into something special.
It’s February, and that means blood oranges. We may not have cold or ice or snow, but we do have blood oranges. It’s always a thrill when they show up in the market. This tart is the perfect thing to do with a bag of these gorgeous gems because they really showcase the fruit. A cardamom scented blood orange custard fills a sweet and tender shell, and it’s topped with glistening slices of candied blood orange.
As for the challah, with a few braids of differing lengths and thickness and two small round loaves, I’m going to shape it to look like a balance beam.