The stories we read from the Torah at this season confront us with the most important question of what it means to be a Jew, to be in “covenant with God”, or in common parlance, to live with a sense of obligation toward and within life itself. Last week’s parashah concluded with the event known as “Standing at Sinai” (Ma’amad Har Sinai), or the revelation of the “Ten Commandments” (Aseret HaDibrot). Just before the revelation, God tells our ancestors, the children of Israel, “If you will heed my voice and observe my covenant, then you shall be My treasured possession among all the peoples…a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:5-6) A kingdom of priests, a whole nation, means to take on collectively as a people the task of being spiritual and moral exemplars as a nation. We refer to that in the Torah as being in connection with God by living in covenant.
This week’s parashah, Mishpatim, is also known as The Book of the Covenant, for with its 53 mitzvot it brings further details of the covenant. With this parashah, the nature of the Torah changes from narrative to legislative. The difficulty for 21st century Jews, if we are to transmit the narrative that has bound our people for thousands of years and hundreds of generations so far, is to reflect on our personal relationship with God and commit in a way consistent with tradition to the terms of the covenant.
As unorthodox Jews (whether affiliated with the Progressive or Masorti movements) we understand that the Torah is not the literal word from God, but our ancestors’ understanding of God; we have inherited a narrative not authored by God, but written toward God. Whether it be in hymns such as Adon Olam or Yigdal, or in various rabbinic statements of Principles of Faith, our accepted understanding of God is the Creator of All, unique and singular, who exists eternally, beyond (and yet within) all time and space. Simply, God is “all that is”. Each of us, everything, is interconnected, and we as Jews are called to serve this God. To be in covenant means we do that by studying Torah, by observing mitzvot.
For the most part, our Torah presents us with a covenant, a way of life, which is one of noble service. Within the various frameworks of Orthodoxy, the Torah being the literal word of God and the early rabbis its authoritative interpreters, leads to a different approach to the binding nature of mitzvot. However, in our contemporary understanding we the Torah has teachings which if applied in the same way today do not, in our understanding, lead to noble service. In particular, one can look at patriarchal gender issues; one can also look at certain teachings addressing the one who is not a Jew. To explore how we can maintain our status as a faith people, each of us must study our received tradition in order to live by it when noble and transform it when necessary, including expanding some provisions, such as the dignity of all humans and the concern that should be afforded to all sentient life.
Mishpatim concludes with a powerful scene of affirmation of the covenant: “Then Moses took the record of the covenant and read it aloud to the people. And they said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will faithfully do!’” (Exodus 24:7). Knowing the history of the 20th century, we can no longer “blindly follow orders”; what we faithfully do will be that which speaks to God in the 21st century, for now we know that “God’s speech” has always been mediated through ours.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins
I feel I would benefit from a discussion of Post Holocaust Theology, the breaking of the old Covenant and creating a more personal Covenant