Exodus Cycle 5 Mishpatim

 Mishpatim

Knowing the Iceberg Beneath the Surface

There’s a fascination that the American public has historically held for sinking ships. Fancy cruise ships get too close to a glacier, some un-chartered territory, hit it and sink.  Whether film or reality, the story is always huge. And though this age-old fascination has now morphed into airline crashes, there’s always some concealed detail, something hidden, larger than our perception, something we haven’t found or figured out that kills us. It’s the mechanical problem on the flight or the faulty navigation.  It’s something we piece together later, too late.

Mishpatim exposes the concealed referred to above. It lays it out before us, shines a light on it trying to give it to us on time.  Metaphorically, Mishpatim exposes the iceberg below the tip. It is there to keep us from shipwrecks, dangerous crashes onto sharp cold giant objects we can’t see.

This might seem like an odd comment when looking at a parashah with 23 positive commandments and 33 negative.  There’s ruling after ruling. Here’s one: Whoever curses his mother or father shall be put to death (21:17). A Baraita claims that since the mother and father and God are together creating a child if the child curses one it is like cursing all three. Therefore the strict punishment.  In 21:22 we also receive the oft repeated statement an eye for an eye.  Basically, it says that equal compensation must be made in the case of violence.  After much discussion the rabbis (Rav Hiyya and Rav Pappa) have decided that these rulings do not refer to the destruction of more human life but rather to monetary compensation. A hand for a hand is interpreted as meaning the thing being passed from hand to hand. Here’s one more: If a person digs a hole in the ground or uncovers it and does not cover it back up and  a donkey or ox falls in the one who was responsible for the hole must make restitution.

There are many more rulings, a good number of which have to do with the treatments of slaves. It should be noted as well though that twice in Mishpatim we are told to be kind to the stranger.

We have to face it. Given who we are today we only can really adapt a small percentage of these rulings at face value into our present understanding of consciousness.  We can of course look to our rabbis for symbolic interpretations that may have fit in with their society…and  these may feel better than what we read in Torah…but they still are like trying to (sorry for the cliché) force a round key into a square hole. The rabbis of Talmud (Exodus Rabbah) were from the 11^th or 12^th century (a good thousand years ago).

So then, what do we do with Mishpatim?

Back to icebergs here are some facts:  First (in layman’s terms)  an iceberg is a large piece of ice that has broken off of a glacier. Well then, what is a glacier? It’s the consolidation of snow on top of snow. It becomes heavier and heavier and more and more condensed.  Air bubbles pop between the layers of snow and therefore create very compact matter. The iceberg breaks off of it and this solid piece of matter moves freely on the ocean. Since it is so heavy, most of it is below the water’s surface.  Today icebergs are monitored by the US National Ice Center. This is made possible through the use of satellites. 

This need to chart the movement of icebergs is based on human safety. What we do know though is that icebergs do move. They change shape and location over time. The configuration a thousand years ago is very different than now. In fact, if we attempted to steer our ship with old navigational maps, no doubt, crash we will. 

In other words, if we memorize details and rulings that outline the past we will miss out on knowing the necessary details and rulings for today. 

Our spiritual objective in this one situation might be to catch up with science. We need to know how to accept the necessity of new maps, allow for our human evolution to guide us in the creation of these maps. We have to admit after all that the amazing radiant exquisite revelation of the iceberg tip is only possible if we know the reaches and dangers of the iceberg bottom. See we must but only if we are alive to have eyes. 

That’s really what Mishpatim is about, knowing the details, not crashing, therefore doing exactly the opposite from what many “religious” Jews do today.  Mishpatim is about creating a blueprint of the proper details so that we can for a fast or eternal second…really be with God. Respect the process of the rabbis and learn from them and act as God and we can be with God. But act exactly as a past reach for God and we will become that past reach for God. It’s really our choice.

As for myself, I love the tips of icebergs and would love to only focus on them all the time. No more ship wrecks for me though. It’s time to see…and spell out and act on…the details beneath the surface. My guess it’s time for all of us.