Exodus Cycle Six Mishpatim

 Mishpatim

The Clarity of Pure Love

There’s a great line (from my memory) in the movie Her.

The protagonist misses his intimate relationship with his OS (operating system) because…well…she’s artificial intelligence and she's expanding. She’s moved through the realm of human emotions and she’s merging with the white space (as she later calls it).

When the protagonist finds her again he asks:

Are there others?

She‘s apologetic but says she has more than 634 abstract lovers (I think that’s the number).  It isn’t physical. She doesn’t have a body. It’s surreal love-making. It’s beyond-body.  Still, he can barely get this fact through his head.

Six hundred and what?

 He asks this astonished.

One day, years ago, I asked the same question.

Six hundred and what?

But I wasn’t referring to the abstract lovers of a human-like operating system. I was referring to the mitzvoth. I had just learned that there were 613.

 What do abstract lovers have to do with the mitzvoth? Well we could ask Alan Watts. We could ask Rav or Rashi. Maybe they can answer. Maybe we can hear. In any case,  it’s up to all of us to attempt to merge technological advances or foreseen advances with the set ethical code. And trust me, this isn't going to happen through rational thought. It will only happen if we open ourselves to the amazing  astonishing beyond-boundary beyond-reason beyond-legal-system reality of the mitzvoth.  It will only be possible if we finally see how they are not only the most sensual appendages we could imagine…the rays or vibrations of God…but if we acknowledge that vision as the path to practical ethical guidelines for today and eternity.

So let's begin:

If we look at Mishpatim as did the Ba'alei Tosafot….with respect to the whole picture as well as the details…we notice that these laws could not have been all of the concerns of the Israelites. If we look at the Talmudic tractates…as seemingly complete as they are…even they can’t cover all possible situations with respect to law. Even then and then and then they didn’t make whole sense. Therefore, the mitzvoth must be more than a legal system.

At the same time, one needs to ask, why is it in his introduction to Mishpatim where the Rashbam offers an extensive explanation of his goal to seek the peshuto shel Mikra (the literal meaning of scripture) and derech ha’aretz (the way of the world)?  As if to answer our question and explain the placement of his commentary the Rashbam quotes Sotah and says  that halachah uproots mishnah.  In other words the study of these laws uproots the very laws themselves. 

What I find interesting is the phrase and therefore the shoresh that Rashbam chooses to quote from Talmud.  He uses ayin kuf resh.

Rashbam was a great scholar of Torah, the grandson of Rashi, and though he had some highly radical ideas (sometimes placing his well-proven theses above engrained traditions of the Jewish people) I would never think that he would overlook the powerful resonance of a shoresh in his commentary.

In this case, the shoresh ayin kuf resh is the same shoresh used to refer to the idea of Sarah, Rivkah and Rachel being barren in Genesis 11:30, 25:21 and 29:31. 

This shoresh therefore doesn’t only refer to laws being pulled up. It refers to the complete transformation of those same laws…after all we know that from this barren state of being all three women do finally…with God’s compassion… become fertile. 

Therefore one can reason  that the Rashbam, dealing with a status quo of Torah analysis (in his world) that seemed (to him) myopically stuck on the level of drash, is referring to the need to bring the laws to ground-level (a certain dryness) before we engage in the fertility of myth. Today (a world in which the status quo of Torah analysis has made a sharp turn and is now highly rational) this goal remains.  Hard core reality (after all) must be known before we build upon it (Fishbane). 

Maybe it’s time however,  given advances of science and consciousness, that we do build upon it. Really build upon it.  The fertility of Sarah Rivkah and Rachel never reflected a state of six hundred and some odd lovers. But our fertility…as a people…can do just that. God is here with us. He's in every law, every letter, every tear, every smile. He's the light in the sky and the hand on your cheek.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to prove our amazing abilities and the heart-pounding beauty right here whether we are dealing with oxen, slaves, cell phones or operating systems.

Finally, is it ethically correct to have out-of-body love-making experiences? To have more than one in a given moment? I really don't know. But we have certainly transformed since the days of Talmud and the Rashbam. Therefore, it is necessary to metaphor the mitzvoth in order to safeguard them. We need to meditate on it. We need to make room in our heart for many questions and many mitzvoth. Together. With food and drink. With compassion... and the clarity of pure love.