On Constitutions and Commandments: a Thought for Parashat Mishpatim

Last week's Torah portion included Aseret Hadib'rot, the Ten Commandments as they're commonly called.  There's no question that the Ten Comandments, which appear twice in the Torah - in Exodus 20 and in Deuteronomy 5 - could be considered the cornerstone of the G-d's expressed will for humanity.  But just as the US Constitution does not represent the totality of legislation that governs life in the USA, the Ten Commandments only set out the broad principles that govern the life of G-d's people.

In this week's reading, Mishpatim (Exodus 21-24), we begin to see more specifics.  The word mishpatim means, 'judgments'; these are the judgments that, stemming from the broad principles in the Ten Commandments, are to enable to people Israel to live in a functional society under G-d's sovereignty.

The Relationship of the Ten Commandments to the rest of the Torah's legislation - the traditional reckoning is that there are a total of 613 Commandments in the Torah - is sort of like that of the US Constitution to the huge body of law that governs everyday life in the country.  The Constitution provides the broad principles, and other federal and state statutes provide the specifics.  But all subsequent law must pass the test of not contradicting the Constitution.  And the US Supreme Court's sole purpose is to hear arguments that assert that test hasn't been met in any given case.

The analogy might not be exact, but it's close enough.  The sixth of the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20:13, prohibits murder.  In this week's reading, Exodus 21:12-14 we see a differentiation between unintentionally killing someone, which today we refer to as 'manslaughter,' and intentional killing which we call murder.  In a case of the former, the perpetrator could save his life by entering one of the cities of refuge.  For the latter, there was no escaping a death sentence.

Additionally, this week's reading differentiates killing which is in self-defense.  In Exodus 22:2-3, the Torah states that killing someone who broke into one's home at night incurs no bloodguilt.  The Rabbis understood that, if someone broke into a house at night, the implies they knew someone would be home and would have been ready to kill them in commission of their robbery.

Just as the US Constitution, elegant as it is, is not sufficient by itself for the maintenance of an orderly and safe society.  So too, the Ten Commandments do not suffice.  They are only the fountainhead, from which all legislative decrees in the Torah, flow.  In this week's Torah portion, following immediately last week's stating of the Ten Commandments, we begin to see this.  Shabbat shalom.