I woke up this morning in, what one could call, a crises of faith. We had been discussing the weekly portion last night, a portion that contains a slew of ordinances that we are supposed to study, and emulate. However, upon closer reading, it turns out that the vast majority are irrelevant for us today, or the vast majority of Jews do not practice, even amongst the religiously observant.
Before continuing, I must distinguish between the various levels of practice amongst those who call themselves Jewish. There are the secular, who would call themselves Jews, but do not adhere to even the basic Jewish tenets. These will range from those who are atheists, even though they might continue to participate in some of the religious ceremonies, like the major festivals, birth and death rituals, and possibly the coming of age, the bar mitzah and the wedding ceremony. Then there are those who believe in the basic tenets of the Jewish faith, the unity of Hashem, who attend synagogue and observe the mitzvot as best they can. Then there are the observant, who follow all the various mitzvot, but accept and take into account the cultural milieu that they find themselves in, “fitting in” to the surrounding culture as best they can. Further, there the fully observant, who live their life according to the laws as laid down by the Torah, but mediated by the strictures and interpretations of said laws according to our Sages, irrespective of the cultural milieu that they live in. Although you might find this separation arbitrary, and perhaps, to your mind inaccurate, let me express it this way. If one imagines a line of measurement from the completely non-observant, to the fully-observant, one could then decide to separate it more formally, but there is a demarcating line between those that believe in G-d, and those that don’t, and between those that believe in the tenets of Judaism, and those that don’t. Then in the space of those who believe in the tenets, there are those who practise fully, and those who practise partially.
Now to the actual work. In this parasha, I recognise forty-one mitzvot. Here again, I wish to place some markers. There is the category of laws that do not apply any more, as we do not live that way. There are those that could be applied to our present context, that we disobey in our modern context, and there are those that we should apply. Then there is a fourth category of those that are important to follow for the good of our society.
What was interesting in the discussion on the parasha is that there are a number of these commandments that seem to be the main points of discussion amongst our commentators, while there are others, that I find much more relevant that are seldom referred to.
The one’s that stand out are as regards the captive woman, the rebellious son and the levirate marriage, yibum, but there are many others, like the hanging of the body on a pole, touching of a man’s privates, regarding the millstone, the vinyard, the despoiling of the virgin, etc.
N I count 44 or so laws, not anything close to the 74 or so claimed by Chabad
- v21:10: Captive woman (n/a)
- v21:15: Two wives and the inheritance rights of their sons. (n/a)
- v21:18: The wayword son (n/a)
- v21:22: Do not let a corpse hang on a pole overnight. (n/a)
- v22:1: Return lost articles (*)
- v22:4: Help your fellow (*)
- v22:5: No cross-dressing (x)
- v22:6: Do not take the mother together with her young. N should this not apply to all animals? (x)
- v22:8: Guard rail on roof. (x)
- v22:9: Mixing of: seeds, mixing of ox and ass on plough, wool and linen, (.)
- v22:12: Tassels: Twisted threads on your outer garment (evolved in the tallit) (practiced)
- v22:13: Despised wife: accused of not being a virgin, man flogging, fined, and he cannot divorce her. Else, she is stoned to death. (n/a)
- v22:22: Lying with a married woman, both die. (n/a)
- v22:23: Virgin (engaged) despoiled in the city - both stoned. (n/a)
- v22:25: Girl (engaged) despoiled in the field - only man stoned. (n/a)
- v22:27: Virgin (not engaged) despoiled - pay fine, and has to marry her. (n/a)
- v23:1: Father’s former wife is forbidden
- v23:2: Not allowed in temple (for 10 generations) (n/a)
- crushed testes
- member cut off
- misbegotten
- Ammomite or Moabite
- v23:6 Never concern with them (welfare or benefit) (n/a)
- v23:7: Not abhor Edomite or Egyptian, children of 3rd gen. can enter into congregation
- v23:10: A nocturnal emission: leave the war camp, bathe in evening, return at sundown. (n/a)
- v23:12: Need for a privy in the war camp
- v23:16: Offer shelter for runaway slave (n/a)
- v23:18: Jews may not engage in prostitution
- v23:19: No money from whores or dogs (male prostitutes) may be brought into the temple.
- v23:20: No usury (x)
- v23:22: Vow to be fulfilled promptly. (v23:24) “You must fulfill what has crossed your lips and perform what you have voluntarily vowed to your God יהוה, having made the promise with your own mouth.”
- v23:25: Vineyard, eat your fill, remove none; grain pluck, no sickle.
- v24:1: Cannot remarry divorced wife, if she has remarried. (x)
- v24:5: Newly married excluded from war (x)
- v24:6: No millstone or handmill may be taken in pawn. (x)
- v24:8: Kidnapping - death penalty.
“Remember Miriam” - v24:10: Loans: do not enter house.
- v24:11: Do not sleep in his pledge
- v24:14: Pay wages on that day “You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow Israelite or a stranger in one of the communities of your land.”
- v24:16: “Parents shall not be put to death for children, nor children be put to death for parents: they shall each be put to death only for their own crime.”
- v24:17: Subvert rights: “You shall not subvert the rights of the stranger or the fatherless; you shall not take a widow’s garment in pawn.”
“Remember, you were slaves in Egypt.” - x-Security
- v24:20: Alms: Leavings from the field, olives and grapes for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. (x)
- v25:1: Dispute: judgement, supervised flogging, 40 lashes (n/a)
“Remember Egypt” - v25:4: Muzzle ox (x): “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing.”
- v25:5: יָבַם - Yiboom - Levirate marriage: (n/a)
- First child (male, I assume) takes father’s name
- If brother-in-law refuses, sandal, spit - the unsandled one, חֲל֥וּץ הַנָּֽעַל.
- v25:11: Touch private parts, you shall cut off her hand. (x)
(N Should that not equally apply to men?) - v25:12: Honest weights (*)
v25:16: “Remember Amalek - (25:19) to blot out his memory” - this seems contradictory.