Parshat Mishpatim: Exodus 21:1 - 24:18 By: Rabbi Denise L. Eger

This week's portion Mishpatim continues to record laws of civil society. They are additions to the Ten Commandments given last week to the people of Israel. In this week’s writings there are details about the working of civil and criminal law. If this group of Hebrew slaves is really to become a people and a nation then they need some operating procedures for the disputes and situations that arise naturally between human beings. This week's portion outlines many of those situations and legal rules and regulations. There are also additional rules of religious observance but in the ancient Israelite mind there is not the separation between religious law and civil law. All come from God. All of the laws covered in this week’s portion are part of the revelation at Mt. Sinai. We are to see this week’s portion as continuous with the giving of the first Ten Commandments to the people. This is according to our great sage, Rashi who says, “Just as the Ten Commandments were given from Sinai, so were these.”

The opening words of this portion say, “These are the rules that you shall set before them (Ex.21:1). Who is the “them”? Is it the Children of Israel or as both Rashi and Nachmanides points out that “them” in this case are the judges. This is the system of law that the Judges and the seventy elders of Israel who will adjudicate the cases that come before them must be familiar with. They must know the laws of the new society that they are creating. Remember that this is a group of slaves who just came out of bondage in Egypt. They had no voices, no advocates. They had to obey the rules of their taskmasters. The 70 elders that Moses appointed to help settle disputes also were just freed from slavery. So they too had to become familiar with the case law and the way in which God wanted the Israelites to live their lives.

In our day and time we have a very sophisticated understanding of the separation of religious and civil law. In fact this separation in American civil law has helped the Jewish people thrive. Because our Constitution and founders understood that there should be no establishment of religion by the government many religious systems have been able to thrive and grow. This is certainly true in Jewish life. But there is a dangerous cancer that is growing. There is a fundamentalism that is not only infecting Christianity and Islam but in Judaism as well.

Orthodox rabbis have been advocating for tearing down of the wall between religion and civil law including the Orthodox Union. In their recent advocacy for the passage of Proposition 8, the Orthodox Union and its rabbis succumbed to fundamentalist Christian rhetoric confusing religious ideals of their respective traditions with American civil law. They justified their support of Proposition 8 here in California and their opposition to marriage for gay and lesbian couples in other locations based upon their narrow interpretation of the Bible. They advocated that their Bibilcal world view be adopted as the California world view even though 78 percent of the Jewish community opposed Proposition 8 in California.

This is dangerous thinking. This is because the separation of church and state (and in the Jewish community’s eyes –synagogue and state) allows the Jewish community to thrive. You can be sure if the firewall between church and state is broken down the Jewish community will not come out on top. We are such a minority in this country and in our state that we will lose our voice and our ability to celebrate and observe our own traditions.

The beauty of the separation of religious realms and civil realms of law in America is that true religious diversity of our state can be uplifted.

Even the Supreme Court of California in its historic ruling last May finding the civil right for gay men and lesbians to marry in California under the equal protection clause recognized that the separation of church and state is also a fundamental principal. Thus no one could force a religious institution to officiate at any marriage that is not a part of their religious ideals. But as long as there is a civil license that must be taken out for a wedding then it must be open to all people.

Should the state get out of the marriage business and just leave it to churches, mosques, temples and synagogues? What about all those people who have no faith, no religion at all? Should they be denied the opportunity for a civil and secular wedding?
The fundamentalist whether Jewish or Christian would claim that marriage is just the realm of religion. But this is not true. It is not true in our state and not true in our country.

If someone wants to have a religious or spiritual ceremony they certainly can. But let us not exclude those who want no religion as part of their ceremony. There were many lies told before Election Day in California. Let’s pray the State Supreme Court has the courage to undo the lies and deceit with a just ruling.

Posted by Jimmy at February 18, 2009 09:22 AM