Parshas Mishpatim
Head and Shoulders Above the Rest
By Rabbi Pinchas Avruch
"And these are the 'mishpatim' (civil ordinances) that you shall place
before them" (Shemos/Exodus 21:1) The miraculous Revelation at Sinai, at
which the Jewish nation eternally accepted upon themselves the Divine gift
of the Torah, is followed by seventy five verses of tort, judicial and other
civil laws. This juxtaposition indicates that the Torah does not view
religion as exclusively the dominion of ritual and spirituality. To the
contrary, all areas of life are interconnected; holiness derives from Torah
consistent business dealings the same as it comes from Torah consistent
Sabbath observance. But the lengthy sequence of laws addressing all realms
of jurisprudence and personal and property damage concludes with the Kosher
law mandating the separation of milk and meat. This law appears to be
totally irrelevant to all that preceded it. Why is it here?
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888; Rabbi of Frankfurt-am-Main; great
leader of the modern German-Jewish Orthodox community) explains that the
"mishpatim", built on the principles of human rights and brotherly love,
cannot rely on legal enforcement. It was to the G-d fearing respect of His
law by His people that G-d entrusted the keeping of His dictates of social
rights and behaviors. Not mere outward conformity to the law, but loyalty
and faithful adhesion to the underlying principles of the law forms the
character of Jewish citizens. Thus, G-d appointed as the guardian of His law
the only individual who follows the Jew in every precinct of his life, the
one who accompanies the Jew into the innermost spheres of his home: the Jew
himself.
The law of meat and milk - which forbids not only eating the mixture, but
even cooking them together or benefiting from it (using it as animal feed or
selling it) - unlike the other restrictions from foods which the Torah tells
us will contaminate our fiber once they are ingested, is within the greater
realm of G-d's Law of Species. These laws, such as not plowing with an ox
and donkey together or not wearing garments of linen and wool woven or sewn
together, remind the Jew that all the activities with which he masters over
and uses for his own purposes the elements of the organic world are subject
to the rules of the Great Creator of the Laws of Nature, to remind him that
the One who created the laws of each species that are ingrained in the core
of their very existence has dictated our obedient faith to maintaining these
laws.
Nourishment and reproduction mark the lowest form of organic life, the
plants. Animals are marked by the addition of locomotion and thought to
pursue these needs. But these capabilities are almost exclusively for the
service of the "vegetative" needs; the animal's thoughts and movements are
dedicated to fulfilling the needs of food and reproduction. An animal is
basically a moving, thinking plant. Milk represents the "vegetative" side of
the animal - food and procreation - while meat, the muscles, are the
embodiment of the animal's unique locomotion. The intermixture of meat and
milk are the representation of movement and thought controlled by the allure
of food and sexual life. Mankind is different. While endowed with the same
systems - "vegetable" and animal - man is also given a third system: the
understanding and discerning thought, elevated from the thought of the
animal by the breath of G-d. By exercising his will, he controls the two
realms of his nature; in man, thought and action do not fall under the
domination of alimentation and sexual life. This is represented by the
stature of man versus animals. An animal, traveling on four legs, finds the
powers of thought, movement (by the primary muscle masses of the torso),
digestion and procreation all to be on the same physical plane, no one
higher than the other. The human on two feet has his head above all, the
power in intelligent thought towering above the rest.
Rabbi Hirsch concludes that the human powers of "meat" and "milk" cannot
intermix and serve each other, for they are each subordinate to spiritual
morality of the discerning Jew. Consumption and absorption by the human of
this mixture are the reverse of the true function of the human. Further,
they are a derision and mockery of the Law of Species as it applies to
people, inasmuch as such a mixture lowers the morally free human creature
down to the level of the unfree, instinctive animal. A person cognizant of
his role in the world has no business even creating such a mixture or
benefiting from such a mixture, no less consuming such a mixture. Thus, the
Jew's awareness of his role and utilization of intelligent thought toward
its fulfillment - the lesson of meat and milk - are the epitome of the
sacred trust given to us with the "mishpatim".
Have a Good Shabbos!
Copyright © 2003 by Rabbi Pinchas Avruch and Project Genesis, Inc.
Kol HaKollel is a publication of the Milwaukee Kollel Center for Jewish
Studies 5007 West Keefe Avenue; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; 414-447-7999
