By Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel in Chula Vista, California
This week’s Torah portion focuses on an old but familiar theme: the social laws known as Mishpatim. In this Parsha, we discover that the God of Exodus is the God of history and of political liberation more than he is the God of nature.
The Torah starts with the laws regarding how we treat slaves. You might wonder: Why begin with slavery? Surely, Moses should have prohibited slavery! Yet, the real test of an ethical society is how we treat those members of society who depend upon us for their livelihoods. Whether you are a house cleaner or a doorman, everyone deserves respect!
The laws of Mishpatim aim to help create a just and sensitive society based upon the memory of the Exodus. How we treat others matters. Fairness, equity, fighting for the rights of the widow, poor, and resident alien ought to reflect the ethos of a newly liberated people. Justice, in the final analysis, must also be liberating.
This sounds fine and good. However, one law stands out from all the others that, on the surface, does not really belong to the social legislation of our parsha—a dietary law regarding not cooking a kid in its mother’s milk.
To anyone studying the parsha, this obviously looks rather strange: Why do we have a dietary law in a parsha dealing with justice?
The ancient philosopher of Judaism, Philo of Alexandria, writes that this dietary prohibition’s purpose stresses the importance of treating all of God’s creatures with justice. Milk exists for the welfare of an animal’s young; God never intended that it be used as a seasoning after the young animal’s death. The theme of justice is not limited to just the human realm; there is an eco-ethic that must also pertain to the rest of Creation.
Oftentimes, in our desire to be good and pious Jews, people often go to extreme measures in keeping the kosher dietary laws today. Most of us are familiar with the phrase, “Glatt kosher,” or mehadrin min hamihadrin. This level of impeccability is more often limited to just the dietary laws.
The Purpose of the Dietary Laws
To combat this misperception, the Torah introduces a new spiritual paradigm:
The concept of Kosher is not limited to just the Jewish dietary laws. There is a kashrut that affects a whole matrix of interpersonal relationships. Business relationships also have a kosher dimension: there is a permitted way of doing business and a forbidden way of doing business. How we treat our workers is also governed by the same principle. There is a permitted way of how we ought to relate to workers, and there are forbidden ways of treating a worker. Kashrut applies no less to the sphere of human communication.
The spoken word can bring healing and strength or bring death and ruination to a person’s reputation. It isn’t just what comes in the mouth that defiles; it’s what comes outside of the mouth that defiles as well. Speech needs sanctification even more so than food.
In short, a just society demands that we conduct business be exemplary; if we can be fastidious with Kashrut laws, then we need to be no less fastidious with the laws governing interpersonal conduct. There can be no room for ethical mediocrity.
THE DANGERS OF ETHICAL MINIMALISM
Indeed, the Talmud itself teaches in the name of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zacai, the hero who kept Judaism alive after the destruction of the Temple; he observes probably toward the end of his life, “Jerusalem was destroyed only because they rendered judgments only in accordance with the strict letter of biblical law and did not seek to expand beyond it [lifnim mishurat ha-din].’”
That is why we need a Judaism that shatters the barriers of ethical minimalism; we must also live beyond the letter and embrace the spirit of our ethical tradition. Piety cannot be just limited to the realm of ritual, but is always dedicated to the pursuit of virtue for virtue’s own sake, as Philo of Alexandria explains throughout his writings.
The 12th century Kabbalist and commentator, Ramban, concurs with Philo and writes that one can truly be observant of the law in its entirety and still be a moral idiot.
Law and law codes can go only so far. True goodness and righteousness demand that we follow the laws and go beyond them in our actions.
About ten years or so ago, Hurricane Charley struck Florida, causing considerable damage despite the relatively low loss of human life. But in its wake, it raised all sorts of questions about the ethical behavior of price-gouging.
Two-dollar bags of ice went for ten dollars; since the storm occurred in the middle of a hot summer, people had no choice but to pay the price. Power generators that normally went for $200 now sell for $2000. A motel room that normally went for $40.00 went for $160 a night.
Historically, in medieval times, philosophers and theologians believed that the exchange of goods should be governed by a “just price,” determined by tradition or the intrinsic value of things. But in market societies, the economists observed, prices are set by supply and demand.
Ergo, there is no such thing as a “just price.”
But from a Judaic perspective, the real question that we need to ask is: Just because it is permitted, is it moral to take advantage of other people’s misery? The Florida governor, Charlie Crist, correctly observes:
“It is astounding to me, the level of greed that someone must have in their soul to be willing to take advantage of someone suffering in the wake of a hurricane.”
Florida has a law against price gouging, and in the aftermath of the hurricane, the attorney general’s office received more than two thousand complaints. Some led to successful lawsuits. A Days Inn in West Palm Beach had to pay $70,000 in penalties and restitution for overcharging customers.
It is human nature to try to get something for nothing; it happened in New Orleans after Katrina and now in Haiti, where tents, shelter, and food are being sold for the highest price.
This is but one example of why the purpose of the mishpatim aims not just to create a society of ethical minimalists; its ultimate goal is to create a society where the pursuit of virtue is passionate and all-embracing—such qualities are necessary for any good society.
And now you know that kashrut can serve as a model for ethical life.
As Robert O. Johann writes:
Whatever ultimate meaning life may have,
this much can be said already–
Life is a call to share in the world’s making.
It is a chance to intervene, to contribute,
to enhance what exists
by the sheer power
of one’s own presence and activity.
One cannot be good simply by avoiding evil.
To be indifferent or apathetic
to the needs of one’s neighbor,
to stand aloof from a world begging for help,
is already guilty.
*
Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel is the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Chula Vista, California.