Rules That Make for Better Living Together

Yesterday, the Ten Commandments were read as part of the weekly parasha, יִתְר֨וֹ. I stood there to hear them recited, symbolically standing once again at Sinai. They are indeed basic underpinnings for the smooth and peaceful functioning of a society.

But the parasha for this new week, מִּשְׁפָּטִ֔ים, is among my favorites. It gets into the nitty-gritty of the laws designed to govern a society that runs on compassion and mutual respect. It is here that we are admonished to remember those who might fall by the wayside in a community: the widows, the orphans, the immigrants, the poor. Your employees too are not to be abused. Even animals are included: they are to rest on Shabbat or during a Sabbatical year along with the land and all the people; if you see one fallen or overburdened, you are to assist it, even if it belongs to your enemy; if you find one wandering on the road, you are to return it to its owner, again even if that is your enemy.

Justice should be impartial. You should not bend over backwards to favor the rich in a decision – or the poor either, for that matter. You should not take bribes. Witnesses must give truthful testimony.

In my years of community-building, and a lifetime of caring about mutual respect and compassion, I find the various commandments in this parasha compelling. The seven Noahide laws, which are intended to apply to all humanity, are rudimentary but already include a provision for setting up a government – executive, judicial, and legislative functions – in your community. The Ten Commandments raise the standards for living in community somewhat higher; they were intended to apply solely to the Jewish people (we don’t expect the entire world to adhere to all of our requirements), but they have been adopted fairly generally in the west because they do make a lot of sense for living together in a safe and secure community.

But this week’s parasha elevates the level of mandated caring in the community vastly higher, adding respect for the dignity of the other – lovingkindness and compassion – looking after those who might otherwise fall through the cracks because they don’t have a strong enough voice in our world to be noticed, not to exclude animals.

My son is my lodestar in this realm. In high school, he became a vegetarian because animals have no advocates and cannot speak for themselves. He is now an attorney who is actively involved in guardianships of abused children and of lesser-abled adults, and he serves as court-appointed attorney for many indigent defendants who deserve high-quality representation in order to see that justice is done. He is my hero and my role model, and my hopes for a more civil society, respectful of human dignity across the spectrum, rest on him and those of his generation who share his values.