Rabbi's Blog

The most dominant technological device to emerge and steadily improve in sophistication, ease of use, and coverage over the last ten years is the cellphone. On average, people tend to upgrade or purchase a totally new cell phone every two years. Cleaver marketing plans presented by cell phone companies constantly present supposedly bigger and better deals to their customers. Cell phone manufacturers perpetually tweak their products, working  to eliminate the glitches or ‘hiccups’ in their products. One such issue that is slowly but finally phasing out is the voice command feature, a wonderful tool when you can’t actually push the buttons. Unfortunately, one of the side effects of this feature is that it sometimes activates without the user intending it to do so. As Murphy’s law dictates, this feature activates at the most inappropriate times, typically causing the cell phone possessor to hear, “Please say a command.” After a while we grow frustrated with this unintended occurrence and yell back ‘be quiet’ or leave me alone’ or something worse.

There are times in life when we hear ‘commands’ from people of authority. Whether it be from parents, teachers, or law enforcement there is a level of obligation we requiring us to take heed. When I was in Yeshiva in Israel, one of the Rabbeim, Rabbi Price, was nicknamed ‘the sheriff’. A few times a day - before davening Shacharis,  a few rounds during the late morning and even in the early afternoon -  he would walk through the dormitory banging on the doors trying to wake up the guys. His famous line after pounding on the door was, “Open up in the name of the law!” causing us to endow him with the nickname ‘the sheriff’.  Over time, Rabbi Price was able to round up more and more students to come learn and daven due to his extraordinary efforts. It was especially difficult to ignore Rabbi Price, who schlepped himself to wake us up due to the fact that he was living with a debilitating muscle disease, making it difficult for him to walk.

Another time we find ourselves dealing with ‘having to do something’ is centered around religion.  Once again, a parent, teacher, or  authority figure tells us to do something and we ask, “But why?” More often than not the answer we receive is, “Because the Torah says so!” It is the automatic, ultimate response when the authority has no other answer but just to say that God commands it and therefore you have to do it. It is irrelevant for now whether or not this is an effective tool; it is just the reality that we face when dealing with certain religious issues.

I would like to suggest that the three types of commands I have described can be viewed through the purview of the Torah. In this week’s Parshas Chukas we learn about the mitzvah of the Parah Adumah, the red heifer. Many of the commentaries explain that this mitzvah is a ‘chok’, a law that we do not understand and therefore cannot explain the reasoning behind it. A quick synopsis of the mitzvah is to take a completely red heifer, slaughter it, burn it and mix the ashes with water and earth making a compound that will be sprinkled on the third and seventh day upon a person who came in contact with corpse, causing impurity during the purification process. Odd as it may seem, the person doing the sprinkling needs to be pure and after purifying the Tamei – impure -  person will then himself become impure. (albeit not the same degree or kind of impurity).

The general understanding of Mitzvos places them in two categories: Chukim and Mishpatim - laws and statutes. This is specifically in regard to the understanding the reasons behind the mitzvos. Mishpatim are those Mitzvos we understand and Chukim are those Mitzvos we don’t understand.  Mishpatim are Mitzvos that we as human beings would come up with ourselves if we needed to create a legal system such as do not kill, do not steal, and so forth.  Chukim, on the other hand, are Mitzvos we would not likely come up with on our own as we would not be able to grasp the reason or benefit to these MItzvos.  Chukim include Mitzvos such as Shaatnez (forbidden mixtures), throwing the he-goat off the cliff during the Yom Kippur service, and the main mitzvah of this week’s Parsha, the Parah Aduma – the red heifer.

Rabbeini Bachya and others actually divide the chok (inability to understand) category of Mitzvos into two parts. He lists three categories namely: mitzvos muskalos -  of the intellect, mitzvos m’kubalos -  accepted ones, and mitzvos that don’t have any rhyme or reason. He demonstrates the three categories as Chukim, Eidus, and Mishpatim. The Mishpatim are the mitzvos I mentioned earlier: don’t kill, don’t steal. Eidus, or testimony, is a kind of chok but those are represented by the mitzvos such as tefillin, tzitzis, bris milah, sukkah, shofar, lulav, and so forth.  While we can not fully understand or appreciate the significance of these commandments, we know that they arenevertheless  a testimonial about God and His role in the creation and ongoing keeping up of the world.

I think the cell phone is an example of the Mishpatim. Just say a command that we are accustomed to hearing about. It is just a reminder of something that I myself know how and why I need to follow. In the second example, the sheriff represents the ‘eidus’ testimony:  we knew we had to get up to daven.  To do so connected each of us to our history and heritage as  Jews. Learning and davening is the key reminder of who we are as individuals and as a people in the history of the world -  past, present and future. The third example of “Just do it because I said so!” is the ‘chok’ -  the mitzvah without further explanation or even need of connection. Shlomo HaMelech in Mishlei/Proverbs describes that even he did not understand the mitzvah of the red heifer. King Solomon, the wisest of all men, performed a mitzvah that even he could not understand.

I often hear challenges or reasoning from people who challenge strictly following the Torah’s observance today. They argue that some of the Mitzvos no longer apply to us today. Science, medicine and technology have shown things contrary to some of the practices mentioned in both the written and oral law of the Torah. Hashem reserved one Mitzva, namely the parah aduma, that is clueless to everyone anywhere the world. This sends a message that just as that mitzvah is not understood and one may try to give reasons why it should or should not be followed or practiced,  we still  fulfill it without question. So too, with the Mishpatim and Eidus category of Mitzvos. We must comply to the letter of the law and not come up with our own reasons of why we should or should not do something today.

We do NOT know ALL the reasons behind any of the Mitzvos and therefore must follow the Torah regardless of what society comes up with -  for or against. Let us figure out ways to fulfill the mitzvos and observe the laws of the Torah with faith and commitment to Hashem and His laws instead of trying to argue why we shouldn’t have to follow certain Mitzvos because we humans are not able to comprehend their purpose or meaning.        

Ah Gut Shabbos

Rabbi Avraham Bogopulsky