Every Monday evening, a group of us at Temple B’nai Israel gather on Zoom to study a rabbinic text. We have looked at biblical texts with rabbinic commentaries, legal texts by Maimonides and others and, more recently, we have been reading from texts of the Midrash, various works of interpretation of the Bible focusing on the meaning of the words in all of their manifold connotations. Currently, we are studying the Midrash Tanchuma, a midrash on the entire Torah from the late 8th or early 9th century. Rabbi Tanchuma is not its author, but is one of the rabbis cited in this work. We decided to study the midrash on the weekly Torah portion each Monday night. Knowing that there was more material than we could cover in 90 minutes, we just jump in and go as far as we can each week, assuming as one often does with these rabbinic texts that we might get back to it at another time and go further.
This week’s Torah portion is Mishpatim. It is the parashah right after the giving of the Ten Commandments. It is filled with laws (mishpatim) that we are told were given to the Israelite people right after, or as a part of, the revelation at Mount Sinai. While some of those laws deal with matters of ritual, the emphasis in this portion seems to be on Mitzvot bein Adam l’Chavero, interpersonal mitzvot, laws of relations among people. Admittedly, not every rabbinic text is “relevant” to modern times, but again and again we are reminded that “the more things change, the more they remain the same,” “Plus ça change, plus c’est le même chose.” The opening passage of our study this week was a striking example of that and I felt I had to share it with a wider audience.
The weekly portion begins, “v’eleh hamishpatim, and these are the laws [which you shall set before them].” The Midrash frequently turns to verses found in the Ketuvim, the Writings, the later section of the Bible which includes Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and other texts, whose vocabulary is often unfamiliar and sometimes uncertain in its meaning even for biblical scholars. Its very uncertainty opens these verses to interpretation, often somewhat fanciful, to make its point regarding the text in the Torah from which it is attempting to draw a lesson. The verse chosen by our Midrashic teacher here is from Psalm 99, one of the Psalms read as part of Kabbalat Shabbat, the opening portion of the Friday evening service.
We read, “V’oz Melech mishpat ahev.” The footnote in the JPS Tanakh admits that the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain. Perfect for midrash! They translate it as “Mighty King who loves justice, it was You who established equity. You who worked righteous justice in Jacob.” A somewhat different translation is found in the ArtScroll siddur where we read, “Mighty is the King who loves justice. You founded fairness, the justice and righteousness of Jacob.” The midrash understands this verse to say, with all the might and glory, the greatness and power of God, who is known as the King of kings of kings, a ruler who can do whatever He wishes to do, He loves justice, loves the law, and acts in accordance with the law in His world. The midrash then continues to tell us about medieval kings, earthly rulers, that they know about. The usual practice, they say, is that whoever has power, does not desire to act in accordance with the law. He transgresses and violates the laws and statutes. He appropriates the property of people by force and pays them whatever he wants or simply takes from people without paying, violating the will of his maker. He shows favoritism in the law toward those who are his friends and relatives and acts unjustly toward those whom he hates. However, the midrash teaches us that God who rules over all the kings and so-called kings of kings, sets an example for these rulers. Loving justice, He acts in accordance with the law, everything He does follows the law.
Rabbi Jack Bloom in the volume he edited on Jewish Relational Care, understands the creation of humankind “b’tzelem Elohim,” not in the conventional translation of “in the image of God.” Rather, he reads the passage in Genesis as God created humankind modeled after God. Thus, we read in Deuteronomy (13:5), “Follow the Lord your God.” The Talmud asks, “Is it possible for a mortal to follow God’s presence?” The verse, they claim, teaches us to follow the attributes of God. God models for us the proper way to act in various places throughout the Torah. “As He clothes the naked (Adam and Eve), you should clothe the naked. As He visited the sick (Abraham after his briss), you should visit the sick. As He comforts the mourners (Isaac after his father’s death), you should comfort the mourners. As He buried the dead (Moses), you too should bury the dead.” In our Midrash, God models the proper behavior for a ruler. As the Psalmist proclaims, “God loves justice (mishpat).” With all the power we attribute to God, He could, we assume, do whatever He wanted. However, He models proper behavior for a ruler and accepts the rule of law and in this portion of the Torah, he teaches “V’eleh hamishpatim” these are the laws that we are to set before all the others, the proper treatment of our fellows.
The founders of this nation were very concerned that the country not be ruled by a King. They threw off the rule of the British monarch. There were difficult discussions at the Constitutional Convention about the office of President of the United States. Because of their very real concerns, the founders created a system of checks and balances, a legislative branch and a judiciary which were intended to provide guide rails for the behavior of the executive. Every president and every officer of the government is required to swear an oath to faithfully execute the office to which they were elected and, to the best of their ability to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. That document purports to represent the will of “We the People.”
In spite of these safeguards or in defiance of them, we have seen this president call himself “King.” Even without the title, he has already acted like the king described in our passage from the Midrash. He’s decided that he is above the law and not subject to the rules either in the Constitution or the statutes enacted by Congress. This should not be news to those who have followed his activities and statements from long before he was elected to a first term and ever since. I need not recite the record of defiance of the law dating back to his father’s day and up to this hour. Like a medieval potentate he has favored his loyalists and family members and threatened those who have disagreed with him. The text of the midrash sounds too much like “Breaking News.”
It is encouraging, however, to see some courts beginning to take action. Lawsuits being filed. People throughout the country have joined demonstrations. Of course, we have seen Democratic lawmakers and governors come out against the actions that have been taken, but this has gone beyond mere political rhetoric. However, even though their own states and people are suffering the consequences of the barrage of hateful, often poorly thought out, executive orders, we are still waiting for Republican governors and lawmakers to recognize the need for action. Nearly 250 years ago, General George Washington led our colonies in the battle to escape the rule of a foreign king. He later presided over the Constitutional Convention and reluctantly took on the office of President in the new government. He made it clear, however, that he was not a monarch and after his second term he returned to Mount Vernon.
We have no king, but the behavior described in Tanchuma sounds too familiar to us today. Governor Kathy Hochul of New York stated flat out that we have no king and rejected the president’s attempt to do away with a law in New York City that he didn’t like by fiat. The New York governor stood firm against him. Our governor, J.B. Pritzker, in his address earlier this week also spoke about kings and then went far beyond that, sounding an alarm. Pritzker cited his knowledge of the Nazi regime and his acquaintance with numerous Holocaust survivors. He stated, “I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now…If we do not want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.” Pritzker went on to say, “We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one.”
He recalled the attempt in 1978 of the neo-Nazis to march through Skokie where many Holocaust survivors were then living, and how after the issue of free speech was raised in the courts and it was ruled permissible to engage even in hate speech under the First Amendment, these haters decided not to go to Skokie, but chose to march in Chicago instead. Pritzker noted that after all of this, only 20 marchers showed up, but 2000 people came out to protest and after ten minutes, “the rally sputtered to an unspectacular end,” according to the Chicago Tribune.
The Governor ended his remarks by saying, “Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So,” he urged,”gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the ‘tragic spirit of despair’ overcome us when our country needs us the most.”
We have seen the mockery that this regime and its followers have made of the teachings of religion. Even as they try to impose their ideas of religious doctrine on others, they ignore the fundamental teachings of the religions they profess. Jesus would be appalled at the way they are treating what he called “the least of my brothers.” If we humans were modeled after God, as Rabbi Bloom suggests, then regardless of how much power any official may be granted, we expect that, like God Himself, they respect the law, they follow the statutes and the Constitution. “V’oz Melech mishpat ahev,” the Mighty King loves justice and it behooves those given power by law, to act only in accordance with that law.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Edward Friedman
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