This Shabbat we read more commandments, laws and rules that are in any other parsha. It is one that has some very famous commandments.
Friday night, as part of our series on Love in February, we talked about the reason for rules. In both Ahavat Olam and Ahavah Rabbah we praise for giving us the Toah, filled with mitzvah, hukki and as the title of this week’s portion calls the mishpatim. They are a sign that G-d loves us. Yes, G-d loves us. And as we discussed, while we may rile against rules, loving parents provide rules as a structure, as a limit, to keep us safe.
The Sh’ma, the watchword of our faith, the proclamation that G-d is one, is blanketed by love. The prayer Ahavah Rabbah is called the great love. Deep is G-d’s love for us. We know this because G-d gave us Torah. After the Sh’ma, we chant the V’ahavta, commanding us to love G-d with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our might or being. I often say with all our everything. But the mental health professionals tell us that we can’t legislate an emotion. So how can the Torah tell us that we have to love love G-d, that we are obligated to, that it is a commandment? What if the text that follows is a recipe for love? How we demonstrate love. We teach our children diligently. We talk about these very words at home and away. Yes, that means even when you are driving carpool and swinging through a fast food drive through. We inscribe them on the doorposts of our house—those mezuzot—and they are wrapped on our arms and a sign before our eyes.
The Torah text when the 10 Commandments are given is interesting. We are told that the Israelites said that “na’aseh v’nishma, we will do and we will hear.” How is that possible? How can they do the commandments before they hear them. Maybe it is like this? Maybe we do before we love.
In any case, my class on meditating on these very words, when I rise up and when I lie down, has been very informative. I would say that I am still not a good mediator. I do much better with walking meditations. However, this class on Receiving and Extending Love has enriched my life and my understanding of these three prayers in profound and unexpected ways.
Today’s portion has one particular law that I want to expound upon:
When [two or more] parties fight, and one of them pushes a pregnant woman and a miscarriage results, but no other damage ensues, the one responsible shall be fined according as the woman’s husband may exact, the payment to be based on reckoning But if other damage ensues, the penalty shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
As Tevy would say, “Very good. That way the whole world will be blind and toothless.” (Tevye, in Fiddler on the Roof)
We are all familiar with the concept of an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth. In some cultures, this is still how justice is enacted.
But maybe not in classical Jewish thought. Rabbi Jonathan Kligler reminds us that as early as the Talmud, which codified both written and oral Toah, that Judaism saw this mandate as specifying not capital punishment but financial restitution. https://www.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/eye-for-an-eye/
There is a difference between Torah law and rabbinic law, but the reality is that we are all rabbinic Jews. We talk about Written Law (the Torah) and Oral Law, those things handed down from G-d to Moses at Sinai, then passed to Joshua, the prophets, the (men) of the Great Assembly, Sandhedrin and the rabbis. That for thousands of years, rabbis have interpreted and changed Torah precepts and made Judaism what it is today. Judaism did not get stuck with just the pronouncements on the mountain—or Moses’s words Deuteronomy. No, rather, Judaism evolved and continued to evolve.
Kligler says that he thinks it is “necessary to continue to remind us of this fact because of the durable stereotype that much Christian thought foists upon the Jews: Judaism is the religion of law, while Christianity is the religion of love. In that telling, when Christianity emerged, Judaism somehow became frozen in time, rejecting the New Testament, forever stranded in the obsolete ancient paradigm of harsh justice that Christianity was here to transcend.
That means that Judaism IS a religion of love. It is not just Christianity. And we see it clearly in how Judaism mitigated the harsh rule of an eye for an eye.
In cases of capital law, the dispute concerning such a prohibition is with regard to the issue that is the subject of the dispute between Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi and the Rabbis, as it is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi says with regard to that which is written: “If men struggle and they hurt a pregnant woman…and if there shall be a tragedy you shall give a life for a life” (Exodus 21:22–23), the reference is to a monetary payment for the life that he took. The tragedy referenced is the unintentional killing of the mother. (Sandhedrin 87b-10)
Similarly, we learn in the passage in Mishnah Makkot 1:10: “A Sanhedrin that puts a man to death once in seven years is called a murderous one. R. Eleazar ben Azariah says ‘Or even once in 70 years.’ R. Tarfon and R. Akiva said, ‘If we had been in the Sanhedrin no death sentence would ever have been passed’; Rabban Simeon b. Gamaliel said: ‘If so, they would have multiplied murderers in Israel.'”
Maimonides, the Rambam, continued this line of thinking:
“How do we know that the intent of the Torah‘s statement with regard to the loss of a limb, “an eye for an eye,” is financial restitution? That same verse continues “a blow for a blow.” And with regard to the penalty for giving a colleague a blow, it is explicitly stated: “When a man strikes his colleague with a stone or a fist . . . he should pay for his being idled and for his medical expenses.”5 Thus, we learn that the word tachat (תחת) mentioned with regard to a blow indicates the necessity for financial restitution, and so one can conclude that the meaning of the same word with regard to an eye or another limb is also financial restitution. Although these interpretations are obvious from the study of the Written Law, and they are explicitly mentioned in the Oral Tradition transmitted by Moses from Mount Sinai, they are all regarded as halachot from Moses (i.e. oral tradition going back to Sinai). This is what our ancestors saw in the court of Joshua and in the court of Samuel of Ramah, and in every single Jewish court that has functioned from the days of Moses our teacher until the present age
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/capital-punishment
This weekend is known nationally in the Jewish community as “Repro Shabbat,” sponsored by the National Council of Jewish Women. Congregations all over the United States are studying these very texts, precisely because of the verses we just looked at.
There are a number of directions we could go. The first would be the rules and interpretations around the topic of miscarriage and abortion.
Let me be clear, I have studied these carefully for years. This topic, however, may not be the most relevent to those of us gathered here today. It may be of supreme importance to your children or grandchildren. However, if you or your daughters or granddaughter, need an abortion and are having a hard time finding access to one under the current laws emerging across the Untied States, I will sit with you, I will hold your hand and I will help you find access to one that is safe. Period. And if you are struggling with infertility or have had miscarriages, I will sit with you. I will hold your hand. I will cry with you. And I will help you find access to quality medical care.
What I really want to talk about is access. It is not just abortion or contraception—which the way we are restricting it is a violation of one of the Unted States founding principles of separation of church and state and freedom of religion.
As Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg has said, As Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg has said so eloquently:
“Our access to reproductive health care is guaranteed not only by the Fourteenth Amendment ━ the right to equality and privacy ━ but also by the First Amendment’s guarantee that no one religion or religious interpretation will be enshrined in law or regulation. The fact that the Supreme Court does not currently recognize this does not change the fact that we are entitled to these rights under law.” She provides all the classical texts here: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/234926.19?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en
In addition, as our nation restricts access to abortion, we are restricting access to medical care and reducing maternal health. This is particulaly true for people of color!
The statistics are overwhelming. And I have them!
In 2020, the latest available data, the maternal mortality rate for non-Hispanic Black women was 55.3 per 100,000 live births. The national average is 23. 23 and 55 may not sound high until you realize that the next highest country is New Zealand with only 12 and the Netherlands had 0. Our rates in this country are higher than any other industrialized nation. There is no reason that women need to tie in order to give birth. This is about access.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/maternal-mortality/2020/maternal-mortality-rates-2020.htm
Yet it is not just maternal health we need to worry about. It is all women’s heath care.
How many of you have been to a doctor and been told,” it is just stress” or “you should just lose weight? How many of you have thought your concerns were not taken seriously, that you were not listened to?
One big area is around heart disease. Appropriate for sure this weekend where we wrap up our series on love and heart. There is a reason we are hosting CPR this weekend. First it is the yahrzeit of a member’s father who died at a synagogue from a heart attack because there was not an AED and no one was trained. We have an AED because of a grant from the City of Elgin and now all of our teachers will be trained. Don’t stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds.
When I run on the elliptical, I sing a Hebrew song from the Amidah. “V’tahar libeinu l’avdecha b’emet, Cleanse our hearts that we might serve You in truth.” Itsrhythm is just right for me and keeps my legs and my arms pounding. Exercise and activity are good for our hearts, right?
Yet heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States. And according to the CDC, cardiovascular disease in women remains under diagnosed and undertreated in part because of a belief that it just affects men. However, one in five American women deaths are caused by heart disease.
We need to learn the symptoms of heart disease in women. These include:
Although some women have no symptoms, others may have5
- Some women have no symptoms or they may experience:
- Angina (dull and heavy or sharp chest pain or discomfort)
- Pain in the neck, jaw, or throat
- Pain in the upper abdomen or back
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6206467/
Access to quality health care is not just a problem for women and gifls in the US. It is a worldwide problem.
The World Economic Forum makes these recommendations of what we can learn about health care for women coming out of the pandemic so that women and girls are not left behind:
- Give a voice to women and girls: policymakers and stakeholders must include women and girls at the centre of recovery processes and listen to their needs, challenges and solutions. Empowering women and girls has proven to increase the health and well-being of the entire family and community.
- The right to sexual and reproductive health: recognize and normalize women’s health services as essential health services during outbreaks and crises, and support the World Health Organization’s operational guidance for maintaining essential health services during an outbreak.
- Shift mindsets and embrace positive changes: women and girls from developed and developing countries are facing inequalities and neglect and it’s everyone’s task to wake up, recognize the hard reality and become an active actor in the solution process.
- Bring girls and young women back to school: seize the opportunity to transform the education system by promoting distance learning programmes for everyone including the most marginalized, and integrate new teaching methods addressing girls and young women’s unique needs for safety, health and well-being
Many of us in this room are privileged, lucky even. We have access to health care when we need it. We will continue to have access, even as costs go higher and higher. That is not true for everyone, especially women and especially women of color. I am proud to serve with Michael Isaacson on the Kane County Health Board and the Saint Joseph Leadership board to make sure that women, all women have access to quality health care.
As we enter Adar, the month of Purim, I am reminded of what Mordecai said to Esther.
if you keep silent in this crisis, relief and deliverance will come from another quarter. And who knows, perhaps you have attained to royal position for just such a crisis.”