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In general, people don't like to be told what to do but would rather make their own judgments... However the various moral rules of Torah may be likened to guideposts along the way, warning us about dangers up ahead. And just as a physical law like gravity describes material reality, so a moral law describes spiritual reality. We can no more deny moral reality than we can deny physical reality, though the effect of violating moral truth is not physical but spiritual - affecting our inner life, our conscience, our sense of value, and so on. In either case, however, we deny reality at our own peril.
Many "laws" serve as empirical generalizations, of course. In science, for instance, we inductively sample phenomena and then universalize our hypothesis as a "law" that is (tentatively) applicable in all similarly controlled conditions -- at least until proven otherwise. In the case of moral reality, however, our methods of knowing are different. We do not use inductive reasoning to see what is right or wrong, but instead use moral principles that are "hard-wired" into our souls that we bring to experience...
We do not have to empirically determine through observation whether murder is wrong, for instance, since we know it is wrong both by revelation ("Thou shalt not murder"), and by the light of moral intuition as well. In some cases Biblical revelation is intuitively obvious. For example, premeditated murder of another person is morally wrong in any conceivable circumstance. The same made be said of torture, sexual crimes, treason, deception, and so on. The rational test here may be expressed by Immanuel Kant's "categorical imperative," that is, to see if you can consistently will your action to be a universal law of nature or not. Stealing, for instance, is irrational because if everyone were steal, the concept of private property would be destroyed. Likewise lying is irrational because it presupposes the validity and significance of truth, and if everyone lied, then truth itself would be meaningless. This is the basis, after all of both the "Silver Rule" ("Do not do to others what you would not want done to yourself") and the "Golden Rule" ("Do to others as you would want done to yourself"). In both cases reciprocity is universalized and the test is to see if the action is devoid of special pleading and the biases of self-interest.
No culture in the history of the world has ever celebrated traitors, cowards, liars, thieves, political tyrants, murderers, rapists, those who brutalize the innocent, and so on. And every culture has instinctively valued life, truth-telling, courage, honor, generosity, and so on. C.S. Lewis calls the belief that "certain attitudes are really true, and others really false, to the kind of thing the universe is and the kind of things we are" the Tao, or the "Way" that is intuited by simple refection about the nature of reality.
Now on the other hand, there are some (very) qualified exceptions to our basic moral intuitions. For instance, the moral universal to "always speak truth" may be "broken" (or temporarily suspended) for the sake of a more important truth. For instance, if we deceived a psychopath armed with an axe who sought to murder someone, we would be exempt from the basic rule to always speak the truth by misleading him. In Jewish thought this is called "pikuach nefesh" (פיקוח נפש), which means "saving a soul." This principle is grounded in the verse from the Torah that says: "You shall keep my statutes and my judgments; which if a person does them he shall find life in them: I am the LORD" (Lev. 18:5).
There are "weightier matters" of Torah that imply showing mercy rather than following the "letter of the law" (Matt. 23:23; Micah 6:8). Yeshua often used the Sabbath day as a test case, and he pointed to commonsense exceptions to the law when mercy was needed more than religious practices (Hosea 6:6). He mentioned giving water to a thirsty donkey or rescuing a sheep that fell into a well as examples (Luke 13:15, Matt. 12:11). And Yeshua regularly denounced those Pharisees who fancied themselves to be "gatekeepers" of the Torah to exemplify those who missed the point. He said, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27-28). To make his point, he went into a synagogue and publicly instructed a man with a withered hand to stand up. Yeshua then said to the Pharisees present: "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?" But they were silent. After looking around at them in anger, grieved by the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored." Upon seeing this, the Pharisees "left immediately and began plotting how they could kill him" (Mark 3:1-6).
The mishpatim refer to judgments we inevitably must make in life, and what is required is practical discernment, that is, being able to balance the ideals of justice and love. It is often a struggle to strike the right balance, and the temptation is to lean to one side or the other. We might stress strict justice in the heat of outrage over a transgression, or we might stress unconditional love because of our own need for forgiveness. The Torah, however, as well as Yeshua, emphasizes kindness over matters of justice. For instance in our Torah portion we read: "If you lend money to any of my people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him; you shall not charge him interest. If you ever take your neighbor's garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What will he sleep in? And it will be that when he cries to Me, I will hear -- כִּי־חַנּוּן אָנִי -- for I am gracious" (Exod. 22:25-27). Note that empathy for the needs of others is important, for the "essence of the Torah is mercy."
There are so many law, rules, ordinances, and "mishpatim," given in Torah that it almost seems overwhelming, though I think this is intended to wake us up to how delicate the balance must be to ensure godly choices. All our social interactions require careful discernment and wisdom from God. Our choices and actions have eternal significance and the mishpatim remind us of this truth. Just as the Shema invites us to love God in every experience, so the mishpatim invite us to do so in all our choices...
Moral and social rules speak to our need for boundaries, for sacred space, safety, and provide the means to show respect to one another. That's the "spirit of the law," the deeper reason for its expression. The "role of the rule" is to promote and upbuild life; a righteous interpretation of the use of a rule helps us discern how to limit and redirect our impulses to express godly character. "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Gal. 5:25).
Hebrew Lesson
Leviticus 18:5 reading (click for audio):
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Note: A somewhat mixed case, involving both physical and spiritual reality, is given in our Torah reading this week: "You shall be sacred to me (קדֶשׁ תִּהְיוּן לִי); therefore you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the field" (Exod. 22:31). Why not eat such meat? Because it may both cause physical sickness (i.e., disease) while it also violates the dignity of our life, causing spiritual sickness, too.
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