B’nai Israel were given 3 types of Commandments from Hashem:

#1-Mishpatim

#2-Mitzvot

#3-Chukim

What is the difference between these three types of Commandments?

#1-Mishpatim are laws concerning issues between Human & Human and all the nations of the world adopted them as well.  These are the laws that make sense such as don’t steal, don’t cheat, don’t lie, don’t hit, don’t use people for your own pleasure, don’t be jealous etc.

Rabbi Yochanan says that if we didn’t have the Torah we would have been able to learn some common sense laws for everyday life from animals such as

in Gamara Eruvin 100:2

דְּאָמַר רַבִּי חִיָּיא, מַאי דִּכְתִיב: ״מַלְּפֵנוּ מִבַּהֲמוֹת אָרֶץ וּמֵעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם יְחַכְּמֵנוּ״. ״מַלְּפֵנוּ מִבַּהֲמוֹת״ — זוֹ פְּרֵידָה, שֶׁכּוֹרַעַת וּמַשְׁתֶּנֶת מַיִם. ״וּמֵעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם יְחַכְּמֵנוּ״ — זֶה תַּרְנְגוֹל, שֶׁמְּפַיֵּיס וְאַחַר כָּךְ בּוֹעֵל.

As Rabbi Ḥiyya said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “Who teaches us by the beasts of the earth, and makes us wiser by the birds of the sky” (Job 35:11)? He explains: “Who teaches us by the beasts of the earth?”; This is the female mule, which crouches and urinates, from which we learn modesty. “And who makes us wiser by the birds of the sky?”; this is the rooster, which first cajoles the hen and then mates with it.

אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן: אִילְמָלֵא לֹא נִיתְּנָה תּוֹרָה, הָיִינוּ לְמֵידִין צְנִיעוּת מֵחָתוּל, וְגָזֵל מִנְּמָלָה, וַעֲרָיוֹת מִיּוֹנָה. דֶּרֶךְ אֶרֶץ מִתַּרְנְגוֹל — שֶׁמְּפַיֵּיס וְאַחַר כָּךְ בּוֹעֵל.

Similarly, Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Even if the Torah had not been given, we would nonetheless have learned modesty from the cat, which covers its excrement, and that stealing is objectionable from the ant, which does not take grain from another ant, and forbidden relations from the dove, which is faithful to its partner, and proper relations from the rooster, which first appeases the hen and then mates with it.

וּמַאי מְפַיֵּיס לַהּ? אָמַר רַב יְהוּדָה אָמַר רַב, הָכִי קָאָמַר לַהּ: זָבֵינְנָא לִיךְ זִיגָא דְּמָטוּ לִיךְ עַד כַּרְעָיךְ, לְבָתַר הָכִי אָמַר לַהּ: לִישְׁמַטְתֵּיהּ לְכַרְבַּלְתֵּיהּ דְּהָהוּא תַּרְנְגוֹלָא אִי אִית לֵיהּ וְלָא זָבֵינְנָא לִיךְ.

What does the rooster do to appease the hen? Rav Yehuda said that: Prior to mating, it spreads its wings as if to say this: I will buy you a coat that will reach down to your feet. After mating, the rooster bends its head as if to say this: May the crest of this rooster fall off if he has the wherewithal and does not buy you one. I simply have no money to do so. These are some examples:

When Hashem created the animals, he gave each type of animal a different type of character trait in order to be able to survive on their own instincts and in order for us to learn from them.  As a matter of fact, the Mishna tells us that Hashem created every human being with a combination of all the characteristic traits of the animals and the only difference between human & animal is that:

#1 An animal has no free will and they can’t talk like a human.

A human can adapt to any type of animal character trait, whatever type of person they want to be, they can be.  It’s their choice. They can be good or bad.  They can be kind or evil. To protect humans from sinning, Hashem gave us the Torah to live by.

*For example, if a human would watch a cat and see that after the cat defecates, they cover everything so that #1 it does not smell and #2 no one should step on it. Something nice to learn.

*Another example is the ant.  When the ant carries food, none of the other ants will steal from them, they will come over to help.  Something nice to learn.

*From The Doves we learn how to be true love birds:  how not to cheat on our spouse.  Doves are very loyal to each other and if one of the love birds dies the other love bird will never get remarried and have another spouse.

So we can learn a lot from nature, we can choose to be kind, we can choose to be honest, we can choose to be sincere, we can choose to be modest etc…

The Torah teaches us that these types of laws are called Mishpatim.

#2-Mitzvot were given only to B’nai Israel and they are laws that one can easily understand such as keeping Shabbat, Kashrut, putting on tefillin, talit, Mezuzah, etc. These Mitzvot make sense to all B’nai Israel, but again we all have free choice.

Shabbat, Tefillin, Tzizit, Mezuzah, etc. all come to teach us that Hashem created the world in six days and that Hashem made miracles and took us out of Egypt from back breaking slavery.

שמות לא יז

טו  שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים, יֵעָשֶׂה מְלָאכָה, וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן קֹדֶשׁ, לַיהוָה; כָּל-הָעֹשֶׂה מְלָאכָה בְּיוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת, מוֹת יוּמָת.	15 Six days shall work be done; but on the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD; whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
טז  וְשָׁמְרוּ בְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, אֶת-הַשַּׁבָּת, לַעֲשׂוֹת אֶת-הַשַּׁבָּת לְדֹרֹתָם, בְּרִית עוֹלָם.	16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
יז  בֵּינִי, וּבֵין בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל–אוֹת הִוא, לְעֹלָם:  כִּי-שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים, עָשָׂה יְהוָה אֶת-הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת-הָאָרֶץ, וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי, שָׁבַת וַיִּנָּפַשׁ.  {ס}	17 It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He ceased from work and rested.’ {S}

So, every person can understand that you need a day off from work.  Even for Jews it makes sense that the Muslims have their Friday and the Christians have their Sunday and we have our Shabbat.

This is how the nations of the world understand this day off, that you must rest and let your employee(s) rest, it just makes a lot of sense.

דברים ה טו

We are governed by a higher authority  –  כאשר צוך יהוה אלהיך

וזכרת כי עבד היית בארץ מצרים ויפדך יהוה אלהיך על כן אנכי מצוך את הדבר הזה היום -דברים טו טו

This is why we Keep the Shabbat! because Hashem commanded us and no other reason.

*****Chukim, on the other hand, are laws that were also given only to B’nai Israel BUT they are laws that don’t make any sense, none whatsoever! So, if they don’t make sense why do we have to keep them?

For example, what types of laws don’t make sense?

*Shatnaz:  A law to not wear a garment that is a mixture of wool & linen.

Why? Chok!

*Eating Pork:  What’s wrong with eating pork? Today billions of people eat pork, they don’t get sick from it.  They don’t die from it, so why are we restricted from eating pork? It’s a Chok. Makes no sense!

**And from this week’s Torah portion we learn another Chok! Para Huduma

רש”י על במדבר יט

פסוק ב  –

“זאת חקת התורה” –

לפי שהשטן ואומות העולם מונין את ישראל לומר מה המצוה הזאת ומה טעם יש בה לפיכך כתב בה חקה גזירה היא מלפני ואין לך רשות להרהר אחריה

If you ask any non-Jew a question about the Torah that Moshe Rabeinu received (the Muslims call him Musa, the Christians call him Moses). You ask them:  “Is the Torah that G-d gave Moshe a smart book?”  We would all have to agree that yes, they will also all say it’s a smart book.  Why? because they are all using the Torah and quoting from the Torah.

So, the point is that if we all agree that the Torah is a smart book, but there are a few things that we don’t understand, then that is our fault.  We just simply don’t understand and we have to acquire more understanding, more knowledge. We cannot just rule out the Torah simply because there are a few things that we don’t understand.

****The first Chok that the Torah gives us is an example of when B’nai Israel left Egypt and camped in a place called Mara.  They tasted the water from the river there and it was terribly bitter and undrinkable.  As usual, they cried to Moshe:  “Why did you bring us out here to the desert to die?  There is no drinkable water.  It is bitter.”  Moshe cried to Hashem.  Hashem told Moshe to take a branch from a particular tree, the branch was very bitter and place it in the water. Moshe did as Hashem instructed and the water became sweet and very tasty. So the question is:  how does a bitter branch from a tree make bitter water taste sweet? That is an example of a Chok where we don’t understand the way Hashem works and we never will.

Exodus 15:22-16:35 – Bitter Water at Marah

²² Then Moses led the people of Israel away from the Red Sea, and they moved out into the desert of Shur. They traveled in this desert for three days without finding any water. ²³ When they came to the oasis of Marah, the water was too bitter to drink. So they called the place Marah (which means “bitter”).

²⁴ Then the people complained and turned against Moses. “What are we going to drink?” they demanded. ²⁵ So Moses cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. Moses threw it into the water, and this made the water good to drink.

It was there at Marah that the Lord set before them the following decree as a standard to test their faithfulness to him. ²⁶ He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commandments and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.

Hashem wanted to teach B’nai Israel that a Chok is not for you to understand.

Why? Because if we keep the mitzvot only because they make sense we may think one day that they no longer apply, they don’t make sense and therefore we no longer have to keep them.

So, Hashem,in His infinite wisdom, gave us Mitzvot that just don’t make sense to test us and reward us.

We have a mitzvah to honor our parents. It makes a lot of sense not only to us but to all nations. Our parents gave birth to us.  They took care of us , they gave us a home, education, money, clothing etc.. Therefore, we show our appreciation and respect them.  We honor them because they deserve it. But what if we have mean parents and they didn’t raise us and watch over us? Do we not give them respect? Our Torah tells us we must, so we must not question a Chok.

King Shlomo,the wisest of all, failed in two mitzvot. There is a Torah law that a king should not have too many horses nor too many wives. King Solomon didn’t think that this applied to him since he was very, very smart. This law didn’t make sense to him.  He felt he could certainly deal with it.  It would not affect him, he could overcome any obstacle and he failed! What does this teach us? When Hashem gives us a Chok, don’t try to outsmart Hashem, you’ll never win.

A Chok is a Chok and we are not allowed to have any doubts if it applies to us, we must keep them all.

All the laws apply to us, we can’t say that today it’s not a problem to light a match, or to light a light there is no effort in doing so versus back in the days when it was a job to start a fire.  We cannot say that the Torah is old and does not apply to today’s day and age.

The lesson is that we can’t and are not allowed to let only parts of the Torah apply to our life, we must take our lives and apply the Torah and all its laws. If we don’t, it’s sinful. We miss the boat. We just don’t get it.

We live in Hashem’s world.   This is Hahsem’s world which he created; we did not.  Therefore we must abide by all his laws.

In The Book of Exodus –  שמות כ״ד:ג׳-ז׳

We said:

ג) וַיָּבֹ֣א מֹשֶׁ֗ה וַיְסַפֵּ֤ר לָעָם֙ אֵ֚ת כָּל־דִּבְרֵ֣י יְהוָ֔ה וְאֵ֖ת כָּל־הַמִּשְׁפָּטִ֑ים וַיַּ֨עַן כָּל־הָעָ֜ם ק֤וֹל אֶחָד֙ וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ כָּל־הַדְּבָרִ֛ים אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּ֥ר יְהוָ֖ה נַעֲשֶֽׂה׃

(ז) וַיִּקַּח֙ סֵ֣פֶר הַבְּרִ֔ית וַיִּקְרָ֖א בְּאָזְנֵ֣י הָעָ֑ם וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ כֹּ֛ל אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּ֥ר יְהוָ֖ה נַעֲשֶׂ֥ה וְנִשְׁמָֽע׃

Exodus 24:3-7

(3) Moses went and repeated to the people all the commands of the LORD and all the rules; and all the people answered with one voice, saying, “All the things that the LORD has commanded we will do!”

(7) Then he took the record of the covenant and read it aloud to the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will faithfully do!”

We are down here to cleanse our souls and the Torah Hashem gave us is the only tool, the only way to Olam Haba (the World To Come) and to the resurrection.

By Rabbi Aaron Zhev Shatzman

DJS