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February 13, 2021
by Bettijane Eisenpreis
“And I will remove sickness from your midst. No woman in your land shall miscarry or be barren.” – Exodus 23:26
This parashah, “mishpatim,” (“laws”) contains some laws that are so well known that it is easy to overlook the sentence quoted above. But no line of Torah is insignificant, so let us examine this one. Here, God promises that, if the Israelites destroy all the idols of the nations they are about to conquer and worship God alone, blessings will follow, one of which is that “no woman among you shall miscarry or be barren.”
That’s quite a promise, even for God! Any couple trying to conceive knows that is easier said than done. And any woman who has suffered a miscarriage knows the devastating feelings of loss that almost always accompany the physical pain. But to promise that no woman in the whole tribe of Israelites will be unable to have a child or carry to term — can God really guarantee that?
The concept of “bad things happening to good people” is still hard to understand, but at that point in our history, it was impossible. The Biblical writer must have felt safe making this impossible guarantee knowing that if a child died or was not born, people would simply assume that someone in the community had sinned.
It is not until the Book of Job that the Biblical narrators began to realize that suffering was not always a direct punishment for sin. Job is a good man with a fine family and many possessions. In a dare to God, Satan makes Job’s family and wealth disappear and afflicts him with terrible suffering. Still, he insists: “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” He knows that his troubles are not retaliations for something he has done wrong.
The Torah sees illness and misfortune as Divine punishment. People do something wrong; therefore, they die or are taken ill. The sons of Aaron, young men who are apparently zealous to serve the Lord, are suddenly killed because they must have offered “strange fire.” It is not until Job and the prophets, which were written long after the Five Books, that the element of uncertainty was introduced and people acknowledged that illness and misfortune might not be the will of God.
Through the centuries, we have learned that suffering, both communal and individual, happens for reasons we do not understand. The prophets, appalled at human inequality and suffering, urged people to do the right because it was right. Our duty is “to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” It is not a quid pro quo.
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Parashat Mishpatim
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February 13, 2021
by Bettijane Eisenpreis
“And I will remove sickness from your midst. No woman in your land shall miscarry or be barren.” – Exodus 23:26
This parashah, “mishpatim,” (“laws”) contains some laws that are so well known that it is easy to overlook the sentence quoted above. But no line of Torah is insignificant, so let us examine this one. Here, God promises that, if the Israelites destroy all the idols of the nations they are about to conquer and worship God alone, blessings will follow, one of which is that “no woman among you shall miscarry or be barren.”
That’s quite a promise, even for God! Any couple trying to conceive knows that is easier said than done. And any woman who has suffered a miscarriage knows the devastating feelings of loss that almost always accompany the physical pain. But to promise that no woman in the whole tribe of Israelites will be unable to have a child or carry to term — can God really guarantee that?
The concept of “bad things happening to good people” is still hard to understand, but at that point in our history, it was impossible. The Biblical writer must have felt safe making this impossible guarantee knowing that if a child died or was not born, people would simply assume that someone in the community had sinned.
It is not until the Book of Job that the Biblical narrators began to realize that suffering was not always a direct punishment for sin. Job is a good man with a fine family and many possessions. In a dare to God, Satan makes Job’s family and wealth disappear and afflicts him with terrible suffering. Still, he insists: “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” He knows that his troubles are not retaliations for something he has done wrong.
The Torah sees illness and misfortune as Divine punishment. People do something wrong; therefore, they die or are taken ill. The sons of Aaron, young men who are apparently zealous to serve the Lord, are suddenly killed because they must have offered “strange fire.” It is not until Job and the prophets, which were written long after the Five Books, that the element of uncertainty was introduced and people acknowledged that illness and misfortune might not be the will of God.
Through the centuries, we have learned that suffering, both communal and individual, happens for reasons we do not understand. The prophets, appalled at human inequality and suffering, urged people to do the right because it was right. Our duty is “to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” It is not a quid pro quo.
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