by Rabbi Avi Billet
The book of Devarim contains around a third of the Torah’s 613 Mitzvot. Our parsha contains over one tenth of the Mitzvot, as there are over 70 mitzvot in its pesukim. Interestingly, a basic survey of these commandments yields the reality that absent a Beit Hamikdash and a centralized Bet Din (i.e. the Sanhedrin) 30 of these mitzvot are unobservable. Take away being part of an agrarian lifestyle, and even more mitzvot are not part of the lexicon of our experience. Remove the factor of some mitzvot not even being “obligatory” but more “optional” in that the Torah gives us instruction for how to act in a unique set of circumstances – but does not obligate us to manufacture or seek out those circumstances, and even more mitzvot are removed from the equation.
It really puts a damper on the expression I’ve heard of “being a Jew who keeps all of the 613 commandments.” Simply put, in practical terms it is impossible to fulfill more than half of the Torah’s mitzvot today.
The best we can do is learn about the mitzvot, to best understand how they are meant to shape our hearts and minds, and how to give the community based in Torah values a framework in which it is supposed to operate.
Let us look at a few examples of mitzvot we don’t fulfill which can nevertheless guide our choices and behaviors.
The mitzvot surrounding the captive woman remind us that marriage and the male/female relationship should be grounded in respect and love, not infatuation and lust. It should be one in which each person wants to do for and give to the other person, so their union could be elevated and sanctified to create a place of holiness that we call the Jewish home.
While we do not conduct executions, the mitzvot surrounding the treatment of the body is one which has informed our treatment of those who have passed – with the utmost dignity, the utmost respect, and of course burying as quickly as possible.
Until more recent times we might have had the opportunity to assist an animal that was carrying a heavy load, but with cars and trucks today, the animal is mostly relegated to the farm and to tasks that work best at its pace. Which leaves us to look out for those we can assist, whether carrying groceries, loading the car, or trying to assist a person who is not as physically capable as we might be. Of course, if we are the ones needing assistance, to never turn down someone who offers – they are allowed to get “the mitzvah” as well!
There is an over 400-page book written about the mitzvah of sending away the mother bird. However we want to understand the mitzvah, it is certainly meant to teach us mindfulness of the animal world, the concerns of an animal for its baby (at least in the shorter term), and that there needs to be a thought process surrounding our actual needs. We don’t seek the mother bird, and we don’t take eggs or chicks if we have no need for them.
There are mitzvot surrounding which nations may not enter the community of God, which either means as a convert, or means that our people can not marry their people. Those enemy nations no longer exist, so that limitation on who can convert is irrelevant. Perhaps we can learn from this mitzvah – especially regarding Ammon and Moav of whom we are told a reason they can’t convert is their treatment of Israel while still in the wilderness – to soften our hearts towards the stranger in general, and to open our hearts with warmth and love to those who are Jews by choice, who have joined the Jewish people through conversion. Of course, it is a separate mitzvah to “Love the ger,” but there’s nothing wrong with an indirect way of coming to that conclusion as well.
There is a mitzvah to not return an escaped slave to his master, but rather to give the master a financial compensation for the slave who has sought refuge and freedom. Perhaps we can learn to champion the rights of those who are enslaved by life, to do what we can, when we can, to help people out of us their difficult circumstances, if and when such a thing is even possible.
The mitzvot of Yibum and Chalitzah (levirate marriage and the escape clause from that obligation) remind us, lo aleinu, there are still young almanot (widows) and their pain and loneliness is something which should never be relegated to “you’re still young! You’ll find the right person to try to rebuild a new life.” Many matters of closure are painful, even if they are what is needed for life to continue, and for people to have any chance to move past the painful experience.
Our remembering what Amalek did is meant to remind us to take a stand against hatred towards the Jewish people. Amalek sought to destroy us, we must fight any efforts that aim to destroy us. Not all efforts that effect are violent efforts, as some may take shape in the form of hate-speech or simple bigotry.
Some take Amalek homiletically to explain it as the distractions from our goal in our relationship with God, which was exactly what the original Amalek nation was hoping to thwart – get in the way of Bnei Yisrael achieving their goals of nationhood, self determination, and being a kingdom under God.
Still others might say that Amalek united us as a nation. However, unity never meant we were all supposed to be the same. There is a reason why the tribes maintained their own tribal identity, all while worshipping at the same Mishkan, and later Beit HaMikdash. Amalek’s effort to destroy caused the Bnei Yisrael to realize that we can fight for our common goal of being God’s people, even as they may have felt that being God’s people meant different things to different people.
Indeed each of us has our own relationships with God, just as each of us make many decisions in life which are carefully weighed out for how they are in our best interest. No one should be dictating to someone else as to what that other person’s best interests should be. We must share in the world in which we live, we share in the God we serve, but we all should have the freedom to get to the service of God in the way that is least debilitating to such important efforts.
To answer the question in the title, we should simply be asking ourselves how each mitzvah is meant to inform our life under the Torah’s guidance. As we answer those questions, our observations can inform our observance, which will hopefully each enhance our personal relationships with the Almighty.
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