MISHPATIM 1990

In the Torah portion Mishpatim we have the famous phrase, "When Moshe took this Book of the Covenant and he read it in the ears of the people they all said, 'All which G-d spoke we will do and we will listen'."  The rabbis claim that this is a wonderful thing that the Jewish people did, and they say that because of it the ministering angels came down and gave them each crowns, because the Jewish people were willing to do and then to understand G-d' s rules and regulations and laws, that, therefore, in Judaism we always stress doing.  That is true.  We were John Deweyites long before John Dewey existed, that we understood that what people do is eventually what they are going to believe and what they are going to theorize about.  The theoretical constructs usually flows from what they are doing, and we know when we teach children that it is important that we teach them what they should do.  Later on they will understand the meaning of it, but in the beginning we have to teach them to do things.  Parents who just say to children that they can eat when they want and sleep when they want and go to school if they want and be good if they want are terrible parents because these parents are not teaching the children the proper way to behave.  Parents are role models for their children, and they have to teach their children what to do, and after the children learn what to do later on they will understand.  But, yet, although it is true that the rabbis claim that this was a wonderful thing that the Jewish people did, if we look earlier even before the Torah was given when Moshe came and called to the elders of the people and he put before them all the things which G-d had commanded (this is in chapter 19, verse 8), they answered all the people together, "All which G-d said we will do.  " Notice that they said we will "do" but they did not say we will "understand".  Mishna in Hebrew does not just mean we will listen or obey but it means we will understand.  The people were willing to Nase even before they got the Ten Commandments.  And G-d said to Moshe, "Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud in order that the people will hear, will understand when I speak with you and also you they will believe forever."  In other words, it is not enough, G-d said, just to do.  The people had to understand.  They had to understand how these things caused them to relate better to G-d and to man, how these things that G-d had commanded were going to enhance their lives not detract from their lives.  In fact, after the Jewish people received the Ten Commandments and they said to Moshe, "You speak with us and we will understand, but don't let G-d speak with us lest we will die."  They were again interested only in doing but not really understanding the meaning of things.  The Jewish people had just come out of Egypt.  They were still slaves.  A slave is used to following commands not understanding why he has to do certain things.  In fact, right before the Jewish people said "Nase V'Neeshma" it also says, "And they answered all the people in one voice and they said, 'All the things which G-d spoke we will do."  They are always willing to do the things.  It is just that at this time they were not willing to try to understand what they were doing.  "And Moshe wrote all the words of G-d, and he got up in the morning and he built an al tar under the mountain and 12 monuments for the 12 tribes of Israel, and he sent the young men of the sons of Israel and they offered offerings and sacrificed sacrifices, peace offerings to G-d."  

Notice that between when the Jewish people said, "We will do" to the time when Moshe took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the ears of the people and they said, "All which G-d spoke we will do and we will say" is interposed this incident.  "And Moshe wrote all these things and got up early and send the young men of Israel and they brought up sacrifices to G-d." What caused the people now to understand that they had to go back and do more than just do?  They had to do and they had to understand.  They had to find meaning in these things.  

The answer was when Moshe sent the young men and they brought up sacrifices, then the people understood.  Yes, for children it is good just to do.  Children have to be taught to do.  They have to be taught limits, and when children do not have limits they do not have any sense of security.  I know many parents who are university professors who are terrible parents because they somehow got the idea that my parents set limits for me, so I won't set any limits for my children, and I will not teach them how to behave.  Let them find out for themselves.  We know, though, that many children like this feel lost.  They need role models.  That is what parents are supposed to be.  When they do not have the adequate role models then many times they end up in penal institutions or mental institutions.  Children need structure.  When the slave people came out of Egypt they had to just do.  They were used to doing, but doing alone is not enough.  You have to understand what you are doing, and that is why Jewish education is so critical.  That's why we say the study of Torah is more important than everything, because only if you really understand what you are doing and how you are doing it and why you are doing it as much as a human being can understand will you continue to do it.  There are many people in this city who have excellent Jewish educations in what to do.  They know how to daven.  They can go before the Omen.  They understand the laws of kosher.  They know what to do but they are not doing it.  They are not davening because these things have no relevance to their lives.  Their Jewish education was very superficial.  This especially happened with the immigrant generation who trained their children, and mainly in the second generation, also.  They trained their children fooling themselves.  They said, "Well, I am this way.  I speak Yiddish.  I understand the prayers.  I know how to daven, and my children will, too." They thought that somehow Judaism was in the genes, and that people did not have to be taught.  They fooled themselves, too.  They used to send their children to Hebrew school five, six, days a week.  Pretty soon it was 3 days a week.  Three days was just as good as 6 days a week, people would say, and then one day was just as good as three days.  Maybe a tutor once in a while is as good as one day.  This, of course, is foolish and will never work.  Children do things by rote, but adults, in order to continue to do them, have to understand how they fit in.  They have to understand things on an adult level.  It is not just enough "Nase".  You also have have to have "Neeshma".  The Jewish people were always ready to do "Nase".  They were always willing to do but not always willing to understand the meaning of things.  We can see in our community, too, that only those that get an intensive Jewish education, who understand more than just the rote outside rituals of Judaism will actually continue in doing them.  Those people who understand the Hagaddah thoroughly will continue to make a Pesach seder.  Those people who understand about the holidays will continue to observe them.  Those who understand thoroughly about Shabbos will continue to observe it, but those who would just tout the outside superficial actions without understanding their deeper meaning and how they cause man to relate to G-d and to other men, how they cause people to feel the meaning of the universe and how it gives people dignity and self-respect, until they understand these things they will not practice them.

Unfortunately, too, in this country not only are the men given a superficial education but in most instances the women were not given any education.  This is, of course, why Judaism fell down.  Unless the women are willing to keep it Judaism will not endure.  That is why we learn that the Torah was first given to the women, Beis Yaacov, and only then was it given to the men, because if the women will not observe the Torah, then forget about it.  If the men are willing but the women are not willing the Torah will not be kept.  When the immigrant generation came to this country they did not give their girls enough of a Jewish education.  In Europe maybe a girl got one or two years of education and then she learned most at home, but that would not work in America.  In peasant society when the Jews lived among the peasants of eastern Europe it may have worked but it will not work in America.  The girls went to public school, and where they learned how to pray and what a house or worship should be they learned from the public school, and, therefore, they tried to convert many of the Jewish houses of worship to the same types of houses of worship that they learned about in public school.  That is why I am so much in favor of women's education, why I believe in Bat Mitzvahs.  My own girls had Bat Mitzvahs because the more education you give to women the better it is for Judaism.  That is why I am also in favor of a women is minyan, a women's minyan on orthodox lines where only the women participate with a mechitza, etc., because only in this way will we rest assured that we will produce women who are knowledgeable not only in what to do but they will understand what they are doing.  It is important that they learn basic Jewish principles.  This they can gain from studying the davening and looking at the davening carefully.  It is important that there be a women's minyan.  
I am reminded of the story they tell about a woman who went to the zoo.  She was very upset and went to the zookeeper.  She said, "Do you know what those poor monkeys are doing in their cage?  They are sitting around a table playing cards."  The zookeeper wanted to know why she was so excited.  He said, "They're only playing for peanuts."  Unfortunately, that is what many people think about Jewish education.  What difference does it make?  It will not make any difference.  These men are not going to become rabbis.  These women are not going to become rebbitzens.  What do they need with all this education? We are not playing for peanuts, though.  We are playing for the whole ball game.  Unless we give our children, men and women, good Jewish educations there will not be any Jews left.  Let us hope and pray that we will all give our children good Jewish educations so that the Jewish people will continue strong in America.  Amen.