Beyond Reason

As one begins to study Torah the number of Mitzvot or Laws can be impressive. It is commonly counted to be 613 Mitzvot in the Torah. As one might expect we have a ton of ways to organize this list. I have seen list that are very basic, such as the Mitzvot for temple service and the Mitzvot not for temple service. There are list based on topic or category. I have seen them divided up on alignment with the 10 commandments and then to the 2 greatest commandments to love Adonai and to love our fellow man. Some times there are lists that are controversial and categorize according to laws while in the Land vs laws every where and laws for Jews and Laws for non-jews. I have even created a list and I bet it is similar to one each of you have created as well. I have a list of Mitzvot I can keep and list of commandments I need to work on. While nothing is wrong with categorization we should be careful that we do not let things slip a way while we organize these Mitzvot to be easier to understand.

I want to discuss a list that has been very interesting to me lately. This is the list of Supra-reasonable Mitzvot. So what is Supra-Reasonable? To make it easier to understand these are Mitzvot that are beyond reason. Some people express it as there is not a reason given others express the idea as it is beyond reason. We cannot fully understand its significance. It is commonly held these Mitzvot will be fully explained when Messiac comes.

As I was looking at this list I found it used terminology out of the Torah to divide the Mitzvot in to 3 categories that I think are very helpful. The 3 categories are Mishpatim (laws or judgments), chukkim (decrees), and eidot (testimonials). Each of these words are used in the Torah in reference to specific Mitzvot. We are going to look at these 3 categories and some samples of each of them. Before we do though let us look at

Complete Jewish Bible Chapter 7

12 “Because you are listening to these rulings, keeping and obeying them, ADONAI your God will keep with you the covenant and mercy that he swore to your ancestors. 13 He will love you, bless you and increase your numbers; he will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground—your grain, wine, olive oil and the young of your cattle and sheep—in the land he swore to your ancestors that he would give you. 14 You will be blessed more than all other peoples; there will not be a sterile male or female among you, and the same with your livestock. 15 ADONAI will remove all illness from you—he will not afflict you with any of Egypt’s dreadful diseases, which you have known; instead, he will lay them on those who hate you.

So we see if we keep the commandments as a whole, Adonai promises to Love us (this is an action not a feeling), bless us, and increase us. He also promises to bless our efforts in the land. He even promises to bless us to be numerous and more blessed than all other peoples. He provides protection for us from those that seek to harm us. These are general blessings for keeping the Mitzvot these are not the specific reasons for individual commandments.

The first category for us to look at is Mishpatim which means Laws or Judgments. The laws can be obvious to us. They are really kind of basic logical laws that all people can agree upon. In fact these are the laws that most often appear even in the cultures that do not have a grounding in the Torah. We see a good example of these type of laws in

Complete Jewish Bible Chapter 21

1 “These are the rulings you are to present to them:

Some texts may say right rulings, ordinances or regulations. In the Hebrew the word for this is Mishpatim. The next few chapters include 53 Mizvot that are Mishpatim. Let us look at a few. I bet we would agree many of these are present in all civilized societies. Verses 12-14 contain a good example of a law common to all people.

Complete Jewish Bible Chapter 21

12 “Whoever attacks a person and causes his death must be put to death. 13 If it was not premeditated but an act of God, then I will designate for you a place to which he can flee. 14 But if someone willfully kills another after deliberate planning, you are to take him even from my altar and put him to death.

This speaks of murder. If a person plots and deliberately murders another person they are to be put to death. If it was not deliberate such as a tragic accident then he can flee to a place to be tried (we call this manslaughter). This is present in almost every society in some form. We also understand why this law is in place. We understand the reason of why we cannot just walk around murdering anyone we want. Here is another obvious law.

Complete Jewish Bible Chapter 22

21(22) “You are not to abuse any widow or orphan.

Every reasonable person would expect that a child without parents or an elderly woman should be taken care of and not oppressed.

These laws are logical and most people would agree these are basic laws on how to treat another person. What the rest of the world misses, and I want us to understand clearly here, is Adonai does not submit to logic. Logic does not exist and so Adonai agrees with it. Adonai created logic and like the rest of his creation it can reflect him. These types of obvious laws on decency and civility are logical because it is what Adonai wants and he created logic so logic reflects him. It is a testament to his abundant mercy and grace that these basic laws are present even in societies that would resist him.

Let us look at the eidot (testimonials). These are laws that are half way between reason and supra-reason. These laws are often times given as examples of behavior. While they may not be obvious to us it is something that is explained and we understand why we are to do them. An example of this is found in in SH’mot

Complete Jewish Bible Chapter 23

15 Keep the festival of matzah: for seven days, as I ordered you, you are to eat matzah at the time determined in the month of Aviv; for it was in that month that you left Egypt. No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

If Adonai did not tell us to keep the festival of unleavened bread then we would not have known to keep it. So it is not an obvious to all peoples type of Mitzvot. Instead we had to be instructed to keep it. What more is we had to be instructed on how to keep by eating the matzah. We understand the reason though. It is to remember the deliverance from Mitsrayim by Adonai and the bread of haste. When we study deeper we may even realize that bread and beer use leavening and both where created in Mitsrayim and so it is to separate us it even further. This is reasonable and even makes since to those that may not study Torah when explained.

Then we have some of the most interesting laws to me. The chukkim (decrees) are those laws that are both not obvious and we really do not have a reason for. Some of these are the dietary laws.

The Scriptures Chapter 14

7 “But of those chewing the cud or those having a split hoof completely divided, you do not eat, such as these: the camel, and the hare, and the rabbit, for they chew the cud but do not have a split hoof, they are unclean for you.

Why is the it important for the hoof to be split why must it chew the cud? People have thought about this and there are wonderful explanations for them, but there is not specifically a Torah written response as to what exactly about these qualities is so important. Yet they are important for Adonai does not do anything frivolously. Another example that is perhaps the most puzzling to some of us is found in

Complete Jewish Bible Chapter 19

19 1 ADONAI said to Moshe and Aharon, 2 “This is the regulation from the Torah which ADONAI has commanded. Tell the people of Isra’el to bring you a young red female cow without fault or defect and which has never borne a yoke. 3 You are to give it to El‘azar the cohen; it is to be brought outside the camp and slaughtered in front of him. 4 El‘azar the cohen is to take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle this blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. 5 The heifer is to be burned to ashes before his eyes—its skin, meat, blood and dung is to be burned to ashes. 6 The cohen is to take cedar-wood, hyssop and scarlet yarn and throw them onto the heifer as it is burning up. 7 Then the cohen is to wash his clothes and himself in water, after which he may re-enter the camp; but the cohen will remain unclean until evening. 8 The person who burned up the heifer is to wash his clothes and himself in water, but he will remain unclean until evening. 9 A man who is clean is to collect the ashes of the heifer and store them outside the camp in a clean place. They are to be kept for the community of the people of Isra’el to prepare water for purification from sin. 10 The one who collected the ashes of the heifer is to wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. For the people of Isra’el and for the foreigner staying with them this will be a permanent regulation.

The word for regulation is chukkim. We would definitely not know to do this if it had not been explained. As well we do not know the reason for every piece of it. Why hyssop, why the red string, and why ashes? How does all of this mixed together cause cleanliness. You know what it is not for us to know today. There is plenty of symbols and plenty of ancient connections with this. We are not given the exact reason as to why this should be done or how it works.

When we are looking for the reason for various Mitzvot it is a good thing to understand and contemplate them. It causes us to study Adonai and to think on him and to seek after him. An important thing to remember is even when we have a reason for a Mitzvot we are to follow it even if we could mitigate the reason we follow it. In other words understanding should lead to further obedience not less.

Regardless if we understand the reason for every Mitzvot or a Mitzvot remains a mystery we have a very specific reason for every commandment. Adonai loves us and we love him.

Complete Jewish Bible Chapter 5

2 Here is how we know that we love God’s children: when we love God, we also do what he commands. 3 For loving God means obeying his commands. Moreover, his commands are not burdensome,