Why are there so many Jewish lawyers?
Parashat Mishpatim
February 9, 2002

Why are there so many Jewish lawyers? Per capita, it’s quite astounding. What is it about Jewish culture that has inspired so many men and women to pursue the law? A few years ago, Jerold Auerbach, a professor of history at Wellesley College, wrote a book entitled Rabbis and Lawyers, in which he addresses the question. I would like to give a response based on today’s parashah.

Today’s parashah is linked to last week’s parashah. It begins in Hebrew with the letter vav, translated “and” or “now.” That letter connects what we are presented with today with what we learned last week. And what was that? If we go back to the previous chapter of Exodus (chapter 20) we can remind ourselves that it consists of the Ten Commandments. Now the Ten Commandments are fairly important, fairly central. You might think that, in terms of guidelines and instructions, that would be enough; that after presenting the Ten Commandments, the Torah would resume the narrative telling us of the wanderings of the people in the wilderness. But it doesn’t. Immediately after presenting the Ten Commandments, the Torah says, “And these are the laws you shall put before them,” these are the laws you shall follow!

Why is this necessary? Why do the Children of Israel, why do we, need to have laws presented to us? Isn’t it enough—isn’t it religious enough—to have the Ten Commandments before us? Why do we need rules, why do we need law?

It is this question that the Midrash—that collection of creative Jewish explicative literature dating to the first few centuries of the common era—attempted to address. In Exodus Rabbah there’s a teaching that focuses on two curious features of the Biblical text: first, even before the Ten Commandments are presented in Exodus chapter 20, the Bible tells us a story about Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro. In the story, Jethro tells Moses to appoint judges in Israel and to share with them the burden of adjudicating the people’s disputes and teaching them the proper way to behave. Moreover, after the Ten Commandments are presented we again are told (at the beginning of this week’s parashah) about rules and regulations. This is the source of the question posed in Exodus Rabbah:
Why mention “judging” before the Ten Commandments and “and these are the rules” after them?
The answer: It is like an important woman who goes out to take a walk: she has bodyguards before her and after her, and she walks between them.

What an image!! The Ten Commandments are compared to a beautiful, important woman, and the rules, the laws—the justice system—is compared to her bodyguards.

In Judaism, law and morality are intricately connected. As we all know, there can be law without morality. (Consider, for example, a fascist country in which “the trains run on time.”) Such a place may have plenty of law and order, but it isn’t necessarily a religiously worthwhile place to live.

The Jewish perspective also insists that, in the same way, we cannot have morality without justice either. In other words, a nation that preaches the right values, but that doesn’t have in place a system for adjudicating disputes fairly, a system of justice that its citizens respect and admire, such a society is also seriously flawed.

A few years ago, there was a story in the New York Times about a man in India with a property dispute. Finally, it was adjudicated, but only decades after the plaintiff had first brought the claim! If “justice delayed is justice denied,” then the effective administration of a justice system is essential to a just society.

That’s why it says “and these are the laws.” We need morality to be coupled with the proper and timely administration of justice.

Rambam teaches us that our parashah begins with the letter vav because it is an extension of the Tenth Commandment: Thou shalt not covet. How can we be sure to obey this commandment? Only if we know what we are entitled to and what belongs to our neighbor. 

Maimonides wrote a vast work known as the Mishneh Torah. It’s a compendium of Jewish law. It tells us how to behave in every aspect of our life. He concludes it with a section called, Hilchot M’lachim, that tells us what it will be like in the Days of the Messiah. Now, you might think, My God, the Days of the Messiah! Things will be terrific then. Everyone will behave well, and everyone will treat everyone well, and there won’t be the need then for any law. The only guidelines we’ll need, perhaps, are the Ten Commandments, reminding us, in their sublime way, of how we’re supposed to behave, in very general ways.

But in fact this is not so. Even in the Days of the Messiah, we will still need ha-hukkim v’ha-mishpatim, the laws and the rules. Even if everyone behaves properly, even if everyone is good, misunderstandings can still occur. We will still have goring oxen and fires that burn out of control. We will still have accidents. We will still need judges whose job it will be to help make:
Justice well up like water,
And righteousness like an unfailing stream.

And, believe it or not, we’ll still need lawyers!