The Defiance of Choosing Life (Mishpatim)
It is day 502 of war, and this week — tomorrow — we will be given the opportunity we have fought so hard for: to treat our murdered loved ones with dignity, to bring them home, to bury them as we should. We hold this sacred obligation even as we remain mindful of the families of all the hostages, those who have returned and those who remain captive. The list of the living to be released on Shabbat has grown from three to six, and yet, we know who is not on the list. The weight of that knowledge is unbearable.
How do we navigate the unfathomable?
Parshat Mishpatim speaks of the structures of justice, the scaffolding of a society infused with holiness. This portion contains one of the most mystical and human moments in the entire text. Moses, Aaron, Nadav and Avihu — the very same Nadav and Avihu who later bring an “alien fire” and are consumed by divine flames — and the seventy elders of Israel ascend the mountain and, shockingly:
“they saw the God of Israel, and under God’s feet was something like a pavement of sapphire, like the very sky for purity. Yet God did not raise a hand against them; they beheld God, and they ate and drank” (Ex. 24:9–11).
They encountered the unfathomable, and they ate and drank.
The world is broken. We are shattered. And yet, we must live. We must continue. We must eat and drink and love and hold each other. This is the story of our people. Survivors of the Shoah made babies in displaced persons camps. The ancient rabbis reinvented Judaism after the destruction of the Temple. Jews in Baghdad rebuilt after the Farhud. Jews in Spain survived the Inquisition and planted new roots in the north of Israel. Again and again, we have chosen life in the face of devastation. And so must we.
So I ask you: What is one life-affirming thing you will do today? I am not letting myself off the hook, and I am not letting you off either. Will you make yourself something nourishing to eat? Will you take a walk? Call someone you love? Give tzedakah? Study Torah? Volunteer? Buy a ticket to Israel? Hold the door for a stranger?
Do something. Do something. In defiance of despair, in affirmation of life, do something.
As we turn our hearts eastward, today we send extra comfort, extra strength, extra love. We are here. We are together. We will endure. We will live. Am Yisrael Chai!