Does the Torah promote vigilantism (taking the law into your own hands)? Some years ago, those who were against Torah would ask facetious questions like, “If I see my neighbor mowing the lawn on the Shabbat, do I have permission to kill him?” This ridiculous line of argument even ended up as an episode plot for a popular show (“The Midterms,” The West Wing, October 2000). 

Are these judgments ignorant and obsolete? For example, in this section of the Torah refers to daughter literally as their father’s silver. Are daughter just the property of their fathers freely passed around and bought and sold?

We just read the “Big 10,” the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20). Torah reading מִּשְׁפָּטִים Mishpatim (“judgments,” Ex. 21:1–24:18) covers case law results from the Ten Commandments. It covers how to live them out in a world of idolatry (yes, it’s even a modern problem), cruelty, oppression, selfishness, disrespect for authority, apathy and envy.

The mispatim in Exodus 21–24 also are further expanded upon in the rest of Exodus and most of Leviticus. They are also brought up again in Deuteronomy for “born again” Israel, the second post-exodus generation.

The Ten Commandment tablets were most often referred to as the “Tablets of the Testimony” (Ex. 31:18; 32:15; 34:29). These laws help us discern God’s righteousness and wisdom.

When we go other the haftarah (parallel passage to the Torah reading) in Jeremiah, we will see how the three-fifths clause of the US Constitution was the “poison pill” inserted into the Constitution to bring about the eventual abolition of the abhorrent practice. Frederick Douglass saw the wisdom of the Constitution’s 3/5th’s clause and how it would tear down the institution of chattel slavery in the United States by acknowleding the inherent humanity of the African slaves while at the same time denying their captors the use the humanity of their slaves to vote against their interests.

So, what do these instructions mean to me today?

“These are the מִּשְׁפָּטִים mishpatim”:

* This phrase starts the “Book of the Covenant” (Ex. 24:7), which runs from Exodus 21–23.* God’s directions are often referred to as מִצְוֹתָיו וּמִשְׁפָּטָיו וְחֻקֹּתָיו mitsvateiv umishpateiv v’khuqoteiv (Deut. 8:11, His commands, His statutes and His ordinances).* The word משפט mishpat can be understood to mean judgment, decision or case.

When compared with U.S. law, we can see this pattern of three:

* U.S. Constitution* U.S. Code (created by Congress)* U.S. Supreme Court case law

We see in our own secular case law that they often contradict each other and bad case law has to be overturned by good case law.

We go over this every year so that we can learn from the Torah and build upon it, not to twist it or take away from it. If we expect our legislators to treat the US constitution with respect, how much more do we expect the Apostles, the prophets and Messiah Himself to treat the Torah with respect?

Here are some examples of case law in Torah, how they apply the literal word of Torah to situations that don’t fit the letter.

* Moshe (Moses) settled the משפט — case — on Zelophehad’s daughters’ inheritance (Num. 27:5).* Yehoshua (Joshua) took over משפט before Eleazar the priest and Urim from Moshe (Num 27:21).* Shlomo (Solomon) builds a אוּלָם הַמִּשְׁפָּט ulam ha-mishpat (hall of justice), i.e., a courthouse.