Chukat

[cellio]

I'm reading torah this week, which means I'll also give a short talk on the portion (Chukat). I'm not sure yet what I'm going to cover. Chukim are generally understood to be laws for which we can't really derive a reason but we do them because God says so (like the ritual of the red heifer that begins the portion). The Reform movement is based on the idea of individual autonomy, not (necessarily) community standards; do we even have chukim? Perhaps we do. (Or perhaps I'm speaking late-night nonsense.) I'll think about it more tomorrow.

Comments

[mishtaneh.livejournal.com]

Every community has standards — they are a large part of what defines the community and help hold it together. And, arguably there are "chukim"; they're just more likely to vary from congregation to congregation.

[goljerp]

I agree. For example, I think Reform puts a very high emphasis on "Social Justice". Why? I don't think it's because of logical reasons (e.g. "We should be nice to these oppressed folks so they don't rise up against us and then oppress us"), but because [G-d/The prophets/Our tradition] says things like "justice, justice, shall you pursue".

[sethg]

One thing I noticed about the parsha is that soon after the laws of the red heifer, which describe how you become ritually pure after contact with a dead body, you have the death of Miriam. Would you rather talk about death than talk about the whole chukim/mishpatim distinction?

[cellio]

Thanks for the suggestion!

Would you rather talk about death than talk about the whole chukim/mishpatim distinction?

Having thought about the question a bit while awake this time... yes. I'm going to chalk my initial thought up to late-night nonsense. :-) (It's the sort of thing that maybe I could turn into a well-crafted essay, but not something that would really fit the intended venue.)

[cellio]

Yes, there have to be community standards or you don't have a community. I didn't mean "absolute" chukim (things everyone would agree on); I was wondering about the idea of a Reform Jew saying "I do this because God says so even though I don't understand", and whether that's an attitude to cultivate, reject, or ignore. But I don't think this is the write venue for that, nor have I fleshed it out well-enough anyway. I'll talk about something else instead.