Some people might think picking The Witch of Woodland as the book to read along with Parshat Mishpatim is me taking the easy route. The title character of the book, Zippy, is reading Mishpatim for her bat mitzvah parsha. The link is right there. But I’d like to dig deeper. You see, this whole ‘bat mitzvah’ thing is coming as a surprise to Zippy who perceives her family as not all that observant. She’s confused about her link to Judaism, why her best friend is acting weird around her, and has also somehow managed to magically conjure a new friend for herself – a girl with no memory, and wings like an angel.
Yes, life is pretty confusing for Zippy who has no idea how to relate to her friends or her religion. Her bat mitzvah parsha feels alien to her, and things are so bad at school she has literally conjured a magical creature to hang out with. To be fair, Mishpatim is pretty confusing for everyone. Even Zippy’s parents start to rethink this Bat Mitzvah thing when they actually read her Torah portion. It is largely a long list of rules, including the prohibition against witchcraft which Zippy obviously disagrees with, and instructions for enforcement. It is the stuff that makes other people look down upon Judaism as “too legalistic.” Those people would benefit from reading Zippy’s story, especially her speech at the end.
One of the things that Zippy discovers along the way is that Judaism is indeed a religion of lists and rules, but above all it is a religion of questions. Yes, other religions may have more touchy feely Gods and rituals (and even in Judaism we have some branches that favor emotional response over biblical exegesis), but we get to argue with God. Which is its own brand of fantastic. Plus, Zippy’s worries about not being Jewish enough are dispelled by an extremely welcoming community. When your religion includes a bunch of arguing back and forth, people realize that everyone has a perspective to share and should be heard.
Are the rules in Mishpatim confusing for the modern mind? You better believe it. Should that put us off from studying it? No. Because that is the entire point. Not the lists of rules and punishments, but engaging with them in an endless cycle of critical appraisal and improvement. Feel free to love your God if that is how you connect, but I’m going to keep arguing with mine. It’s tradition.