A mix of mitzvot – Acharei Mot
The commandments of the Torah are sometimes easy to understand. Laws like “Do not kill”, “do not steal”, “do not commit adultery” are arrived at by every civilised society, so that even without the Torah we would have found them to be necessary.
Others would not have arisen had it not been for the distinctive experiences of the Jewish people: for instance, eating matzah on Pesach. celebrating the giving of the Torah on Shavu’ot, and sitting in a sukkah on Sukkot.
Some seem to fall in neither category and baffle human reason. These are the chukkim (statutes) such as the law of sha’atnez (forbidden mixtures) and the parah adumah (the red heifer) which we obey because they are the Divine will.
All categories figure in this week’s reading, One type is intertwined with another. Those we understand easily present no problem. But what about those that we possibly find more difficult to explain? Are we entitled to suspend observance of them until we discover their rationale?
The fact that the Torah offers a total pattern of mitzvot is not just accidental. Whether we understand the motive behind a given command or not, all are part of Judaism, all are binding, and we are obligated to obey them regardless of whether at any particular stage of history we have uncovered their purpose or not.
