by RABBI CHAIM FINK | June 23, 2026 6:08 pm
Categorization of Mitzos
In total, there are 613 mitzvot, or commandments, in the Torah. They encompass much of our daily living; from which animals can pull a plow together, to which foods we eat on varied days. We have different systems in which we can break down the mitzvot into different categories. Here are some of the methods of categorization:
The Do’s and the Dont’s
We have 248 positive commandments. This refers to a mitzvah where we are asked to proactively do something, like eating Matzah on Passover, or sitting in a Sukkah on the holiday of Sukkot. There are 365 negative commandments, referring to the actions that the Torah commands us not to do. For example, we are commanded not to worship idols or not to steal. Then, there are some mitzvahs that have both positive and negative components to them, like Shabbat, where we can accomplish a positive mitzvah by reciting the Kiddush- declaring that it is a sacred day, and there are negative commandants, like abstaining from the prohibited labors of Shabbat.
Between man and man, between man and God
Many of the mitzvot impact our relationship between us and our fellow human beings. Take the mitzvah of paying workers on time, this one definitely helps interpersonal relationships. Or the commandment not to bear a grudge, which helps eliminate animosity between neighbors. Some are positive and some are negative, but all of the mitzvahs in this category better the relationships between people. Then there are the mitzvahs between us and God. It doesn’t impact my relationship with my neighbor if I have a secret budda in my basement that I bow down to at night. My choice of whether or not to observe the laws of Shabbat is something that is entirely between me and my Creator. It’s interesting to note that the Tablets containing the Ten Commandments, have 5 commandments on each Tablet. The 5 commandments on the right side are between man and God, and the commandments on the left side, are between man and his fellow man.
Chok and Mishpat
The next set of categories brings us to the name of this week’s Torah portion: Chukas, which means, “these are the laws of the Torah”. The word Chok- law, refers to a mitzvah that is beyond human comprehension. The Torah commands us not to wear a garment made of both wool and linen. Why? We don’t really know the reason. The kosher dietary code is another example. And in this week’s Torah portion we are presented with the laws of the red heifer. The red heifer is an entirely red cow which is used in the spiritual cleansing process for one who has become contaminated by a human corpse. When one comes in contact with a dead body, the highest form of spiritual impurity is transmitted, and the only way to purify oneself is to get the ash of the red heifer mixed into natural spring water sprinkled on him. Through this process the impure person is purified, but anyone who was involved in the sprinkling, who started off pure becomes ritually impure. Go figure! It purifies the impure but contaminates the pure! This section of the Torah baffled even King Solomon, the wisest man to ever live.
Then, we have the many mitzvot that we do understand, like the commandments not to murder or steal. These are referred to in Hebrew as Mishpatim.
There is something I’d like to point out about the MIshpatim, the mitvahs that we do understand. And that is that even though we comprehend the need to perform the mitzvah, there is still some element of the mitzvah that goes beyond our intellect. Let’s take the most basic, axiomatic mitzvah, the commandment not to murder. Pretty simple and straightforward, right? But consider the following scenario: Two best friends named Jim and Mike. They had been best friends since the sixth grade. Went to college together, and served as best men at each other’s weddings. After having his second child, Mike began not feeling well. It was severe chest pain and shortness of breath. After endless tests, the doctors informed him that his heart was diseased and in order to live, he would need a heart transplant from a suitable donor. A few days after the devastating news, it was Jim’s turn to experience a medical crisis. A terrible car accident, which left him more dead than alive. The doctors informed him and his family that the bleeding was too severe and he had at most hours left to live. Realizing his imminent demise, Jim asks that the healthy heart in his otherwise broken body be given to his friend Mike, which would grant his best friend many more years of life. But the problem is, that in order to successfully transplant a heart, it must be removed from the donor while it is still beating. Once a heart stops, it can’t be restarted in the body of the recipient. That would mean taking out Jim’s heart, while he is still alive, cutting his life some moments short. Essentially it means killing Jiim in order to give a sustainable life to Mike. But Jim is begging us to do so, wishing to perform just one more act of kindness before he leaves this world. If one were to pose this question to the Ethicist in the New York Times weekend edition, he very well might advise that the morally correct thing to do is honor Jim’s dying request. It would mean forfeiting a few minutes or hours of Jim’s life, so that Mike can live a full life with many more years to come, and Jim so badly wants to do it. But the Torah says that we can’t actively kill one person to save another. That is a violation of the mitzvah not to murder. *(Please note that the practical laws of organ donations are very complex, and each case needs to be dealt with individually, under the guidance of a competent Halachic authority.) Even this self-understood commandment has components of it that may go beyond our understanding, and even in these cases we are obliged to obey.
Einstein and Oppenheimer
There are some people who only feel comfortable performing the mitzvahs that make sense to them. I once had a high school student who said that she only likes the parts of the Torah that she understands. I explained to her that in essence she was asking to be God, allowing Hashem to offer her suggestions and she would choose which ones “made sense”.
In 1947, J. Robert Oppenheimer was appointed as head of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Over his years at the institute, he had many opportunities to engage Albert Einstein, one of its most famous faculty members, in conversation. I can’t begin to imagine the details of their discussions, but I’m fairly certain that it involved a level of physics far beyond my paygrade. Now, imagine a person who had no idea who these two geniuses were. He just happened to be present in the room when Einstein and Oppenheimer were deep in dialogue. To the bystander, their words seemed like complete gibberish, and that was his conclusion that the two men before him spoke utter nonsense, devoid of any meaning. Obviously, his conclusion is faulty. He simply had no idea what they were talking about because of his limited knowledge on the subject. Now, I ask you dear reader, who granted brilliance to Oppenheimer and immense genius to Einstein? Was it not the Creator of all men that bestowed great mental capabilities in these two historic figures? If it was God Who gave them the tools to achieve their cerebral accomplishments, then how much greater than they must their Maker be? My point is a simple one. For someone to assert that due to his inability to understand both Einstein and Oppenheimer, it must be that they speak nonsense, takes a great lack of humility. It is through arrogance that I declare, “Something I don’t comprehend is nonsense”. A humble person will at least consider that maybe the matter simply exceeds his ability to comprehend. There are parts of the Torah that we do understand and there are parts that we don’t. We should have the humility to realize that the Torah, written with God’s infinite wisdom, will contain parts that are beyond us.
Flavors of the Mitzvot
There have been many books written to explain the reasons behind each particular mitzvah. Perhaps the most well known is the Sefer Ha’Chinuch, The Book of Education. In it, the author presents the guidelines of each mitzvah. He also presents what he calls the “Roots of each Mitzvah”. A root is a part of the plant that isn’t visible. The reasons for the mitzvos are not readily visible to us.
Others refer to the reasons behind the mitzvos at Ta’amei Hamitzvot, the flavors of the mitzvah. In a certain way the mitzvahs are compared to food, which have certain flavors. The primary reason why we eat food is to fuel our bodies. Ideally, this should be a significant factor in choosing which foods to eat. A food that serves as better fuel is worth pursuing. The flavor is only there to make the process of fueling our bodies more enjoyable. If someone bases their food choices solely on what tastes good, then they may end with health problems and a need to get on either Ozempic or Wagovy, which now both come in shot and pill form.
The same holds true for the Mitzvahs. Why do we do them? Because our Creator commanded us to. And in His Torah He told us that they are the source of our life and should occupy the length of our days. But to make the process more palatable, to give it a bit more flavor, many commentators have offered perspectives on what some of the reasons behind the mitzvahs can be. When we show a willingness to adhere to even the mitzvahs that go beyond our limited understanding, we demonstrate that we perform them out of a realization that they are fuel for our spiritual life. And just as with food, even if it doesn’t have a flavor that appeals to us, it is still the source of our sustenance.
Story of Dama Ben Nessina
The Talmud in Tractate Kiddushin tells the following story:
One time a precious gem was lost from the special breastplate worn by the Kohen Gadol- the High Priest, who served in the Temple. (One of the eight garments worn by the High Priest was the breastplate, which had 12 precious gems, each with a name of the 12 Tribes engraved in it.) To find the right stone to replace the one missing, was no simple task. Each stone was rare, and had to be quite large to fill the setting in the breastplate. The Sages in Jerusalem heard of a non-Jewish gem merchant by the name of Dama Ben Nesina, who had the rare and expensive stone. A Jewish delegation was sent to his home to buy the stone. When they arrived, they made an offer on the stone that was incredibly generous. Dama Ben Nesina readily agreed to sell it for that price. When he went into the house to get the key for his safe, where the gem was kept, he realized that the key was beneath the pillow upon which his father was sleeping. A lot of money was at stake, but Dama Ben Nesina honored his father, and informed the rabbis that he couldn’t get to the stone until his father woke up, and he had no idea when that would be. The rabbis appreciated his dedication to his father, but informed him that for them it was an urgent matter. If the High Priest was missing any part of his garments, he was not able to serve in the Temple. They heard of another gem merchant not too far away, who also had the stone they needed. Dama Ben Nesina forfeited a significant profit in order to properly honor his father. The Talmud goes on to teach that the very next year, Dama Ben Nesina had a completely red cow, a red heifer born into his herd. The Jews once again sent a delegation to his home, and he made even more money selling the red heifer to the Jews than he would have made on selling the gem. He was Divinely rewarded for fulfilling the mitzvah of honoring his father.
One of the commentaries explains that there was something deeper going here in the story of Dama Ben Nesina. When Dama, a non-Jew, showed a willingness to sacrifice so much in order to honor his father, a tumult began up in Heaven. A group of accusing angels brought forth a complaint against the Jews, by claiming that a non-Jew just showed far more dedication to the mitzvah of honoring one’s parents, than the Jews do. “You see! The non-Jews are more dedicated to the Mitzvahs than the Jews are!” said the accusers. But then, something happened which defended the Jews. The Red Heifer was born, and the Jews were willing to spend a fortune of money to buy it. The angels defending the Jews put forth their defense. True, the non-Jew displayed great dedication to the mitzvah of honoring one’s parents. But this is a mitzvah that is readily understood. Everyone knows it is morally correct to show gratitude to those responsible for giving us life. Non-Jews are very capable of carefully observing the mitzvahs that they understand. But when it comes to the Jews, there is something more. They are willing to sacrifice even for the mitzvah of the Red Heifer; the quintessential example of a chok, a mitzvah that is beyond human comprehension. In this way the angels defending the Jews up in Heaven were able to plead a solid defense and negate the accusations of those angels looking to find their fault.
Source URL: https://partnersjewishlife.org/parshas-chukas-balak/
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