Chukim, Mishpatim, and Eidot

Three classical categories of mitzvot — laws beyond reason, laws of reason, and laws of testimony.

By The EditorsDeeper

Torah & Texts · 3 minute read

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Summary. Classical Jewish thought (drawing on Rashi’s commentary to Vayikra 18:4 and elaborated by the Rambam and the Sefer HaChinukh; Saadia Gaon, a century before Rashi, had already worked with a related two-part division into laws required by reason and laws given by revelation) divides the mitzvot into three categories: chukim (laws given without rational explanation, such as Kashrut categories, shaatnez, parah adumah), mishpatim (laws whose rational basis is apparent, such as prohibitions on murder, theft, and adultery), and eidot (testimonial laws that commemorate historical events, such as Pesach, Sukkot, and tefillin). The rationalist and the mystical traditions read the categories differently — both readings are illuminating.

Chukim

The chukim are mitzvot for which no reason is given in the Torah and for which reason as such cannot satisfactorily account. Classical examples: the prohibition of shaatnez (mixing wool and linen, Vayikra 19:19, Devarim 22:11); the parah adumah (the red heifer whose ashes purify the impure but defile the pure, Bamidbar 19); the prohibition of meat and milk together; the kashrut categories of permitted and forbidden animals (in their detail; the principles are sometimes argued to be rational, but the specific cut-offs are chukim). Rashi (on Vayikra 18:4) explains the chukim as “matters that the evil inclination resists and that the nations of the world challenge.”

Mishpatim

The mishpatim are mitzvot whose rational basis is so apparent that, as the Sifra (on Vayikra 18:4) observes, even if the Torah had not commanded them, reason would have demanded them. The prohibitions on murder, theft, false witness, adultery, robbery; the obligation to return lost property; the laws of damages and torts. The mishpatim are the architecture of a just society.

Eidot

The eidot are testimonial mitzvot — those that bear witness to historical events of the Jewish people. Pesach testifies to the Exodus; Sukkot to the wandering in the wilderness; Shabbat to creation and to redemption; tefillin (the passages they contain explicitly invoke the Exodus); the Shema’s commandment to teach one’s children. The eidot are the historical conscience of Judaism.

The Rationalist and Mystical Readings

Rashi takes the chukim at the obedience-as-such reading: God commanded, and that is reason enough. The Rambam (Moreh Nevuchim III:26, III:33) argues that every mitzvah has a reason knowable to human reason if one searches diligently enough; the chukim are not exceptions but mitzvot whose reasons we have not yet fathomed. The Ramban (Nachmanides) agrees with the Rambam that the chukim have reasons, but adds that those reasons are mystical and metaphysical rather than rational. The disagreement runs through subsequent Jewish thought; both readings are within the bounds of orthodox tradition.

The Practical Application

A New Jew should know all three categories. The chukim are, in a sense, the most distinctive of Jewish mitzvot — they cannot be reduced to general ethical principles available to anyone, and they therefore most powerfully mark the Jew as set apart. The mishpatim are the universal ethical core that Judaism shares with all righteous human beings. The eidot are the historical memory that shapes the Jewish year. The fullness of a Jewish life integrates all three.

Where Denominations Diverge

Orthodox affirms all three categories as binding. Conservative likewise, with some discussion of the chukim in the modern halachic conversation. Reform classically dismissed the chukim as the “Mosaic legislation” no longer binding (Pittsburgh Platform 1885); current Reform has substantially recovered the chukim as opportunities for meaning, with kashrut, tzitzit, and tefillin increasingly observed by Reform Jews. The Reform commitment to mishpatim and eidot has been unbroken.