This year’s Super Bowl halftime show – or more precisely, “shows” – has been interpreted as yet another warning sign about the state of American society. And America is not alone. Many Western countries are grappling with a fraying sense of togetherness and shared moral purpose. What makes for a strong and good society? The convergence of Parshat Mishpatim and Shabbat Shekalim offers insight.

After the dramatic revelation at Sinai, where each individual entered into a covenant with God, Mishpatim turns to a seemingly mundane list of civil, criminal, humanitarian, and religious laws. Laws of slavery (revolutionary for their time), prohibitions against murder and theft, protections for the vulnerable, and commandments about holidays and shemitah together form the infrastructure of a just society. Commentators search for thematic order – some see a progression beginning with the strictest laws, others an expansion of the Ten Commandments. Yet even without a clear structure, the message is powerful: lofty visions require detailed systems of justice and responsibility. As Rabbi Sacks wrote, “[parshat] Yitro contains the vision, but God is in the details.”

This Shabbat is also Shabbat Shekalim, when we read of the half-shekel donation required of every individual for the Mishkan. Each person’s equal contribution built and sustained this shared sacred space. It offers a metaphor for society itself: nations are built – and rebuilt – through collective responsibility and common purpose.

Israeli society, too, is experiencing strain and rupture. No nation is immune to internal tension. Yet what sustains a people is not the absence of disagreement, but the presence of shared covenant and collective responsibility. Before we fragment further, let us remember: strong societies endure when they renew a common purpose and commit, together, to building toward it. Shabbat Shalom -Karen Miller Jackson