Mishpatim: elliptical

Mishpatim: elliptical 

You quickly see the problem, there are just too many contingencies, too many if's. The law cannot be codified in detail, there are too many branchpoints, too many possibilities. Each case has unique elements. The important core needs to remain, but every ruling pulls on the core, moving it from its old center to a new location The law is elliptical: guided by the current human values and the Gd given statements.

It is the ellipse that that brought our understanding of the universe into the modern era.  The ellipse brought us Newtonian mechanics,  Tycho Brahe's observations allowed Keppler to improve the map of the planetary orbits and discover that they are elliptical.  Newton gave the reason: objects attract each other in proportion to their masses. The sun is not special.  Earth is not special.  To some,  that has implications for Gd.  Add a focus, lose a focus. 

Relative to the circle, the  ellipse is strange.  Its shape is less well defined.  Thus, the word elliptical comes to mean obscure ( like these posts) 

The tradition is a helix , an ellipse moving through time.  We try to preserve the true core(s).