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ShareMishpatim - Following Matan Torah - Revelation at Sinai - we move into a much more pedestrian and legal section that is inexorably connected to the previous parasha of Yitro.
Laws include:
- indentured service
- loans
- conduct of justice by law courts of law.
- treatment of "others"/strangers
- chagim/festivals (connections to agriculture)
- gifts to the Temple in future
- not mixing meat and milk
- prayer
אָמַר לוֹ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לְמֹשֶׁה: הַחְזֵיר לָהֶן תְּשׁוּבָה. אָמַר לְפָנָיו: רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם, מִתְיָירֵא אֲנִי שֶׁמָּא יִשְׂרְפוּנִי בַּהֶבֶל שֶׁבְּפִיהֶם. אָמַר לוֹ: אֱחוֹז בְּכִסֵּא כְבוֹדִי וַחֲזוֹר לָהֶן תְּשׁוּבָה. שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״מְאַחֵז פְּנֵי כִּסֵּא פַּרְשֵׁז עָלָיו עֲנָנוֹ״, וְאָמַר רַבִּי נַחוּם: מְלַמֵּד שֶׁפֵּירַשׂ שַׁדַּי מִזִּיו שְׁכִינָתוֹ וַעֲנָנוֹ עָלָיו. אָמַר לְפָנָיו: רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם, תּוֹרָה שֶׁאַתָּה נוֹתֵן לִי מָה כְּתִיב בָּהּ? ״אָנֹכִי ה׳ אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתִיךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם״. אָמַר לָהֶן: לְמִצְרַיִם יְרַדְתֶּם? לְפַרְעֹה הִשְׁתַּעְבַּדְתֶּם? תּוֹרָה לָמָּה תְּהֵא לָכֶם! שׁוּב: מָה כְּתִיב בָּהּ? ״לֹא יִהְיֶה לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים״. בֵּין הַגּוֹיִם אַתֶּם שְׁרוּיִין, שֶׁעוֹבְדִין
The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Moses: Provide them with an answer as to why the Torah should be given to the people. Moses said before Him: Master of the Universe, I am afraid lest they burn me with the breath of their mouths. God said to him: Grasp My throne of glory for strength and protection, and provide them with an answer. And from where is this derived? As it is stated: “He causes him to grasp the front of the throne, and spreads His cloud over it” (Job 26:9), and Rabbi Naḥum said: This verse teaches that God spread the radiance of His presence and His cloud over Moses. Moses said before Him: Master of the Universe, the Torah that You are giving me, what is written in it? God said to him: “I am the Lord your God Who brought you out of Egypt from the house of bondage” (Exodus 20:2). Moses said to the angels: Did you descend to Egypt? Were you enslaved to Pharaoh? Why should the Torah be yours? Again Moses asked: What else is written in it? God said to him: “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). Moses said to the angels: Do you dwell among the nations who worship
ואלה נוטריקון וחייב אדם לחקור הדין. המשפטים. נוטריקון הדיין מצווה שיעשה פשרה טרם יעשה משפט.
אשר. נוטריקון אם שניהם רוצין:
And These - a mnemonic (from the letters of the word "“Ve’Eileh” stands for: “VeChayav Adam Lach’kor Hadin” – meaning “and a person must investigate the law”.
Are the laws: The second mnemonic, from the word “HaMishpatim” stands for: “HaDayan Metsuveh She’ya’aseh Peshara Terem Ya’aseh Mishpat” – meaning “the judge is commanded to compromise before pronouncing judgment”.
Which: [the final] mnemonic, from the word "Asher" stands for: "Im Shneyhem Rotzim" - meaning "if they both desire it".
So, to paraphrase the Ba’al HaTurim (also known as the Tur), the essence of understanding the legal side of Judaism is to know Halacha inside out, to appreciate the nuances of the laws themselves and for the judges – the Dayanim – to use that knowledge to encourage both sides of a dispute to mediate towards resolution.
It is a profound approach to the Torah, which can often be seen as exacting, prohibitive, restraining. But our faith must be in the Torah as a blueprint for a meaningful and comprehensive way of life that looks after us at the smallest level of detail, but encourages us to be blue-sky in our dedication to our families, our communities and, ultimately, to God Himself.
(ה) כִּֽי־תִרְאֶ֞ה חֲמ֣וֹר שֹׂנַאֲךָ֗ רֹבֵץ֙ תַּ֣חַת מַשָּׂא֔וֹ וְחָדַלְתָּ֖ מֵעֲזֹ֣ב ל֑וֹ עָזֹ֥ב תַּעֲזֹ֖ב עִמּֽוֹ׃ {ס}
(5) When you see the ass of your enemy lying under its burden and would refrain from raising it, you must nevertheless help raise it.
תעזוב עמו, these words have been interpreted in the Talmud Baba Metzia folio 32 as meaning that the Torah does not instruct the owner of that donkey to sit down while you alone attend to his donkey’s problem, but that you are called upon only not to abandon the animal but to assist the owner in relieving his donkey’s discomfort. If his owner has abandoned his beast, the enemy of his owner need not do the work by himself.
“This one at last
Is bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh.
This one shall be called Woman,
For from a Human was she taken.”
עַל־כֵּן֙ יַֽעֲזָב־אִ֔ישׁ אֶת־אָבִ֖יו וְאֶת־אִמּ֑וֹ וְדָבַ֣ק בְּאִשְׁתּ֔וֹ וְהָי֖וּ לְבָשָׂ֥ר אֶחָֽד׃
Hence a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, so that they become one flesh.
עַל־יָד֣וֹ הֶחֱזִ֗יק עֻזִּיאֵ֤ל בֶּֽן־חַרְהֲיָה֙ צֽוֹרְפִ֔ים {ס} וְעַל־יָד֣וֹ הֶחֱזִ֔יק חֲנַנְיָ֖ה בֶּן־הָרַקָּחִ֑ים וַיַּֽעַזְבוּ֙ יְר֣וּשָׁלַ֔͏ִם עַ֖ד הַחוֹמָ֥ה הָרְחָבָֽה׃ {ס}
And they restored Jerusalem - from the language of the Sages: [they restored it] from being abandoned.
And there are those who say: as it was so - 'You shall surely help' (Ex. 23:5)
על כן יעזב איש, יש מפרשים כי זה הפסוק דברי משה לא דברי אדם, והנכון כי אדם אמרו, ויודע היה כי יוליד בנים כי לכך נברא להוליד הוא ומינו בעולם כשאר ב"ח. ופשט הכתוב קרוב לתרגומו כי לא אמר שיעזב איש אביו ואמו בעבור אשתו שלא יעבדם ויכבדם כפי כחו, אלא אמר כי דין הוא כי יעזב איש את אביו ואת אמו שגדל עמהם עד שנשא אשה ויעזבם מלדור עמהם ודבק באשתו וידור עמה בבית אחד.
על כן יעזב איש, some commentators believe that these words were spoken by Moses, not by Adam. The correct interpretation is that they were spoken by Adam, seeing that he was aware that he would father children, for this was why he had been created, in order to populate earth and ensure that his species would be perpetuated on earth, just as all the other species of living creatures. The plain meaning of our verse is close to the words of Targum Onkelos: על כן ישבוק גבר בית משכבי אבוהי ואמיה, “for this purpose a man will leave the house of his father and mother, etc.” The point of all this is that the Torah did not give permission for man to leave, move away from his parents, in order to devote himself to his wife instead, but in order to fulfill the commandment to found his own family, have children. Man is supposed to live in a separate dwelling, separate from that of his parents, in order to have and raise his children.
Last year, 2023, during the week of Parashat Mishpatim, was the funeral of Paul Johnson; an incredible historian who was greatly admired by, and quoted by Rabbi Sacks.
Rabbi Sacks said he once had the opportunity to ask what had struck him most about Judaism during the long period he spent researching it for his masterly “A History of the Jews”? He replied in roughly these words:
“There have been, in the course of history, societies that emphasised the individual – like the secular West today. And there have been others that placed weight on the collective – communist Russia or China, for example.”
Judaism, he continued, was the most successful example he knew of, that managed the delicate balance between both – giving equal weight to individual and collective responsibility. Judaism was a religion of strong individuals and strong communities. This, he said, was very rare and difficult, and constituted one of our greatest achievements.
Rabbi Sacks: “There are individualistic cultures and there are collectivist ones, and both fail, the former because they lead to anarchy and violence, the latter because they lead to oppression and tyranny.”
Sacks Scholars Programme - Create a project to perpetuate the ideas and philosophies and Midot of Rabbi Sacks.
Mental Health in the Parasha - Catharsis and Reintegration of the Self
Tanach, the Hebrew Bible, is not a code for Utopia. That is a prophetic dream, not a present-tense reality. In the here-and-now, however, the Torah tells us something not without its moral grandeur, namely that small gestures of mutual assistance can in the long run transform the human situation. At the heart of the law of the overladen ass is one of Judaism’s most beautiful axioms (Avot de-Rabbi Natan, 23): ‘Who is a hero? One who turns an enemy into a friend.’
