Parshat Mishpatim – The greatest after show party of all time.
. וְאֵלֶּה, הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים, אֲשֶׁר תָּשִׂים, לִפְנֵיהֶם
“Now these are the laws which you shall set before them…”[1]
Have you ever felt the anti-climax after a big event that you were very invested in?
Looking back I remember the year- long build up to my bar mitzvah. I can picture the hard work I put in to prepare for reading from the Torah, and of course I remember the party that followed and the guests who flew in from abroad. But I also remember the day after. The house emptied itself of guests, and it was back to school the next day. Far too quickly for my liking.
Parashat Mishpatim provides some wonderful insights into what the Ribono Shel HaOlam prescribes to Moshe to help counter the inevitable come down which hits Am Yisrael the day after receiving the Torah.
Indeed, the connection between Parshat Yitro and Mishpatim is something that is made clear by many of the great Torah commentators.
Rashi quotes midrash Tanchuma in the name of Rabbi Abahu in the name of Rabbi Yossi ben Zimra, saying ‘that anytime we see the word אלה it is to cancel out what was just said, and anytime we see ואלה it is to add to what was previously stated.’[2] This focus on the first word of our parasha stresses the connection between the experience of receiving the Torah and the detailed mitzvoth laid down in Parshat Mishpatim.
The 15th Century Italian commentator Sforno goes a step further. He points to the vav ha Chibur, the connecting vav of ואלה. He calls it the hook from the previous parasha, specifically from the last of the 10 commandments לא תחמוד do not covet anything of your neighbour’s. Sforno says the natural place to continue would be to speak about the neighbor in order that we better keep the commandment. He characterizes the content of Mishpatim as ידע אדם מהו כל אשר לריעך the guide book about one’s neighbor. Indeed Mishpatim is all about the ‘other’ and how we interact with him.
Matan Torah is often described as the wedding between Hashem and Am Yisrael. At a wedding this week I heard the mseder kidushin, Rav Millstone, relate the connection between Matan Torah and parashat Mishpatim to the way a husband and wife build a home. Just as parashat Mishpatim follows Matan Torah – the real work of building a home is not found in the big events, but rather in the details in how we live life each day. The contrast between the big glitzy moments and the mundane details seems stark, but both are incomplete without the other.
I merited to learn from Rav Tzi Berlin of Yeshivat Hakotel that it is possible to see the parshayot of the Torah in pairs each comprised of a parsha which represents כלליות (general ideas) and one which represents פרטיות (finer details). In our case we can see that Yitro brings the big idea, Gd’s mind blowing revelation in the world and in contrast Parashat Mishpatim gets down into the nitty gritty details of slaves, damages and compensation, oxes, donkeys and sheep, borrowing, giving false witness, lost property, the agricultural cycle and shemita etc. Parshat Yitro comes to tell us there is a G-d. But parashat Mishpatim tells us G-d is only truly present in the world if we act in accordance with His will.
The Talmud[3] quotes an instance when Hillel the elder is asked by a prospective convert to teach him the whole Torah while he stood on one leg. He replies: ‘That which is hateful unto you do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole of the Torah, the rest is commentary. Go forth and study.’
Forgive me, but isn’t Hashem the main point of Judaism? We don’t get up in the morning and go to bed at night saying, ‘be a good neighbour’ we say with all of our hearts “Shema Yisrael, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is one.” Didn’t Hillel know this? How can any Rabbi condense Judaism down into one line that doesn’t mention G-d?
Maybe the answer lies here in Parashat Mishpatim. It is an answer for anyone who is down in the dumps, reeling in the come down from the great party at Mount Sinai. It’s true that our main purpose in the world is to proclaim Hashem’s name, but that won’t be achieved by walking around screaming the shema all day long. Hashem’s presence in the world relies on us to express His will, His goodness and kedusha through the way we live our lives.
We start and end our day with the Shema, but what we actually do with our day is the continuation of the shema. Rashi explains Hashem’s words: ‘Place these words before you.’ He says, don’t just recite them a few times, lay them out in front of you like a table set to eat.” The extent to which we are familiar with the mitzvoth Hashem commanded us, is the extent to which the great party of Mount Sinai can continue. It continues through us, the people we decide to be and the way we act towards one another.
