MISHPATIM_EXODUS XXI:1-XXIV:18
These chapters outline the “civil” behavior necessary to be able to live in a community environment. In this way, the Torah does not differentiate between “religious” laws and “civil” laws. Both have the same origin: Divine Providence. Rashi emphasizes that these laws have the same validity as the Ten Commandments because they also originated in Sinai. For this reason, the Vilna Gaon objected to parishioners standing in the synagogue during the reading of the Ten Commandments, because one should not differentiate between Mitsvot: they all have equal legitimacy.
The Midrash compares our text to a verse from Tehillim that is recited in the Shabbat Shacharit: “Pronounce His words to Yaakov, His ordinances to Israel”. The Midrash identifies the term “words” with the Ten Commandments which are called “Aseret Hadiberot”, the “Ten Words”. The term “ordinances” corresponds to the Hebrew term “Chukim” which according to exegetes refers to ordinances that have no logical explanation, are only the revelation of the Will of God.
It should be noted that the verse of Tehillim refers to “His words” and “His ordinances,” so these laws are the same laws that God Himself fulfills. God commands man to conduct himself according to the standards That He Himself fulfills. We read in Bereshit that God created the universe in 6 days and then rested the seventh, which is called Shabbat. Therefore, because God rested on the seventh day, the Torah demands that we also rest on that day. That means that God also fulfills the Shabbat day’s rest. Somehow, then, the essence of God includes the concept of the Mitsvah.
The exodus from Egypt that led to Har Sinai included several steps symbolized by the expressions “Vehotsetí“, “Vehitsaltí“, “Vega’altí” and “Velakachtí“. Each of these words describes a different stage in a process that culminated in Sinai. It was necessary first to put an end to the physical yoke represented by the word “Vehotseti“: the Hebrew people had to be extracted from Egypt because the idolatrous environment did not allow them to continue along the path traced by the patriarchs.
A later stage is represented by “Vehitsaltí“, which means the spiritual purification necessary to discard the cult of death that ruled in Egypt. “Vega’altí” represents the stage of salvation and redemption: the search for a purpose, a telos for the people. The last stage is “Velakachti“, the expression with which God adopts the Hebrews as His people, while He remains as the God of that people. That reciprocal relationship, that Brit, is the fundamental basis of Judaism.
How can this “Velakachtí” materialize? How can the Jew draw ever closer to God to symbolize this mutual dependence: we are His people, and He is our God? The answer is in our chapters: Mishpatim. The essence of God includes the Mitsvah, that is, through the fulfillment of the Mitzvot we can sense the presence of God.
The Talmud speculates that God puts on Tefillin, a fact that is integrated with our thesis that God complies with the Mitzvot. Our Tefillin contain four paragraphs: Shema Israel, the unequivocal affirmation about the existence of one God, whom we are to love with all our being; the notion of reward and punishment for the fulfillment or disobedience of the Mitzvot; the consecration of the firstborn to the service of God; and, finally, the Divine promise to lead the Hebrew people to the Promised Land.
What is written in the scrolls of God’s Tefillin? This time, the emphasis is on the Hebrew people, because it is written, “Who like your people Israel, a singular people on earth?”
It is insufficient to point out that monotheism is the basis of Judaism. Its fundamental characteristic is the action, the Mitsvah, whose fulfillment facilitates an approach to God, the basic intent of “Velakachtí”.
MITSVAH: TORAH ORDINANCE IN THIS PARASHAH
CONTAINS 24 POSITIVE MITZVOT AND 29 PROHIBITIONS
- Exodus 21:2 Laws Concerning a Hebrew Slave
- Exodus 21:8 Marital Status of a Hebrew Slave
- Exodus 21:8 Redemption of a Hebrew Slave
- Exodus 21:8 – Whoever buys a Hebrew slave from his father will not be able to sell him.
- Exodus 21:10 Do not diminish or deny your wife: food, clothing, conjugal rights
- Exodus 21:12 – The court must execute by strangulation the one who deserves this form of death
- Exodus 21:15 Not to strike the father or mother who deserves this form of death
- Exodus 21:18 Laws of Punishments
- Exodus 21:10 – The court must execute by sword the one who deserves this form of death
- Exodus 21:18 Obligation of the Court to Award Damages Caused by Domestic Animals
- Exodus 21:28 Do not eat the ox sentenced to be stoned
- Exodus 21:33 Obligation of the court to award damage caused by a well
- Exodus 21:37 Court forced to impose payment on a thief
- Exodus 22:4 Court obliged to impose payment for the harm caused by a pet by grazing or trampling
- Exodus 22:5 Court forced to award damages by fire
- Exodus 22:6 Court forced to award payment to custodian
- Exodus 22:8 Court forced to adjudicate both litigants
- Exodus 22:9 Court obliged to guard a payment or other custody
- Exodus 22:13 Court obliged to adjudicate case of one who borrows an object for use
- Exodus 22:15 Court forced to adjudicate case of a seducer
- Exodus 22:17 Not allowing the sorceress to live
- Exodus 22:20 Do not verbally oppress the one who converts to Judaism
- Exodus 22:20 Do not deceive the one who converts to Judaism in cases of property
- Exodus 22:21 Do not mistreat an orphan or a widow
- Exodus 22:24 Lend to the poor
- Exodus 22:24 Do not insist on the payment of debt to the poor who have no resources to pay
- Exodus 22:24 Failure to help the lender or creditor execute a loan with interest
- Exodus 22:27 Do not curse the judge
- Exodus 22:27 Do Not Curse the Name of God
- Exodus 22:27 Do not curse the ruler
- Exodus 22:28 Do not set tithing aside in the wrong order
- Exodus 22:30 Not eating from an animal ruled to be tre’ifah
- Exodus 23:1 Not hearing a plea in court if the opposing party is not present
- Exodus 23:1 The sinner must not bear witness
- Exodus 23:2 A capital case should not be condemned by a majority of a single judge
- Exodus 23:2 The judge who argues innocence in the case of capital punishment should not then argue for guilt
- Exodus 23:2 Following the Majority in Legal Decisions
- Exodus 23:3 No mercy should be shown for the poor during judgment
- Exodus 23:5 Removing heavy burden from the animal of the neighbor
- Exodus 23:6 Do not pervert righteousness in the case of a sinner
- Exodus 23:7 Not Deciding a Capital Punishment case by way of probabilities
- Exodus 23:8 The judge is not to receive bribes
- Exodus 23:11 Shemitah’s obligation to leave the product of the earth without owner in the Sabbath year (seventh year)
- Exodus 23:12 Rest on Shabbat
- Exodus 23:13 Do not swear by invoking an idol
- Exodus 23:13 Do not lead the Jewish people into idolatry
- Exodus 23:14 Bring offerings to the Holy Temple in the festivities
- Exodus 23:18 Do not make the Passover offering while still possessing Chamets
- Exodus 23:18 Do not allow parts of the Passover offering to stay up late at night
- Exodus 23:19 Bring the Bikurim (first fruits) to the Temple
- Exodus 23:19 Do not cook meat in milk
- Exodus 23:32 Do not make treaties with the seven nations that were to be eradicated from the Land of Israel, nor with idolaters
- Exodus 23:33 Do not allow idolaters to settle in the Land of Israel
