Category Archives: Mishpatim

5783, AI art, Bat Ayin, Exodus, Mishpatim, Parsha

Serving Ishmael (Mishpatim)

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Serving Ishmael (Mishpatim)

Appreciation is a combination of understanding, quiet amazement, and gratitude. Appreciating something permits its experience and integration. -Harry Palmer

A View of Jerusalem by BSpitz

The telling of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai in last week’s reading of Yitro marks the end of the predominantly narrative parts of the Torah. Now that the Torah has been given to the nation of Israel, we’re introduced to a barrage of legal code. Perhaps appropriate for a people just recently freed from slavery, this week’s reading of Mishpatim starts off with the Torah’s laws as to how one should treat their slaves, a practice that was still universal at that time and remained so until relatively modern times.

Without diminishing the Torah’s innovations in its much more humane approach to slavery, where human rights are decreed to people who were previously viewed as mere property, the Bat Ayin on Exodus 21:7 nonetheless delves deeper into the spiritual causes of slavery and specifically the oppression and servitude that Jews have been subject to for over millennia.

The verse he focuses on states:

“If a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go free as other slaves do.”

The word for “slave” in this verse (Amah) is the same one used to describe Sarah’s maidservant, Hagar, who gave birth to Abraham’s son, Ishmael, progenitor of the Arab nation. The Bat Ayin, based on the Zohar, reads the verse as stating that “daughter” in the above verse represents Jerusalem, the beloved city of Israel. He explains that if the Jewish people don’t have the proper appreciation for the importance and sanctity of the land, and specifically for Jerusalem, and the Jewish covenant with God, the result is that they will become subservient to the descendants of Ishmael. Furthermore, the subservience will be so powerful, that Jerusalem or Israel will not be freed easily from Ishmael’s dominion. The Bat Ayin rereads the verse as saying:

“If the Jewish people abandon Jerusalem (and the divine covenant) to Ishmael, it will not be freed as other dominions are freed.”

The lack of appreciation for Jerusalem and the connection to God that it represents ultimately leads to a long, challenging, and circuitous road back.

May we continue to enhance our connection to God, our appreciation for Jerusalem and to experience true freedom throughout the land.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the outstanding OurCrowd Summit in Jerusalem.

5782, Chidushei HaRim, Exodus, Mishpatim, Parsha

Tribal Accountability (Mishpatim)

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Tribal Accountability (Mishpatim)

Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility. -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

At God’s Revelation at Mount Sinai which accompanied the giving of the Ten Commandments, the recently freed nation of Israel assembled at the foot of the mountain and heard both God and Moses. In their eagerness to take on God’s commandments the people of Israel loudly declare “we will do, and we will listen.”

This declaration is considered a great merit to the Jewish people and implies that they committed themselves to keep the commandments, to perform the commandments, to “do” them even before they’ve fully studied them or understood them – the “listen” part. It’s considered a higher form of service, to commit oneself to undertake God’s instructions and only afterward to explore deeply and understand them. Hence, first to do and then to listen. The Talmud refers to this strategy as a secret previously only known to the angels (Tractate Shabbat 88).

The Chidushei HaRim on Exodus 24:7 notes the plural form of the declaration. Each individual doesn’t say “I will do, and I will listen,” but rather they are inclusive of each other, “WE will do, and WE will listen.”

He explains that their eagerness and enthusiasm regarding the Torah was so great, and they understood it to be such a dear, sweet, divine gift, that not only was each individual more than ready to take on this commitment for themselves, but they were ready to make themselves accountable for their fellow Jew. Each member of the tribes of Israel stated that not only would they accept God’s commandments, but they would also be a guarantor for their brethren. They would be there for each other, for all of history. Hence the “we.” Each person would be accountable for the next. This would not be a solitary, individualized commitment, but rather a communal, tribal, and national commitment.

Hence the ancient dictum “All of Israel are guarantors one for the other.” The physical, financial, emotional, and spiritual well-being of our brothers is always our concern. We can never turn a blind eye and we are constantly enjoined to help, to support, to lend a hand. We are responsible, we are accountable, we are the guarantors of one another.

May we always be able to assist those in need, on as many fronts as needed.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To when snowfall is beautiful.

5781, Bechor Shor, Exodus, Mishpatim, Parsha

Party God (Mishpatim)

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Party God (Mishpatim)

Celebrate what you want to see more of. -Thomas J. Peters

In one of the more legislative portions of the Torah, God declares:

“Three times a year you shall celebrate for Me.”

Then we get the details of what these celebrations are:

  1. The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Chag Hamatzot), what we commonly refer to as Pesach (Passover), commemorating our Exodus from the bondage of Egypt.
  2. The Feast of the Harvest, what we know as Shavuot, falls in the summer when the first fruits and crops are harvested.
  3. The Feast of the Ingathering, what we know as Sukkot, occurs in the autumn, the end of the agricultural year when all of the produce is gathered from the fields.

The Bechor Shor on Exodus 23:14 examines why God wants us to celebrate at these times and specifically why those celebrations should be for Him. He explains that these three periods of the year are times of particular joy and that God wants to be part of our joy and for us to include Him in our festivities.

During Pesach, we are forever enjoined to commemorate how God liberated us from the slavery of Egypt, and therefore it is extremely appropriate to remember, involve, and incorporate God in the festivities.

Shavuot, in the summer, is the period when we begin to harvest. It is when we start to reap the efforts of all the previous months. A good harvest is a time of great joy and the first fruits of the promise of spring. We need to remember that the harvest comes from God and it is befitting for us to acknowledge God’s role and give Him thanks for what we’ve received so far, as well as to continue to pray for the good we hope He will continue to provide. He wants to be part of that too.

Finally, Sukkot, in the autumn, is when the agricultural potential of the entire year is completely fulfilled. The entire bounty is gathered. It is a period of extreme joy when our material wealth for the year is at its height right in front of us. We cannot help but be joyous. Especially then, when we may not have anything else on our mind than to be happy, is when we need to remember God. We need to be happy WITH Him. We need to perceive that He is happy WITH us. It is a partnership. Our divine partner wants to celebrate with us. He wants to be a tangible, important, meaningful part of our lives and our celebrations. That means including Him, not only during trying times but also in our happiest moments.

May we always have things to celebrate and include God in those moments.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

In memory of Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski z”tl.

5780, Exodus, Meshech Chochma, Mishpatim, Parsha

Adulterer, Murderer, Kohen (Mishpatim)

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Adulterer, Murderer, Kohen (Mishpatim)

The study of crime begins with the knowledge of oneself. All that you despise, all that you loathe, all that you reject, all that you condemn and seek to convert by punishment springs from you. -Henry Miller

In the midst of a recital of numerous civil laws and capital offenses, the Torah adds an unusual phrase:

When a man schemes against another and kills him treacherously, you shall take him from My very altar to be put to death. -Exodus 21:14

The Meshech Chochma wonders as to the seemingly superfluous line of “treacherously, you shall take him from My very altar.” Anyone who kills someone else merits the death penalty. Why the extra verbiage in a text that we know conserves every word possible?

The Meshech Chochma connects the intent of the murderer of the above verse with two other personalities that were presumed to have murder on their minds: Pharaoh from the time of Abraham, and Avimelech, King of Grar. Abraham suspected and feared that both of these monarchs would have killed him to get his beautiful wife Sarah when he visited their domains. We are told their stories in the Book of Genesis, of how Abraham and Sarah pretended to be brother and sister, which led each of the monarchs to take Sarah for themselves until God miraculously intervenes in each case and forces the potentially murderous monarch to return Sarah to Abraham. It seems that had Abraham and Sarah revealed that they were married, it would have been likely that Abraham would have been killed in order to make Sarah “available” for the monarchs.

The Meshech Chochma however, connects our verse with another creature that was named “treacherous,” namely, the snake in the Garden of Eden. The Babylonian Talmud (Tractate Sotah 9b) presents the Midrash which states that the conniving snake desired Eve and plotted to kill Adam to get her, (hence getting them to eat from the forbidden fruit, which would trigger Adam’s death).

The Meshech Chochma goes further and states that the likely culprit of such adulterous thoughts and murderous activity would be none other than a Kohen! That would explain the need to take him away from the altar – the Kohens are the ones who are serving God at the altar. However, there are additional reasons to make the Kohen a particularly apt suspect:

  1. Kohens are prohibited from marrying a divorcee. Therefore, the only way they could permissibly marry a married woman whom they desired would be to kill the husband. All non-Kohens could wait for a non-lethal divorce.
  2. Kohens, as Temple servants, would come into frequent contact with women who brought their various sacrifices to the Temple. The frequent contact could lead them to murderous thoughts to separate these women from their living husbands.

May we be spared from treacherous thoughts and treacherous people.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To all of the Kohens in my life. They are wonderful, upstanding and inspirational people.

5779, Berdichever, Exodus, Mishpatim, Parsha, The Times of Israel

The Far/Near God (Mishpatim)

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The Far/Near God (Mishpatim)

God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere. -Empedocles

After the Revelation at Mount Sinai, the instruction and communication between God, Moses and the People of Israel continues at the foot of the desert mountain. At one point the Jews are instructed that they will “bow down from afar.”

The Berdichever takes the opportunity to explore the meanings of a “far” God versus a God that is “near.”

The aspect of God being “far” is the belief that God’s infinite light precedes all existence and that there is nothing in all of creation that is capable of understanding God, not even the ministering angels. That is the concept of a “far” God – that He’s incomprehensible. Understanding Him is infinitely far from our capabilities.

The aspect of God being “near” is the belief that there is no place in all of creation that doesn’t have God. God is everywhere. He fills, and surrounds, and sustains reality. He is right here, next to me, with me, in me. It doesn’t get closer than that.

It is the obligation of a Jew to believe in both aspects of God. He’s “far” – infinitely incomprehensible to our minds, and He’s “near” – right here with us, around us, sustaining our beings and existence.

That is an explanation of the verse: “Peace upon the far and the near, said God.”

Another dimension to God being “far” and “near” are the feelings of awe on one side and love on the other, which we need to have of God. “Far” correlates to both the awe of God and the related distance we feel from the mind of God. “Near” correlates to the love and the nearness we feel, to the love and constant attention and care from God.

Hence, when the Jews are instructed to “bow down from afar,” it specifically relates to awe. You bow down to a being that you are in awe of, that you have some distance from.

But where there is love and nearness, we can embrace.

May we feel both close and distant from God, as the situation dictates.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the participants in this week’s Zehut Open Primaries.

5778, Exodus, Mishpatim, Parsha, Rabbeinu Bechaye, The Times of Israel

Choosing Slavery (Mishpatim)

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Choosing Slavery (Mishpatim)

Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire of escaping from them. -Jean Jacques Rousseau

The Jewish nation has escaped from the slavery of Egypt, they crossed the Sea, received the Ten Commandments. Now, one of the first commands after the pyrotechnic divine Revelation on Mount Sinai is the laws of…slavery.

The Jews had felt the whip of the slave-master on their backs. Slavery was extremely fresh in their memories. Just a few months prior they had been considered the property of Egypt.

God introduces to the world an entirely different concept of “slavery.” It is a temporary condition. A Jewish man, out of luck and resources (typically because he stole something and then couldn’t repay), becomes an indentured servant for six years. He must be treated well and cared for. He must have a quality of life equal to that of his master. However, if he becomes comfortable with his servitude and his master, he can request to stay on longer. The Torah prescribes that in such a case the master takes this slave to the doorpost and pierces the slave’s ear by the doorpost, marking him, branding him as a slave until the Jubilee year, when all slaves are freed, all men of Israel reclaim their ancestral lands.

Rabbeinu Bechaye on Exodus 21:6 (Mishpatim) explains the rationale for the ear-piercing ceremony, as that namely a Jew should know better than to choose slavery, no matter how comfortable it may be. God took us out of the chains of Egypt to serve Him, not to serve human masters. The ear that heard God’s commands and disobeyed them will be pierced by the new master he’s chosen for himself. By piercing the slave’s ear, the master is following God’s command and demonstrating that at least the master is exclusively subservient to God and not to man. This was a fundamental principle, the principle of personal freedom and subservience only to God, which the slave was disregarding. Man is meant to live free and not be the slave of any other human being. It may seem ironic, but the Torah transmits the message that by serving God exclusively we thereby gain freedom from human domination. There is only one Master – God. Therein we can find our freedom.

May we choose who and what we serve wisely.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the memory of Marvin Rosen of Teaneck, NJ. I spent many special Shabbats at his home and at his table. May his family be consoled among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

5777, Exodus, Hirsch, Mishpatim, Parsha, The Times of Israel

Useless Jails

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Useless Jails

It isn’t true that convicts live like animals: animals have more room to move around. -Mario Vargas Llosa

prison

I had occasion to visit a Uruguayan jail and the cells of the least privileged inmates. To say that caged animals live better is a serious understatement of the physical, social, emotional and psychological hell the inmates go through. While being admitted to this prison is in fact a death sentence for many, those who do survive and get out, return to society as broken human beings, often even more dangerous to themselves, their families, their communities and society at large.

The Torah portion of Mishpatim dives into a plethora of civil laws, many of them dealing with violent crime. What is interesting and perhaps counterintuitive to our society is that amongst the variety of punishments – execution, lashes, making reparations, and a prominent case which includes a period of indentured slavery – a prison sentence is never mentioned.

Rabbi Hirsch on Exodus Chapter 21 in his characteristically eloquent style explains:

“Prison sentences, with all the attendant despair and moral debasement behind prison bars, with all the woe and misery that imprisonment inflicts upon the prisoner’s wife and children, are unknown in God’s Law. Where God’s Law holds sway, prisons as an abode for criminals do not exist. Jewish Law provides only for detention pending trial, and even this can happen only in accordance with a judicial procedure set down in detail. Such a detention can be of short duration only, and circumstantial evidence is inadmissible.”

“But even this solitary case (of indentured slavery), in which the Law decrees loss of freedom as the consequence of a crime, cannot be construed as a “punishment.” The purpose of this law cannot be punishment because it sentences the thief to six years’ servitude only with the purpose of making restitution for the actual value of the theft.”

Rabbi Hirsch elaborates further that the slavery comes into play only if the value of what the thief stole is in excess of his working capacity. Additionally:

“The victim of the theft has the right to waive restitution derived from the sale of the thief and to content himself with a signed promise from the thief to pay restitution as soon as his material circumstances improve.”

Prison is not the solution. It even likely exacerbates the problem.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To Martín Correa González and all the other dedicated workers in the Uruguayan prison system.

5776, Exodus, Mishpatim, Parsha, Sfat Emet, The Times of Israel

Smart Jews

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 If a man’s eye is on the Eternal, his intellect will grow. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

brainThere has been much written extolling the intelligence of Jews on one hand, and on the other hand analyzing the historical reasons for such a phenomenon. In his Commentary article “Jewish Genius,” Charles Murray argues that the reason for Jewish intelligence harks back to the very founding of Judaism as a law-intensive community. The requirement to be proficient, educated, literate in a plethora of detailed laws forced Jews as a people to develop levels of intellect unparalleled in the ancient world.

The Sfat Emet in 5635 (1875) mentions that Moses was apprehensive about the Jewish people being able to learn all the details of the Torah. However, at the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai the Jewish people exclaim famously, “we will do and we will listen,” classically interpreted as we will accept the commandments and then we will learn the details.

The Sfat Emet says that God vouched for the people of Israel and assured Moses that they would be able to cope with all of the laws. But the Sfat Emet states that there is a catch to this ability to comprehend the laws, and it is intrinsic to the statement of “we will do and we will listen.” In order to understand God’s laws, we must first accept them, before we understand them. We must be willing to undertake this mission, to accept the “yoke of Heaven” before we can hope to comprehend His laws. Only after we have submitted ourselves to God can we understand Him and His detailed Laws. Trying to understand God before accepting Him is unlikely to ever work.

May we be intelligent enough to bring God into our lives and reach greater levels of understanding of the divine.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To Createspace. An incredibly smart publishing solution that I am so happy to be using.

 

5775, Baal Haturim, Exodus, Mishpatim, Parsha, The Times of Israel

Smooth Talkers

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First posted on The Times of Israel at: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/mishpatim-smooth-talkers/

Baal Haturim Exodus: Mishpatim

Smooth Talkers

We kill everybody, my dear. Some with bullets, some with words, and everybody with our deeds. We drive people into their graves, and neither see it nor feel it. -Maxim Gorky

There are people, who through the power of their personality, their charisma and their eloquence can get unsuspecting victims to do something of their own free will that may go against their own interests and well-being. The reason they are influential is because humans on a whole are a trusting species. Our society would disintegrate if the foundation of trust did not underlie basic human interactions.

However, there are some opportunists that take advantage of this visceral trust, play upon people’s feelings and beliefs and sell them something which is simply not real, not true. The Baal Haturim on Exodus 21:14 compares these smooth talkers to false prophets. The false prophet would often prophecy what the people wanted to hear. They would soothe their fears and not confront them with the reality ahead. Not warn them of the error of their ways in time for them to correct it and save themselves. The false prophets doomed themselves and their followers to oblivion.

The Baal Haturim compares both the smooth talkers and the false prophets to murderers. By betraying the trust people put in them, they are killing them. They are destroying the relationship of trust that connects them to life. In some cases they even lead them to actual death.

May truth and honesty always be our hallmark.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the honest people in our lives. You are a beacon in an often hazy and dark world.

 

 

 

5774, Exodus, Mishpatim, Netziv, Parsha, The Times of Israel

Cursing’s Legacy

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First posted on The Times of Israel at: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/mishpatim-cursings-legacy/

Netziv Exodus: Mishpatim

Cursing’s Legacy

“I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren’t trying to teach us.” -Umberto Eco

It is often something of a national pastime to criticize and even curse our leaders. They are easy punching-bags upon which to vent all of our complaints and grievances with the world. Even if the faults are true, there is little that such grumblings accomplish.

The Torah warns us against cursing ones rulers. The Netziv learns at least two lessons from that particular commandment. On Exodus 22:27 he states that the prohibition against cursing the leadership is specified exactly because it is so easy, natural and common. The second lesson is a bit deeper with longer-term implications.

On Exodus 22:28 the Netziv prophesizes that a man who refrains from cursing his leaders, whether they be political or religious, will merit to have a son who will himself serve God via lay or religious leadership. There is something in the act of showing restraint, respect and deference to our leadership that cultivates and empowers the next generation to take on the mantle of leadership.

If leaders are the subject of constant disparagement at home, why would any child, even unconsciously, seek or even consider higher ambitions? Just so that he should become a subject of idle discussion and inane criticism? No. It is only the child that is spared and shielded from such negativity that dares rise above the mundane, and in the words of the Mishna, “Be a man where there are no men.”

May we help cultivate future leaders.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the Jewish lay leadership of Uruguay, and specifically to Sara Winkowski, the force behind the successful introduction of the pre-nuptial solution, who never gave up on her mission. I am constantly humbled and inspired by the leadership’s dedication to the community.