PARSHAS MISHPATIM

Good Shabbos.  This past Sunday night, we were studying in shul between mincha and maariv and we were discussing the following concern.   This week’s portion begins with the letter vov which means “and” as if to connect this week’s portion to last week’s portion.  

But they are vastly different.   Last week’s portion contained the lofty and holy Ten Commandments.  This week’s portion starts out with the laws of the Jewish slave and contains more mundane laws regarding civil law and interpersonal issues. Wouldn’t it make sense to at least have a pause between Church and State - between religious and civil law?  Why should the Torah have added a vov to indicate a special connection between these civil laws and the more spiritual lofty laws which we read last week?

We discussed the classic answer which Rashi quotes from the Mechilta and many commentaries explain at great detail.   The reason why this portion is connected to last week’s portion is to drive home the point that just as the Ten Commandments came from G-d so too all of the civil laws came from G-d too. 

We learned that the ultimate Jewish court which rules on all issues of civil law, called the Sanhedrin, was held on the Temple Mount alongside the Beis Hamikdash, for both together form one complete set of laws.  One cannot be religious and observant of laws between man and G-d and then be unethical in their actions between man and man.  It is all one body of laws and we need to be diligent in keeping all of them. 

Today I would like to share a more novel approach to this question based on something which I taught at a class at  the JCC this Wednesday entitled: Prayer and Meditation.  You see, we were learning about the power of prayer and we discussed the famous story brought down in the Gemara of a time when there was a terrible drought in the land of Israel.  The Jews realized that they were being punished by G-d so they came to “Choni Hamageil - Choni the circle drawer”.  You will understand this name in just a minute.  

They pleaded with Choni and said as follows: “We all know that you are a Tzadik and you are like a son in the King’s court who is always granted whatever you ask.  Please pray for us, so that G-d will make it rain and end this terrible drought”.

Choni drew a circle on the ground and entered it and said to  G-d:  “Your children look upon me as someone who has your ear.  I swear by Your Great Name that I will not move out of this circle until it will rain and irrigate the fields”.  And indeed it rained so that all the fields were irrigated and all of the wells and cisterns were filled with water for the future’.

After the class someone asked me, if G-d decided that they should have no water, how was Choni able to get it to rain?  Is it really possible for a person to somehow change or overrule that which G-d decides to do?

To answer this question and to gain a deeper understanding of why this portion of civil laws is connected to the portion before which discusses religious law - lets look at one of the opening verses of our portion. 

It is talking about a Jewish slave and the obligation to set him free at the end of six years of servitude (at the Sabbatical year).   The verse then says:  “However if he says that he does not want to leave you because he loves you and your house, and has prospered with you” , (Devarim 15:16) then he may stay under a set of specific conditions.     

The Talmud teaches as follows.  What does it mean that the servant has prospered with you?  It means he prospered with you in food and in drink, and therefore it should not be that:

• You eat refined bread, and he eats coarse bread…..,
• You drink old wine and he drinks new wine…..,
• You sleep on cloth and he sleeps on straw.
• Rather he should be treated with respect as befitting a Jew even though he is a slave.

Based upon this, the Talmud declares:  Whoever acquires a Jewish slave is like one who has acquired a master! (Kiddushin 20a)

What does this mean?  If you acquire a slave, then he is your servant.  He works for you.  He does the tasks which you ask of him.  And, yet, explains the Talmud, while it is true that a Jewish slave acquired by a Jewish master is still a slave, there are now so many conditions regarding this relationship of slave and master, that it may even seem to look like the Jewish slave is more of a master than the slave which he agreed to be. 

So far so good!   But, would this not mean, that since G-d acquired us as servants as the Torah said He did, that on some level in some kind of a way - we are likened to the Master?  Of course, we are still the servant and G-d is the Master, but shouldn’t there be at least some aspect to the relationship that leaves us looking a little like masters ourselves?

The answer is YES!  And this is exactly what the Gemara is teaching, as shown by the story of Choni, that: “What a righteous person decrees below, G-d fulfills from above” (Ta’anis 23). The tzadik is certainly a servant of G-d, yet when he asks something of G-d, G-d carries out his will and does what he asks.  

This lesson indicates the unique relationship which we have with the Al-mighty.   This is what the Torah is telling us.  If you are diligent in keeping the religious laws of the portion of Yisro AND you are diligent in keeping the many civil laws of our portion of Mishpatim, then you will be my faithful servants.  And here is the lesson.  G-d says: “When you rise to the level of a Tzadik and are indeed my MOST faithful servants, then I will treat you as masters and do all that you ask“.    

And while we strive to be tzadikim ourselves, we should endeavor to be close to tzadikim and emulate their ways.  Just this morning, Rabbi Avrohom Weinberger shared with me, on this Shabbos when we read of the half shekel given for Temple provisions, that the word Machasis which means “half” has the letter Tzadik in its middle.  The two letters closest to the tzadik spell Chai which means life.  The two letters further from the Tzadik spell the opposite of life.  The lesson is we should all certainly strive to be Tzadikim ourselves, but in the meantime we should also endeavor to maintain a close relationship with Tzadikim for just being close to them brings us life and Divine Blessing. 

May we fulfill all of the laws of Yisro AND Mishpatim making us true and faithful servants of G-d, so that He rewards us with our greatest wish and desire, the coming of Moshiach speedily in our days and let us say, AMAIN