פרשת משפטים
This week’s Parsha delineates many of the monetary and personal laws that the Jewish people are obligated to follow toward one another. It is interesting to note that these laws are the first laws brought down after the giving of the Torah and come before many other laws that are relegated to one’s obligations between man and God. These monetary and humane laws come even before the commandment to construct the Mishkan which is God’s home on this earth. It seems that the Torah wanted to attach extraordinary importance to these statutes. Let us attempt to explain why this is so.
The Midrash Rabba at the beginning of the Parsha quotes a verse in Tehilim (99) which says “God is a king of strength, and He loves straight judgment”. The Mirdash explains that although Hashem is the possessor of all the strength and power in the world, He loves when the Jewish people utilize the straight and honest regulations that He laid down for them to use in order to act in a refined manner with each other and come to a peaceful resolution to their disagreements in court and not through violence. On the flip side, Hashem is disgusted when the Jewish people pervert judgment and deal with each other dishonestly or violently, taking the law into their own hands.
R’ Shimshon Rapahel Hirsh on this week’s Parsha asks why it is that the chapter in the Torah which forbids us to use any metal implements on the Holy Altar, immediately precedes these laws of the Torah court systems. He explains that just as Hashem did not desire there to be any metal used for the construction of the Altar, because iron is primarily used to produce weapons of death and destruction and this motif is contrary to the holiness of the altar, so to the human being, who is compared to the altar, and has a tremendous amount of holiness, should use the peaceful and refined ways of the Torah to resolve his clashes, and never resort to violence and defile his holiness and denigrate his holy status in the eyes of his creator.
Truthfully, this concept is expressed by the prophet Micha (Chapter 6). The verse there says, “What does Hashem ask of you other then to perform judgment, to love kindness and honesty, and to perform benevolence to mankind, etc”. In addition, there is a Gemorrah in Bava Kama which says, “Anyone who wants to be completely righteous, should fulfill all the Torah’s monetary laws”. From all that we have written, it is clear in what esteem Hashem holds those who upkeep the Torah’s laws when dealing with all intrapersonal relationships and deal with each other in a cultured manner as the Torah prescribed.
There is another interesting Mitzvah in this week’s Parsha which discusses the importance of being straight with one another. We know that there is a negative commandment in the Torah not to hurt people’s feelings with unkind words called “Ona’as Devarim”. Every time a person makes a tactless comment which hurts another Jew’s feelings he transgresses this negative commandment. However the Torah in this week’s Parsha adds an extra commandment not to hurt a widow, orphan, or convert’s feelings. Rashi explains the reason for this additional law is that it is perhaps easier to insult these people because they have no one to protect them being that they are all alone in the world, so God protected their feelings. We find that the Torah is extremely particular about the feelings of a convert and repeats over and over again the severity of insulting them. The rationale given by the Torah is that we should be more sensitive to their plight since we ourselves were strangers in the land of Egypt, and should therefore by understanding of their situation as strangers among us. The Ramban explains that Hashem has a very strong desire to protect the underdog and to save the oppressed. Whoever calls out to Hashem from oppression gets answered almost immediately. Nobody knows this better then the Jews who were enslaved in Egypt under the hands of the cruel pharaoh, and called out to God to help them. Look at God’s response. From this response we should know better then to oppress others, and we should be aware of the disastrous results that will occur if we are not just with one another and how important it is to God that we treat each other the way He prescribed.
I would just like to conclude with a nice word from my father in law, R’ Elimelech Miller, Shlit”a. There is a Gemorah in Bava Basra, (10b) which says that when R’ Yosef took ill and was close to death, he had a vision of the world to come. When his health was restored, his father asked him what he had seen in the next world. R’ Yosef described an opposite world in which people who have great honor and wealth in this world, have none in the next, and people who in this world are considered to be men of little or no stature, are lauded in the world to come. His father responded to him by telling him that in fact, he had seen the world correctly and this was the true view of the way things are. Tosafos explain in greater depth exactly what it was that R’ Yosef saw. Tosafos explain that R’ Yosef saw Shmuel sitting behind R’ Yehuda who was actually his student in this world. In other words, the student was getting more respect than the teacher. Why did this happen? Tosafos explain that there is a Gemorah in Shabbos, (55) which says that one time when Shmuel was teaching, a lady came to him with a Halachic question. He did not want to interrupt his Shiur so he had her wait until he was finished and she cried out in frustration. R’ Yehuda told his Rebbi that the verse says that one who doesn’t heed another’s cry, will also not be heeded when he calls out. Indeed, explain Tosafos, this is what happened and this is why Shmuel was forced to sit behind his student R’ Yehuda. However, my father in law asked on this Gemorah, I can understand that perhaps Shmuel did the wrong thing, and perhaps he deserved to be punished for his error, but why did R’ Yehuda get to sit in front of him? How was this eternal punishment commensurate with Shmuel’s iniquity? He answered that in fact, this was not a punishment, but rather this result was the perfect response for the simple reason that R’ Yehuda had become the teacher. R’ Yehuda’s lesson that one should not ignore the cry of another Jew earned him the right to be considered Shmuel’s teacher and he therefore merited to sit in front of him in the world to come, in spite of the fact that Shmuel had certainly taught his student R’ Yehuda many more Halachos than just one. We see from this response how seriously Hashem took the lesson of not paying heed to another Jew’s suffering and how Hashem apparently considered this lesson to be greater then all the Torah Shmuel had taught R’ Yehuda.
May we merit to foster a sensitivity and understanding of all our fellow Jews and act toward them the way God wants us to!