Parshas Mishpatim 5775
This week’s parsha focuses on mishpatim, which are the laws that govern dealings between people and set up a structure for resolving disputes. Mishpatim are unlike chukimin that they are usually closer to our human understanding.
The parsha begins: “And these are the mishpatim you shall place before them…” Rashi asks: Why the “and” at the beginning? The word “and” typically comes to connect a series of similar ideas, but no mishpatim precede our parsha.
Rashi answers that this “and” links the mishpatim of our parsha to the giving of Torah at Sinai, recorded in Parshas Yisro, read last week. This shows that just as the 10 Commandments were given at Sinai, so too were the mishpatim.
Only the question remains: Wasn’t all of Torah given at Sinai? Why is it that the verse seems to go out of its way to stress that the mishpatim were also given there?
R’ Shimshon Pinkus explains: Precisely because mishpatim make sense to us and are often perfectly intuitive, there is a risk that does not exist concerning mitzvos and chukim. One can assume that he understands mishpatim so well that he may end up relying on his own ideas, without asking a rav. He may also take the liberty of adjusting the law, chalila, if it seems out of synch with the times. After all, he reasons, aren’t mishpatim supposed to make sense? Therefore, the mishpatim are introduced with an “and” to connect them to Matan Torah and make clear that the mishpatim as well are the eternal word of G-d, no less than any other section of the Torah.
In gentile courts, laws do change. At the municipal level, laws can differ even from one district to the next. On a broader scale, the appointment of a chief justice to the Supreme Court can radically change the direction of American law. Torah is not like that. Torah is absolute truth. It is the word of G-d, and therefore there is no room for adjustment.
A gentile judge in Vilna once commented to R’ Meir Snipisker, “When litigants come before our courts with a monetary claim, they quarrel with each other until a verdict is given, and after that they really start to fight. By you Jews, litigants quarrel too, but when a verdict is given they more or less accept it. How do you do that?”
The answer is obvious: When gentiles go to court, all they expect is that the judge use his intelligence to resolve their dispute, but the losing party can always argue that his intelligence dictates differently than the judge’s ruling. In beis din, however, Jews are concerned with what Hashem has to say about their dispute. Even though each litigant may believe that his viewpoint is correct, since the judge’s ruling represents the truth as given from Sinai, even the losing party accepts it.
Rav Pinkus adds that even for seemingly minor matters in interpersonal dealings, a rav must be consulted. A home-owner wants to make a small expansion but his neighbor is upset about this, for example. This is a question that a rav must determine: are there grounds here for a legitimate grievance? As Rav Yisrael Salanter notes from Bava Metzia 6:1, Chazal set down cases in which a claimant “has only a grudge,” showing that even a grudge is not something a person can decide on his own to have; Chazal have to give him permission for this. Having a grudge is either one’s halachic right or it is a violation of the law.
Rav Simcha Zissel Broide, citing the Re’em, offers a different answer to the question we asked above: “And these are the mishpatim” connects this week’s parsha to the Ten Commandments in a different way. Just as the Ten Commandments were given amid thunder and lightning, so too were the mishpatim. Whereas the rest of Torah was given between Hashem and Moshe, the revelation of the mishpatim had the same intensity as the 10 Commandments.
Why was this the case? Rav Simcha Zissel (based on Rabbeinu Yonah’s commentary onPirkei Avos 1:1) explains that just as the 10 Commandments constitute fundamental Torah principles, so too the mishpatim function as fundamental guidelines for understanding theratzon Hashem. Mishpatim offer us a general approach to interpersonal relations, meaning we can see from the mishpatim how Hashem wants us to relate to our fellow man, even in areas not spoken about explicitly. From the way Hashem tells us to deal with widows, orphans and the poor, showing such sensitivity for their feelings, this gives us direction for all our interactions with people.
Take the mitzvah of ye’ud, for example, in which a master is expected to either personally marry his Hebrew maid-servant or wed her to his son. This is an example of the concern the Torah expects us to have for others. The master’s son may have potential suitors waiting at his door, but the maid-servant will have a much harder time getting married. She may be the last person the son would think of marrying, but the Torah makes it a mitzva, and even calls a master (or his son) who refrains from doing so a “traitor.” Even a Hebrew slave who was sold as a criminal is singled out for preferential treatment. His master must provide him the same level of comfort at which he himself lives. If the master owns only own pillow, the slave gets it and not him.
The Chazon Ish would say that dealings between people and exercising sensitivity toward them is the peak of avoda ruchanis. Perhaps for this reason, Rav Yisrael Salanter’s main work was in the field of mitzvos bein adam lechaveiro.
Rav Moshe Mandel was a gaon in both the revealed and hidden Torah, and until his later years, he devoted his days and nights to study. As people began recognizing his sage advice and power of brachos, more and more of his time went toward helping those that came to him. His shamashim to this day cannot explain how Rav Mandel was able to relate so intimately to the problems of others. Time and again he was able to fathom the depths of his fellow man’s unique psychology and make him feel as though he was truly understood. Once Rav Mandel felt that he grasped perfectly his fellow man’s plight, he would try to help him, with a bracha, advice, heartfelt words of encouragement or simply the warmth of his personality. When on rare occasion it happened that R’ Mandel felt that he had not sufficiently understood his fellow man, it pained him terribly. “My level inruchniyus has fallen,” he was once heard saying.
May we be zoche to obey the mishpatim and gain the sensitivity they teach us!
Exciting news! Rabbi Krieger will soon be publishing a sefer featuring the “best” of the weekly Parsha sheet. If you would like to share in this celebration, please go to www.bircas.org for further details.