Mishpatim

By Rabbi Manes Kogan

5761

Last week we talked about the big moment of the revelation: God speaking to the children of Israel from within the clouds and the fire.

So much spirituality!!

For the reader who search for inspirational texts, this entire Torah portion appears to be a bucket of cold water:

"And these are the ordinances that you shall place before them" (Exodus 21:1)

"If you buy a Jewish bondsman, he shall work for six years; and in the seventh he shall go free, for no charge: If he shall arrive by himself, he shall leave by himself; if he is the husband of a woman, his wife shall leave with him: If his master will give him a woman and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out by himself" (Exodus 2:4)

"If men quarrel and one strikes his fellow with a stone or a fist, and he does not die but falls into bed: If he gets up and goes about outside under his own power, the one who struck is absolved. Only for his lost time shall he pay, and he shall provide for healing: If a man shall strike his slave or his maidservant with the rod and he shall die under his hand, he shall surely be avenged" (Exodus 2:18-20)

Nothing is apparently further from what we experienced last week.

Last week we dealt with basic principles whim everybody agrees with them and also with spirituality galore!

This week we deal with the details, details that we feel far away from our daily experience: quarrel, death punishment, slaves, maidservants. Even the words appear to be strange to us!

It appears –God forbid- that we are talking on two different texts, two different scrolls!

What is the lesson behind our Torah portion? How are this "dry" portion and the "glorious" previous one related?

RaSHI, feeling the distance between the two portions interprets:

"And these are the ordinances that you shall place before them" (Exodus 21:1)

The words "and these" show the connection between the two portions to teach us that both (the Ten Commandments and these detailed laws) were given in Sinai" (RaSHI there)

RaSHI is talking to the skeptic in his generation and to the skeptic in our generation.

The problematic dealing with irrelevant texts, with meaningless laws, with old decrees, which were good for our forefathers in the desert but not for us in the 21st century.

RaSHI, before analyzing each of the ordinances of the Torah is inviting us to consider the divine origin of them, to approach them with respect and consideration.

Everybody can relate to the Ten Commandments. It is easy to find godliness within them. The real challenge is to find God’s presence in each of the verses of the Torah, in each of its words, in each of its letters.

The message I would like to suggest is involved in this Torah portion and in the connection between this portion and the previous one is that we can not talk about spirituality in the abstract.

God’s presence is linked to the way we relate to others, to our environment, to our enemies, to the stranger, to the widow, to the animals.

Moreover: it seems that the Torah is telling us that there is the first place we should search for God’s presence: in the detail, in the minutia of the law.

"If a man shall act intentionally against his fellow to kill him with guile -- from My Altar shall you take him to die" (Exodus 21:14)

What is more holy than the altar?

The altar is the physical symbol of the connection with God.

Nevertheless, "If a man shall act intentionally against his fellow to kill him with guile -- from My Altar shall you take him to die" (Exodus 21:14)

Spiritual connection does not work when you kill your fellow, when you mistreat the stranger, when you speak falsely against your neighbour, when you curse your parents or when you refuse to pay your ½ Shekel to support your community.

Half Shekel and half Shekel!

Only the combination of both will bring to our personal growth, the growth of our families and the growth of our congregation!

Shabbat Shalom