From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2006 3:10 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Mishpotim, 5766


                                                                     

                                                 
                                                    What’s the Rush?
                               
                          By Rabbi Joshua (hastily known as The Hoffer) Hoffman


  This week's parsha is divided into two parts. The first part consists of a long series  of laws that were given to the Jewish people after the revelation at Mt. Sinai. The second part of the parsha is a description of events that occurred at Mt. Sinai. The great Torah commentators have noted the fact that the Torah's description of the events at Mt. Sinai is split between parshas Yisro and parshas Mishpotim, and debated whether the events described in Mishpotim are presented in sequence or not. Rashi maintains that the events described at the end of parshas Mishpotim, including Moshe's telling the people "all the words of the Torah and all its ordinances (mishpotim) ", the bringing of sacrifices and the sprinkling of their blood upon the people, occurred at Mt. Sinai before God's revelation there. The teachings that Moshe read to the people from the ‘book of the covenant,’ according to Rashi, consisted of the seven Noachide laws and the mitzvos they had been given at Marah. According to Ramban, however, the events occurred in sequence, as recorded, and the teaching that Moshe related to the people consisted of the first three chapters (Shemos 21-23) of parshas Mishpotim. In Netvort to Mishpotim, 5760 (available at Torahheights.com) we discussed the approach of the Ramban to the Torah's presentation of these events. Although we mentioned, there, that Rashi, in saying that the events are presented out of sequence, is following his general approach that the Torah does not necessarily follow a chronological order in its presentation of events, we still need to understand why the sequence is, in fact, changed, and why the first series of events is recorded only after the laws of the first half of the parsha are mentioned.


  The first part of parshas Mishpotim begins with the statement," And these are the laws that you shall place before them" (Shemos 21:1). Rashi notes that the word 'eileh' - these - indicates a disconnection from what preceded, while the word 've-eileh' - and these - indicates a connection to what preceded. The connection, Rashi says, is that just as those laws which preceded parshas Mishpotim, meaning the laws of the Decalogue, were given at Mt. Sinai, so, too, were the laws presented in parshas Mishpotim given at Mt. Sinai. One way of understanding this statement of Rashi is that although the laws in parshas Mishpotim consist, in large part, of civil laws that one could conceivably have arrived at through human intellect, they were given by God at Mt. Sinai just as the prohibitions against idolatry, swearing falsely, and the like were given there.


  Rabbi Pinchos HaLevi Horowitz, in his Ponim Yofos, and Rabbi Gedaliah Schorr, in his Ohr Gedalyohu, each in his own way, both offer an added dimension to the connection mentioned by Rashi. They note that this first verse includes, as Rashi brings from the Talmud, an obligation to adjudicate disputes in a Jewish court of law, and not to go to a non-Jewish court, even if the non-Jewish court judges similarly to the Jewish one. Rashi also mentions that God told Moshe to present the laws to the nation in a clear way, as a 'shulchan aruch,' or a prepared table, so that they have a thorough understanding of them. Rabbi Horowitz and Rabbi Schorr go on to discuss the value of studying the civil laws of the Torah, and mention that the Talmud advises one who is looking for wisdom to study these laws. On a broader level, the study of these laws enables one to attach himself to God's infinite wisdom, and thereby connect with him in a very deep way. Ramban, in his commentary to Mishpotim, noted that the laws of the Hebrew slave, which follow immediately after the first verse of the parsha, connect to the first verse of the Decalogue, " I am the Lord your God who took you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves" (Shemos 20:2), since the slave is eventually released from his servitude. I believe that, following the way Rabbis Horowitz and Schorr view the study of the Torah's civil laws, the very first verse in the parsha connects to the beginning of the Decalogue, as well. The study of the civil laws of the Torah, as mandated in the first verse of the parsha, can serve as a means of connecting ourselves to God in a very deep way. The Torah then precedes to present us with many of these laws, continuing through most of the first part of the parsha. Based on this understanding of the beginning of the parsha, we can now explain Rashi's approach to the second part, as well.


  The Torah tells us that when Moshe read the 'book of the covenant' to the people, they said, 'Everything that God has said, we will do and we will listen" (Shemos 24:6). The Talmud tells us that a certain Sadducee referred to the Jewish people as a hasty people, because they committed to acting before hearing what they would have to do. However, the rabbis themselves said that when the Jewish nation did this, they were given two crowns, one for saying they will perform the mitzos, and one for saying they will listen. Rabbi Yosef Dov HaLevi Soloveitchk of Brisk, author of the Beis HaLevi, cites the Zohar, which says that the commitment to do referred to the performance of the mitzvos, and the commitment to listen referred to the study of Torah. He explains that study of Torah was implied in the first commitment, as well, because one cannot perform the mitzvos without knowing the details of their laws. However, there is an additional aspect of Torah study, unrelated to the practical need to know the halacha. This is the aspect of Torah we referred to earlier, studying Torah for its own sake, to know the wisdom of God, and connect to him through studying that wisdom. As Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, Rabbi Soloveitchik's ancestor, writes in his Nefesh HaChaim, Torah study is the best way for us, in this world, to connect to God. Rashi, by pointing out the connection between Torah study and the beginning of the Decalogue, has given us a window into understanding the dual commitment that the Jewish nation undertook at Mt. Sinai, for which it received its two crowns.



  Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

  To subscribe to Netvort, send a message with subject line subscribe, to Netvort@aol.com. To unsubscribe, send message with subject line unsubscribe, to the same address.