From: JoshHoff@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 5:39 PM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Cc: bz@rudnikcapital.com
Subject: Netvort: parshas Mishpatim, 5769
Getting Started
By Rabbi Joshua ( initially
known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
In Mishpatim, the nation is presented with a series of lawsby which
they are to order their society. This series consists largely of civil
laws,.regarding interactions between man and his fellow man, but also of laws
between man and God. There is, in fact, an interweaving of the two, which
very likely carries the message that both types of law are essential for the
nation to observe in order for society to function properly. What is
interesting is that the parsha begins with the laws of the Hebrew slave. Why
were these laws chosen to begin this follow -up to the revlation at Mt. Sinai,
where the Aseres Hadibros, commonly known as the 'Ten Commnadments, ' but
more accurately known as the 'decalogue,' were given to the people?
Ramban says that,as a follow - up to the revelation, the law requiring the
release of the Hebrew slave on the seventh year relates to the first
statement made at Mt. Sinai, " I am the Lord your God who took you out
of the land of Egypt. This law of release, adds the Ramban, also relates to
Shabbos, which was given at Mt. Sinai, in that the seventh year for the
slave marks the cessation of his work for his master, just as Shabbos marks the
cessation of work for all Jews. Perhaps we can add that since, in the Aseres
Hadibros,as recorded in parshas Yisro, Shabbos reminds us of God's creation of
the world in six days, and His cessation from work on the seventh day, the laws
of the Hebrew slkave, by evoking the laws of cessation from work on Shabbos, in
turn remind us of the creation of the world. According to the author of the
Halachos Gedolos (Bahag) , the book of Shemos is named Chumash Sheni, or
'Second Book', and the Netziv explains that this is because the redemption from
Egypt and the giving of the Torah marked the spiritual completion of creation.
Thus, the series of laws that serve as a follow -up to the revelation at Sinai
begin with laws which reinforce this notion that the creation of the world was
completed with that revelation.
Rabbi Menachem Leibtag has suggested, on a simpler level, that the laws in
Mishpatim begin with the proper way to treat a Hebrew slave because the
nartion's experience of servitude in Egypt was meant, at least in part, to
sensitize them to the plight of others. Therefore, the series of laws they were
first taught after the revelation appealed to that sensitivity, commanding them
to treat the slave properly, since they knew what it is like to be a slave,
and, furthermore, as God;'s nation, they needed to understand that they
have to act better than the idolatrous, immoral nation that had enslaved them.
Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch in a somewhat diferentl but related way,
explains that a society is judged by its treatment of the lowest class of people
among it, and, therefore, the series of laws in Mishpatim that are meant to
give guidleines in ordring Jewish society begin with the laws of the proper
treatment of the Hebrew slave. I would like to suggest yet another reason for
beginning parshas Mishpatim with these laws, grounded on a pasasage in the
Talmud Yerushalmi in Rosh Hashanah, 3:5, but also related to the explanations
we have already noted.
The haftarah usually read for parshas Mishpatim is taken from the book of
Yirmiyahu, and deals with the requirement to free one's slaves upon the Yovel.
The Yerushalmi tells us that while the Jews were stilll in Egypt, God
told Moshe to teach this commandment to the nation.What was the purpose of
telling this to people who themselves were serving as slaves, and certainly did
not have any slaves of their own at the time? Rabbi Meir Juzint zt'l of Chicago
once explained to me that before the Jews could leave Egypt and assume the
status of a free people, they had to be weaned away from the low self-image they
had developed as slaves. In fact, Rav Kook, in his commentary to the Pesach
Haggadah, explains the phrase 'and they acted badly towards us' to mean, that
the Egyptians made the Jews themselves think that they were bad. Moshe had to
convince the people that they had it within themselves to divest themselves of
their slave status, and, therefore, he informed them that they were commanded
by God to free their slaves. If they were commanded to free others, they must
have the ability to free themselves. To become the nation of God, they had to
realize that, ultimately, no human being could define their existence.Rabbi
Yehudah HaLevi wrote in his celebrated poem that a servant of time is a servant
of servants, and that only a servant of God is free. Someone who is under the
jurisdiction of another human being, whose time is not his own, finds it very
difficult to actualize his potential.Freedom,according to Rav Kook, is one's
ability to actualize his inner self, as implanted in his soul by his Creator.As
we noted from the Ramban, the laws of the Hebrew slave relate
to the staement with which the Aseres Hadibros begin "I am the Lord your
God who took you out of the land of Egypt." The freedom attained through
the Exodus consists in the ability to realize the divine image within us by
adhering to the commandments given at Mt.Sinai.Parshas Mishpatim, the
explanation and development of those commandments, therefore, begins with a
charge to maintain the human dignity of all segments of society, a dignity which
is grounded in that divine image.
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