Shabbos Parashas Mishpatim - 5775

Shabbos Parashas Mishpatim - 5775

Rabbi Hal Miller If you encounter an ox of your enemy or his donkey wandering, you shall return it to him repeatedly. If you see the donkey of someone you hate crouching under its burden, would you refrain from helping him? You shall help repeatedly with him. [Shemos 23:4-5]

Our parsha is loaded with commandments dealing with judgment, thus its name. Nechama Leibowitz introduces our two verses in a way that raises questions for us. She writes, "The context of these two precepts, the restoring of lost property and the giving of help in relieving an animal of its burden, is puzzling. They come right in the middle of a paragraph dealing with the administration of justice, to be precise, following a verse prohibiting partiality to the poor and preceding one prohibiting prejudice against the poor. The two verses here seem to come between two obviously closely linked passages."

How do our verses relate to judgment and justice? Neither appears to be related to a court hearing.

Sefer HaChinuch tells us that these commandments are "to teach our spirit the quality of compassion, which is a noble trait of character." He explains the duty for us to help

people who need, whether they are friend or not, just because we owe that to our fellow man. But there is a limit. He writes, "The law about and elder or distinguished person, all is judged according to what he would do with his own animal. Unloading is to be done without charge, but loading for a fee." This gives us a business-type aspect that might be dropped into a court someday. But although true for other purposes, that is a rather weak connection to the idea of judgment.

Rav Hirsch differentiates between our two verses as to when they apply. The first says,

"if you encounter", and the second says, "if you see". 'Encounter' means that we come upon, engage, meet, come into contact with, someone. 'See' includes this, but also applies to viewing from a distance, and is thus larger in scope. The duties involved differ depending on which classification you find yourself in. If you engage, you take upon yourself a set of rules regarding your responsibility to provide assistance,

depending on your level of expertise, that is more strict than if you do not engage in

an activity. A doctor who stops to help at the scene of an accident must provide care

at the level a doctor is expected to provide, and cannot just stop and say, "I've

changed my mind." One with no medical training might be able to do that, depending on circumstances. However, if someone sees an incident in the distance, their duty to provide help is not the same as one who engaged already. In many instances, one who sees may actually turn away and ignore it. At least this is so in the secular law, and a court will enforce these rules.

Our verses say otherwise. The Torah does not like the idea that we can just walk away when there is a need. We see this in both these verses, we see it in mitzvos about helping the poor, we see it throughout. If the Torah has written two verses here, there must be a differentiation--what is it?

The first verse, 'encounter' has to do with helping an animal when the owner is not present. The second verse, 'see' relates to problems with an animal when the

owner is right there. The difference is in the phrases, "you shall return it" and "you shall help". If you find a stray animal, you are responsible to ensure that it gets returned to its owner. If you find an animal in trouble, you are responsible only for helping the owner. In other words, if the owner chooses to sit back and do nothing, your responsibility here does not kick in, whereas you are automatically responsible if you find a lost animal. These rules apply beyond animals, to any lost or burdened objects, so these verses are not "animal rights" issues.

How does this relate to judgment? In both verses, if you do not act there will be a loss to the owner. If the owner brings you to court to recompense him for his loss,

these commandments settle the issue by assigning, and limiting, your liability. As Jews, we always have a responsibility to assist our fellow Jews, which is expanded in other mitzvos to include non-Jews as well. The purpose of these two commandments is to establish what that responsibility entails with regard to these two situations. There is no limit to acting, only to the level to which we might be held liable in a court situation.