Shabbos Parashas Mishpatim - 5778
Shabbos Parashas Mishpatim - 5778 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 repeatedly help
with him. [Shemos 23:4-5]
Our two verses appear in the middle of a list of ten simple statements that are all
separate commands. The other eight are in the form of 'do not do something', but
these two are both more verbose, and involve positive commands. These are also
the only ones that use the Hebrew emphatic form of repeating the verb, as in,
"return, you shall return", and "help, you shall help", which are typically translated
as "you shall surely return" and "you shall surely help". What is special about
these two verses that require this kind of treatment?
Rashbam does not see the doubled words as being emphasis, rather two separate
meanings. "Help, you shall help" means to provide both assistance and support,
there being nuances of difference between those words. Most others, though,
understand this in the usual way, meaning emphasis, as above. If the Torah is
emphasizing something, what and why?
Rav Hirsch looks at these two verses together, and asks about an obvious
difference. The first mentions 'enemy', and the second talks about someone you
'hate'. 'Enemy' is used where the person has done actual harm such as a soldier from
form of 'justification'. Nechama Leibowitz explains that this distinction is clear in the
verses. With an actual enemy, we are only required to deal with his animal should we
happen upon it, we don't need to chase it down. With someone who wishes us ill, we
are talking about a fellow Jew. In this case, we must go out of our way to put our
distaste aside and help him even if it means we need to put down our own work
or load, in order to go help.
Nechama also notes that in the first verse, our liability is less because the animal
involved does not appear to be in distress. It is just wandering around. But in the
second verse, the animal is suffering, so we are bound to jump in and assist for the
sake of the animal, even if not for our fellow.
The other commands in our chapter give specific negative actions, but their purpose
is to guide us in the attitude we should have when dealing with others around us.
These two verses make clear that this attitude is the main point the Torah wishes
us to learn here.