Shabbos Parashas Mishpatim - 5780

Shabbos Parashas Mishpatim - 5780

Rabbi Hal Miller

And these are the judgments that you shall place before them.

[Shemos 21:1]

V'eileh hamishpatim. And these are the judgments. But then the Torah lists

dozens of laws. There are many words the Torah could have used here, such

as chokim (statutes), dinim (laws), and others. Why mishpatim?

To be fair, most Hebrew words do not translate with precision into English, and

we are usually flexible. In fact, many commentators use 'ordinances' here instead

of judgments. But in this case, mishpatim really is closer to the concept of a judge

(shofeit) and judgments than it is to a law, statute, or ordinance. Since these other

words are closer to what follows, what do we learn from the use of mishpatim?

On our verse, most commentators focus on the first word, v'eileh, which means

"and these". They ask why a section would start with 'and' since that indicates a

tie to what came before. So what came before? The Ten Commandments, plus a

couple short bits, one where Moshe reassures the people not to be afraid, and the

other where God gives a bit of reinforcing instruction to Moshe about the Temple.

Is that what "and these" refers to?

Rav Moshe Feinstein says that our verse is directed to Torah scholars, that they

should act as though they were a member of the Great Sanhedrin in the Temple,

and must sit in judgment with an awareness that God was watching the cases.

Rav Moshe, along with many others, also relates "and these" to the laws that

follow in our parsha, the monetary laws, because without those laws, there would

be no social strength, and no justice in judgments. According to Shemos Rabbah,

the laws in our section are guaranteed to cause court cases, requiring judment

between parties. The Gerrer Rebbe says this is because each person reviews

the laws here and unobjectively concludes that he is in the right.

The Midrash also teaches that God had promised to give the people "statutes

and ordinances". Last week, He gave statutes as the Ten Commandments, and

now He gives the ordinances in our parsha. Clearly a different word would be

required.

Whether mishpatim refers to judgments, describing the application of the laws

that follow, or it refers to ordinances, following in some fashion to last week's portion,

there is a tie between the parshas. Together, God gave us the basic structure for

a just and successful society.