Shabbat Parashat Mishpatim - 5783

Shabbat Parashat Mishpatim - 5783

Rabbi Hal Miller My anger will burn and I shall kill you by the sword, and your wives will be widows and your children orphans. [Shemot 22:23] If God punishes a man with death, doesn't it follow by necessity that his wife will be a widow and his children orphans? Further, why should they be punished for something the husband/father did? We already know that parents and children are not punished for something the other did, nor in fact is anyone punished for a wrong by another. Our parsha is broken down into small sections, each set of verses with a topic area. This verse comes with a number of others dealing with compassion and not oppressing those weaker members of the community. How does that help us understand our context? Rav Hirsch explains that our verse is in response to verse 22, and says that "If you let them feel their dependent position" that it refers not just to individuals but to the nation as a whole, government and people. Onkelos seems to bypass our questions, referring back to verse 21, "You shall not cause pain to any widow or orphan" to which he writes, "Thus if he does mistreat them, his family will end up mistreated as well." Sforno follows Onkelos. Rashi brings Shemot Rabbah with our first question, "do I not know that their wives will be widows and their children orphans?" There are a few answers. The Yerushalmi lists the four forms of execution that a rabbinical court may give, but a secular court can only do so by sword. Thus our verse implies this death will be carried out by the government. According to the Bavli (Sanhedrin 48b) the property of anyone executed by the government is forfeited to the government. Thus there is nothing for the orphans to inherit or to support the widow. Ramban and others understand the sword here as referring to an enemy. The man subject in our verse to death will die by sword in battle, but will not have anyone to testify to his death, thus his wife will never be able to remarry, and his children will not be able to inherit. The answer to our questions seems to follow the train of thought of Rav Soloveitchik, "We are burdened with an ethical norm". Shemot Rabbah, Rabbi Akiva, and others mention that this set of verses is not limited to widows and orphans, but specifically includes strangers, or as Nechama Leibowitz puts it, "the weak and the defenseless". Verse 22:20, repeated in 23:9, states "you shall not oppress him for you were strangers in the land of Egypt", in other words we should know to think of the impact our actions, gestures, and words have upon others. Someone who is hurt by our act is not being punished, but still has to deal with pain or loss. God will help them in their need but He will not help the one who caused the pain. Widows and orphans are given special treatment in the Torah to cure the ills done to them, so our verse is not punishing them, rather 'promoting' them above the level where the guilty one left them.