Parashat Mishpatim

Mishpatim begins by telling us that we should treat our servants as members of our household. It also gives specific rules about how to treat our slaves. Should we assume that, in modern times, we can just disregard these rules, since we don’t have servants or slaves? Hardly. These seemingly ancient rules guide our behavior even today. They teach us to treat those who serve us, such as waiters, flight attendants, hospitality staff, salespeople, and employees with respect, courtesy, and dignity. We shouldn’t act overly demanding or entitled. My mother used to say that we are judged by how we treat the least important people in our lives, those who have the least impact. Mishpatim teaches us that we should treat even these people as we would guests at our Shabbat tables.

Another theme running through these laws is our duty to be kind to each other. Some of these laws obviously apply to modern times, such as being nice to widows, orphans, and animals. Others seem completely irrelevant, such as punishing the ox owner who knew his animal might gore someone. I don’t have an ox, but it’s easy to see how this means that I should keep my dog away from others if I know she bites. (Anyone who knows my fluffy doodle dog is laughing at that image right now). Or, more importantly, if I know that I have a virus, I should stay away from others until I am safe to be around. I am also not in the habit of digging pits on my property (can’t say the same for my dog!), but I would still take the lesson of being responsible for hazards on my property to heart. Many of these laws teach us something that we’ve become acutely aware of during this pandemic: we are responsible for one another and have duties to protect our neighbors.

You would never think it, but teaching yoga and mindfulness to children actually calls into play many of the principles laid out in Mishpatim. Yoga also has rules that can provide a path for moral and ethical conduct as well as self-discipline. In our classes, we teach our students to have respect for one another, as if we are all family. We practice ahimsa, which is non-harming behavior. While stealing sheep and oxen usually does not happen (we never say never in our yoga classes), we do teach our students that they can’t steal yoga time from their friends by misbehaving. We teach them that they are responsible for each other’s safety: while they are most certainly not allowed to dig pits in front of their yoga mats, they are nonetheless expected to conduct themselves in a way that keeps their neighbors safe. We remind them to stay safe by practicing yoga in their own spaces, but we also tell them they are superheroes for keeping their masks on to protect their community. In this way, we use yogic principles to reinforce the lessons learned from the Torah. Both sources provide simple laws to live a life that embraces the true essence of hakarat hatov (הַכָּרַת הַטּו) — “recognizing the good.” Shabbat Shalom.