Parashat Mishpatim

“But I neeeed that!” might be a common refrain in our homes. However, as our second graders can attest, there is a difference between “wants” and “needs” in communities. 

As part of a social studies unit, our second graders learn about the different wants and needs of people in suburban, urban, and rural areas and how these needs are met. This week’s Torah portion, Parashat Mishpatim, focuses on a number of interpersonal laws, including a law connected to a person’s basic needs.

Shemot 22: 25-26 states: “If you take your neighbor’s garment as security, until sunset you shall return it to them, for it is their only covering; it is their garment for their skin. With what else shall they lie down? Therefore, if they cry out to Me, I will pay heed, for I am compassionate.” 

 

Here, the Torah gives us a scenario in which a lender gave a loan to a person in need and kept that person’s garment as a security for that loan. Even if the person in need did not have a chance to pay back that particular loan, the lender is required to return the garment to them by the evening. The Torah communicates that personal needs are above all else. 

 

I am particularly struck by the question that is embedded in this law: “With what else shall they lie down?” The Torah reminds us that even in the case where we do right by someone by extending them a loan, and we understandably expect a prompt repayment, there are also times in which compassion should triumph. The same way our children might “need” a lovey or a blanket in the evening, so too does every individual deserve proper warmth and comfort each evening.

 

Perhaps this garment serves as a greater metaphor for the moral imperative we have to provide comfort and compassion to those around us, in our local communities and beyond. Shabbat Shalom.