Parashat Mishpatim
February 8, 2021
Geri Bloch, High School English Teacher
Standing at Sinai. That phrase has echoed down the millennia, and in the retelling of our ancestors’ flight from Egypt to freedom, each of us is to think of ourselves as standing at Sinai. Years ago, when the Sinai Desert was part of Israel, I climbed what was allegedly Mt. Sinai, Har Sinai, or as the Arabs called it, Jabal Moussa. At the top, I davened Shacharit and stole glances over my siddur at the wilderness below. It was awe-inspiring, and I truly felt that I was standing at Sinai. In Parashat Yitro, God reveals the Aseret HaDibrot, The Ten Precepts or Statements, those tenets that concern man’s relationship with God and those that concern man’s relationship with his fellow man. But it is in the title for this parashah, Mishpatim, that I find great meaning.
I looked at the letters mem-shin-pe-teth, mishpat, and thought, together, these letters mean judgment or law, which makes sense for this parashah; however, in my Hebrew dictionary, just a few words above mishpat is a noun which begins similarly, mem-shin-pe, but ends with a cheth: mishpach, which means evil or violence. Of course, my eyes went down to a word that contained the mem-shin-pe-chet, but the end of that word was a heh: mishpachah, family or clan. Standing at Sinai took on a whole new meaning.
Parashat Mishpatim begins with the “ordinances that [God said] you shall place before them.” The first laws concern slaves, their terms of servitude, and even that which one must do if a man “sells” his daughter as a maidservant. Yitro had taught Moshe to delegate authority to dispense justice. The Israelites had been slaves, but even within the tribes, there were different levels of status. Infractions had to be adjudicated. Mishpatim delineates the punishments for the multifarious crimes that could occur in this group of disparate Jews and other peoples who might have fled with them. There were payments for the crimes of fighting, of theft, and of goring by an ox. There were severe penalties for murder, kidnapping, bestiality, and witchcraft. God knew that these people had to be reminded how to treat the widow, the orphan, and the stranger. God knew that these former slaves had to be reminded how to treat their parents. God knew that language has consequences, that rumor, gossip, and cursing could fly swiftly among the tribes. God knew that every man might have his price, so God had to forbid bribery and corruption. God knew that mishpach, evil, might find its way into this multitude.
The mishpachah in each tribe and in each group had to be protected. If the Israelites upheld God’s mishpatim, God would “set the borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines.” Previously, Moshe had written down God’s words, and near the end of this parashah, Moshe “read it in the ears of the people,” and “they said: Everything that the Lord has spoken we will perform and we will heed.” We see in Hebrew that one letter can alter a law, mishpat, to an evil, mishpach, that can affect a mishpachah. In just a few weeks, we will perform Bedikat Chametz, the search for the last crumbs of chametz in our homes. Let us remember the language of Parashat Mishpatim and remove the chametz from our hearts, our tongues, and our behavior, so that we can truly “stand at Sinai.”
Shabbat Shalom.
Parashat Mishpatim begins with the “ordinances that [God said] you shall place before them.” The first laws concern slaves, their terms of servitude, and even that which one must do if a man “sells” his daughter as a maidservant. Yitro had taught Moshe to delegate authority to dispense justice. The Israelites had been slaves, but even within the tribes, there were different levels of status. Infractions had to be adjudicated. Mishpatim delineates the punishments for the multifarious crimes that could occur in this group of disparate Jews and other peoples who might have fled with them. There were payments for the crimes of fighting, of theft, and of goring by an ox. There were severe penalties for murder, kidnapping, bestiality, and witchcraft. God knew that these people had to be reminded how to treat the widow, the orphan, and the stranger. God knew that these former slaves had to be reminded how to treat their parents. God knew that language has consequences, that rumor, gossip, and cursing could fly swiftly among the tribes. God knew that every man might have his price, so God had to forbid bribery and corruption. God knew that mishpach, evil, might find its way into this multitude.
The mishpachah in each tribe and in each group had to be protected. If the Israelites upheld God’s mishpatim, God would “set the borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines.” Previously, Moshe had written down God’s words, and near the end of this parashah, Moshe “read it in the ears of the people,” and “they said: Everything that the Lord has spoken we will perform and we will heed.” We see in Hebrew that one letter can alter a law, mishpat, to an evil, mishpach, that can affect a mishpachah. In just a few weeks, we will perform Bedikat Chametz, the search for the last crumbs of chametz in our homes. Let us remember the language of Parashat Mishpatim and remove the chametz from our hearts, our tongues, and our behavior, so that we can truly “stand at Sinai.”
Shabbat Shalom.