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Parashah Mishpatim

פרשת

משפטים

By Rabbi Aminadav Hinton

הרב עמינדב

MISHPATIMJUDGMENT,

PLURAL=MISPAT-VERDICT,DECREE,JUSTICE.

HUKKIM-STATUES,SHAPHAT-TO JUDGE,

YAKACH-DECIDE,CONVICT

תורה:

Sh’mot 21.1/24.18

אפטרהh

Yiremayahu-Jeremiah 34.8-22/33.25-26

VE’ELEH HA’MISHPATIM ASHER TASIM LIFNEIHEM

Now these are the judgments which you shall set before them. Sh’mot 21.1

VAYAVO MOSHE BETOCH HA’AMAN VAYA’AL EL HA’HAR VAYEHI MOSHE BAHAR ARBA’IM YOM VE’AR BA’IM LAILAH

So Moshe went into the midst(Sh’kinah) of the cloud and went up(Aliyah) into the mountain(Har). And Moshe was on the mountain forty days and forty nights(ARBAIM YOM,V’ARBAIM LAILAH) Sh’mot 24.18

VAUA’HARGANI AL YADAH UVCAN HA’TORAH

HEIA KDOSHA VHAME’ZRA

So then,Ha’Torah(Law,Judgment,Instruction) is Kodesh, and Ha’Mitzvot(The Commandments) Kodesh(Holy) Tzadik(Righteous) and Tov(good). Romans 7.12

The Hebrew word,1^st word of our reading V’EILEH-literally means: And these are.The conjunction “and” indicates continuity. This connects the laws that follow.

Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai,1st Century CE. Sage,

Appears to understand the word Mishpatim as meaning: court judgments.He answers by saying:why the parashot would begin by laying out the necessity for court judgments before listing individual mitzvot.He says when people are contending with each other other in court-Beit Din strife prevails,when a judgment is rendered,peace is achieved.(Mekhilta, Mishpatim,Nezikin 1)

Professor Zev Falk(Hebrew Law In Biblical Times. P 25)

Describes what all definitions of Mishpat have in common:an action taken in favor of a weak petitioner against a strong adversary. Jewish law,as expressed in Torah and subsequent legal development,does not merely list rules and penalties for disobeying them. More than any secular legal system. It holds out hope for a society of harmony and individual and group well being.

In this Sedra, G-d tell’s Moshe. These are the rules,judgments-Mishpatim that you shall set before them. These rules deal with a wide variety of issues.I won’t be able to cover them all. First of all we have 1. How one should treat slaves-hired help(Soma),Strangers(Ger),Widows(Almanah) and Orphans(Yathowm),punishment for killing or physically hurting people. personal liability for injuries caused to animals, how to treat people fairly, rules about loaning money, and specific directions on how to perform certain rituals. We are even directed to show consideration to enemies, rules about Shabbat

KOL ASHER DIBER YHVH NAASEH VINISHMA

Everything YHVH said we will do and we will listen(24.3& 24.7)

This is called:

MITZVOT BEN ADAM LECHAVERO

The commandment between people.

The parashot concludes Moshe going up(Aliyah) to Mount Sinai and being taught Torah by Yah for forty days and forty nights- Moshe’s training period. He was fed Ha’Sh’kinah of G-d which sustained him not manna as men needed. As long as Moshe was in the presence enveloped in the cloud-he was out of his body-NESHAMAH TZEIRAH. His body was on the mountain waiting for Moshe within the cloud. In the cloud he had a glorified body like Yeshua had after the resurrection,exactly like Yeshua’s moment of NESHAMAH TZEIRAH in transfiguration. Moshe’s body laid on the top of the mountain, when his NESHAMAH TZEIRAH came down from this out of body experience. Moshe re-drapped himself with his flesh,like wearing a coat which he was able to take off and put back on. For in the flesh no man can see G-d. Yochanan 1.18

Moshe left his body laying like raiment draped over the tip of the mountain in the presence of G-d. When It was necessary to reveal the message to the people he came from the Sh’kinah and covered himself again with himself and drew to Isra’EL.

Moshe was in his transfigured body here well before the actual transfiguration(METAMORPHOO). Since the body is a shell, Moshe was able to take his off and put it back on.

After Bnei Yisra’EL says: They Will Do-Moshe ascends the mountain again and Yah says. I come unto you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever. G-d purposed to make the occasion of speaking his Mishpatim Ha’Torah a scene of awe grandeur. The people were to be impressed that everything connected with the service of G-d must be regarded with the greatest reverence. Yah said to Moshe, Go unto the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes, and be ready against the third day: For the third day Yah will come down in the sight of the people upon Mount Sinai. During these intervening days all were to occupy the time of solemn preparation to appear before Yah. Their person and their clothing must be freed from impurity(Tzvmah). And as Moshe should point out their sins, they were to devote themselves to humiliation,fasting and prayer, that their hearts might be cleansed from iniquity.

Rabbi Ya’akov Ben Yosef explains Mishpatim as stated:

without order, society will become anarchic. Order prevents moral and physical corruption from replacing productivity and restraint.

In Mishpatim we can see that Hashem’s design for social order, specifically creates a hierarch of law. As a result, the deterrents for different transgressors and transgressions are not the same. The hierarchy of law established in Mishpatim is found on three pillars on 1. spiritual 2. relational 3. possessional.

In Mishpatim at the highest pillar of the hierarchy of social order is spiritual, in the spiritual hierarchy Hashem is at the top. This is because Yisra’EL was created to be a monotheocratic form of government. Order existed because in Hashem’s theocratic society, there are laws and rulings established to define G-d’s position. Without laws, Hashem knew Bnei Yisra’EL would not know to serve him. Judgments were designed to create a single head of state. This is recorded in Sh’mot 22.20 which states:

He that sacrifices to any god,except unto Hashem he shall be utterly destroyed.

Enforcement of the judgment required Hashem to pronounce the harshest punishment possible, a capital offense. Therefore Hashem made it clear that anyone caught sacrificing to other gods wore face total annihilation. Hashem’s punishment meant that idolatry carried a penalty that extended beyond the physical world. The word translated total annihilation in Sh’mot 22.20 is Charamand the word means: consumed. Hashem made it clear that idolatry in Yisra’EL would not be permitted. The offender would be required to forfeit his or her total being. Sh’mot 22.20 is the only judgment in Mishpatim that pronounces the punishment of total annihilation. Hashem wanted Yisra’EL to be totally commited to G-d and to function as a theocratic society, therefore offerings to idol pagan gods brought eternal punishment.

In Mishpatim, the second pillar of the hierarchy is relational. In mishpatim, human relations are second only to relation to Hashem. Having relation with G-d’s people was indirectly relating with G-d directly. For to serve Shabbat and to read Torah on Shabbat catapults every single person to Kavanah’s trilestrial cosmos.

Sh’mot 21.12 states: He that smites a man,so that he dies, shall surely be put to death.

To maintain order Hashem could not allow Murder(Harag,Ratsach). From a spiritual perspective, murder was taking the life(Ruah-breath) of an individual that had been created in the image(Tzelem) of G-d. Therefore murder was symbolic of destroying Ha’Tzelem within G-d. As a result,the murderer was required to forfeit his or her own life.

Kidnapping(Ganab) was also punishable by death because it inhibited the G-d given right for freedom. Kidnapping is a crime that forces an individual into bondage. To defer kidnapping Hashem made the offense punishable by death. I believe that includes forced slavery.

Cursing Parents(Merah(Rah-Evil-Horim)is also punishable by death. Hashem required the death penalty for cursing parents because it erodes the structure of authority. Allowing it would promote instability within the family, and eventually like a disease it would spread within Yisra’EL.

Bestiality(Yada) in Sh’mot 22.19 we see that bestiality is consumed with his or her own abnormal lust. They become totally consumed with pleasing wild abnormal affections that are unseemly amongst most,but to them drawn to. A particular demonic leading spirit resolves human awareness to decency and borders. They are against the core of mankind’s awareness of spiritual consciousness, right from wrong or the line of mental sanity. Hashem required there death. G-d wants Israel to stay clear away from nations and people’s driven by insane unnatural confused desires. Demon driven affections.

על כתב העת "משפטים"

כתב העת משפטים הנו כתב העת המשפטי הוותיק בישראל, המתנהל במתכונת ייחודית המבדילה אותו משאר כתבי העת המשפטיים המתפרסמים בישראל. מייסדו של משפטים, נשיא בית המשפט העליון לשעבר פרופ’ אהרן ברק, מימש את חזונו להקים כתב עת משפטי שינוהל על ידי סטודנטים באותו אופן בו מנוהלים כמה מכתבי העת המשפטיים המובילים בעולם. העורכים וחברי המערכת של כתב העת הנם סטודנטים, האחראים על כל היבטי המערכת, מההחלטה האקדמית אילו מאמרים ראויים לפרסום ועד להבאתם לדפוס. המערכת שואבת לתוכה  סטודנטים מצטיינים שעולם המשפט מרתק אותם, ושרואים בעבודת המערכת אתגר אמיתי. מתכונת ייחודית זאת היא היוצרת מערכת תוססת המשלבת רעננות מחשבתית וחדשנות יחד עם שמירה בלתי מתפשרת על הסטנדרטים הגבוהים שאפיינו את משפטים מיום היווסדו.

משפטים פורסם לראשונה באלול תשכ"ח, ומאז ראו אור 39 כרכים שונים בהם פורסמו מאמרים של אנשי אקדמיה ושופטים מלומדים לצד רשימותיהם של עורכי דין מנוסים ותלמידים יצירתיים. כתב העת משמש במה הן לאנשי משפט וותיקים, המובילים את תחומם ויוצקים את יסודותיו – והן לכותבים חדשים המביאים רוח רעננה, כמו גם רעיונות מהפכניים, אל התחום אותו הם רואים כעתידם.

אלו לצד אלו מתפרסמים בכתב העת מאמרים המציגים ניתוח תיאורטי מעמיק וחדשני של סוגיות סבוכות, יחד עם הערות פסיקה המנתחות ומבקרות פסקי דין שונים, הרצאות וביקורות ספרים חדשים. כמו כן, מערכת משפטים יוזמת כנסים שנתיים בסוגיות משפטיות ייחודיות, בהם מרצים חוקרים המובילים את המחקר בתחום על מאמריהם המפורסמים בחוברת נושאית.

משפטים נתמך על ידי משרד עורכי הדין ש. הורוביץ ושות’.