This Week’s Torah Portion: Mishpatim – מִשְׁפָּטִים (Exodus 21:1−24:18)
Right after the big revelation in Sinai, Moses shares with the people “The Scroll of The Covenant.”
You would think it would open with big mitzvot, big statements of faith. It opens with the prohibition to have a slave. The Torah teaches us that all humans are created in the image of God, no one is greater than their fellow, and no one should make someone else a servant or a slave to another human.
Parsha Mishpatim – מִשְׁפָּטִים Torah Summary:
Interpersonal laws ranging from the treatment of slaves to the exhibition of kindness to strangers are listed. (21:1-23:9)
Cultic laws follow, including the commandment to observe the Sabbatical Year, a repetition of the Sabbath injunction, the first mention of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, rules of sacrificial offerings, and the prohibition against boiling a kid in its mother’s milk. (23:10-19)
The people assent to the covenant. Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel ascend the mountain and see God. Moses goes on alone and spends forty days on the mountain. (24:1-18)
Mishpatim – מִשְׁפָּטִים
Right after the big revelation in Sinai, Moses shares with the people “The Scroll of The Covenant.”
You would think it would open with big mitzvot, big statements of faith. It opens with the prohibition to have a slave. The Torah teaches us that all humans are created in the image of God, no one is greater than their fellow, and no one should make someone else a servant or a slave to another human.
