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Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1−24:18)

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This Week’s Torah Portion: Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1−24:18)

“Until we are all free, we are none of us free.” (Emma Lazarus)

Sometimes the moment arrives… and we are not yet ready for that moment. This week’s Torah portion is just such a moment. The Children of Israel stand at the foot of Mount Sinai with the words of the Ten Commandments still echoing in our ears, completing our journey from slavery to freedom, and here the Torah turns to the laws of slavery. “When you acquire a Hebrew slave, they shall serve for six years and on the seventh year they shall go free.” (Exodus 21:2)

The moment arrives and we are not ready. We were slaves in Egypt and one might think this would be the time for us to abolish slavery, for we knew the heart of the oppressed. But we didn’t. Slavery was too engrained in our souls, too much a part of the world all around us, for us to even think of abolishing slavery altogether. Instead, we established laws for the better treatment of our slaves, and first among them was that after six years of servitude our slaves would go free. There was a promise of liberation, but that liberation was delayed.

It took us longer to learn and live God’s ultimate lesson of liberation:
“Until we are all free, we are none of us free.”

Mishpatim 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 (Exodus 21:1-24:18)

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This Week’s Torah Portion:  Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1-24:18)

And the People of Israel said: “All that God has spoken we will do and we will hear.” (Exodus 24:7)

With these words our people committed themselves to the service of God. In Hebrew we said, “na-aseh v’nishma” we will do and we will hear.  Does it occur to you that the words we spoke standing at Sinai way back then… are backwards? Shouldn’t we have said we will “hear” God’s words before we agreed to “do” them?

Well, that depends on the nature of the relationship. If you are signing a contract with a total stranger, you might want to read it all first before agreeing to the conditions. On the other hand, if your mother, or father, or best friend, were to ask you to do something for them, you might reasonably say something like: Sure, what is it?  “We will do and we will hear.”

In other words we were already in a relationship with God before we ever signed on to the covenant set forth in the Torah. We were already God’s people and God was already our God.  This is what it means to be partners with God in an Eternal Covenant. It has always been and it will always be, God willing, and if, the People of Israel, we are willing to sustain it.