Mishpatim
Exodus 21:1-24:18
Jeremiah 34:8-22 & 33:25-26
According to Sefer Hachinuch, the Spanish medieval rabbinic work that systematically enumerates the Torah’s commandments as they appear in each Torah portion, Mishpatim contains 53 commandments: 30 prohibitions and 23 positive imperatives. Among these numerous mitzvot, we find basic civil laws pertaining to redress of damages, penalties for murder, laws warning against the mistreatment of society’s most vulnerable and rules governing courts of law. The Torah portion also contains a number of ritual commandments, such as the observance of seasonal festivals and the prohibition against cooking meat with milk.
The monotony of the listings of these 53 commandments, as well as the usage of biblical legal jargon, can easily cause a careless reader to miss the deep emotion as well as rich details contained in many of these mitzvot. The late Israeli Torah teacher and member of the Knesset, Chanan Porat, makes this very point by powerfully unlocking one of these mitzvot and drawing our attention to several careful readings by classical commentators.
Toward the end of Chapter 22, we read, “You shall not oppress any widow or orphan. If you oppress him [beware], for if he cries out to me, I will surely hear his cry. My wrath will be kindled, and I will slay you with the sword, and your wives will be widows and your children orphans” (Exodus 22:21-23).
Porat notes the sudden shift in tone from the opening of the verse to the closing of this section. The objective ruling, not to oppress the widow or orphan, is replaced by the sound of the cries of the oppressed. As important, the civil court too is suddenly replaced by the presence of God, who hears the cries of the oppressed. This is no longer a court hearing. Instead, it is God who hears and responds, and it is God who promises to deliver justice and mete out punishment.
The Spanish medieval biblical commentator Abraham Ibn Ezra explains this shift with a profound observation. The second verse in this section is written in the singular form, “If you [in the singular] oppress him [aneh taneh]” (Exodus 22:22). In the following verse, however, God’s wrath is enflamed against the masses, “I will slay you [etchem — in the plural form] with the sword” (Exodus 22:23).
Ibn Ezra explains that while the act of oppression was carried out by one individual, all the people are held accountable due to their silence. The verse is meant to teach us that there is no such thing as an innocent bystander. In the words of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972), the well-known theologian and activist: “Few are guilty, but all are responsible” (“Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity”).
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888), leader of neo-Orthodoxy in Germany, offers further insight. Hirsch begins with a simple rhetorical question: Why is God waiting for the oppressed individual to cry out to him? Shouldn’t the Holy One respond to the oppressed without needing them to turn to him first?
Hirsch’s answer is astounding. He says civil society has an obligation to set up social networks in order to support the needs of the vulnerable in times of trouble. In this vision, God is held as a person’s very last resort when all else fails. In Hirsch’s words, “Woe if … the state misuse [the oppressed], and lets them feel that they have lost the one who stands up for them and looks after them! Woe, if widows and orphans suffer amongst the people, and do not even get support, and their rights upheld, by the official protector of the public rights. … Woe, if they finally have to cry up to me, for I will surely give ear unto them, and I shall make the state and the community pay dearly for it, if their weak and unprotected ones have to appeal to me before they can find justice” (Hirsch commentary on Exodus 22:23).
These powerful and critical insights challenge us deeply. In what ways do we plead innocence while standing idly by? In what ways do we wrongly allow others to turn to God in prayer instead of offering our actions and deeds in response?
Rabbi Yonatan Cohen is the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley. He can be reached at [email protected].