The Weekly Sedra – Parshas Mishpatim

The Rebbe says:

1. The Torah starts off this week’s Torah portion with saying, “And these are the laws (Mishpatim) that you shall place before them (the Jewish people)”.

2. The Rebbe now quotes three explanations of our Sages regarding this verse:

Our Sages analyze this verse and explain why the Torah specifies that the laws should be placed “before them”.

First explanation: When the Torah says that these laws should be placed “before them” it is teaching us that Jewish people should not bring their disputes to the gentile courts, even if the gentile courts would rule like the Jewish courts in this specific case.

Second explanation: When the Torah says that these laws should be placed “before them” it is teaching us that when a teacher is teaching his students the Torah’s laws he should also explain it to them “so that it is like a table that is set and prepared to be eaten from and is placed before them”.

Third explanation: When the Torah says that these laws should be placed “before them” it is teaching us that one’s knowledge and understanding of the Torah should extend to and trigger the internal part of the Jew learning it.

3. The Rebbe now points out that all three of these explanations must be connected to each other:

Even though these are three different explanations of this verse, they must all be connected to each other because they are all explaining the same word.

A proof to this logic:

The Torah says, “You may not wear Shaatnez (a combination of wool and linen together)”. Our Sages teach us that the word “Shaatnez” is really made up of three different words;
“Shua – smoothed”, “Tavui – spun”, and “Nuz – woven”. The Talmud learns that since these three different words were contracted into one word, one is not liable for wearing a combination of wool and linen unless all three of these processes were done together; only when it was smoothed, spun, and woven together are you liable for the Biblical prohibition of “Shaatnez”.

Therefore, if the Talmud tells us that when three different words are contracted into one word they must have a connection to each other (and therefore you are only liable when all three of these processes are done together), we must say that when you have different explanations of the same words they are all connected to each other!

If so, we must try to understand the connection between these three explanations.

4. The Rebbe now lays the foundational information which will lead to a question:

There are three categories of Mitzvos (commandments):
1) There are Aidoos (testimonies).
2) There are Chukim (statutes).
3) And there are Mishpatim (laws).

Aidoos (testimonies) are the type of commandments that make sense once the Torah tells us to do them, however we would not have decided to do them on our own.

Chukim (statutes) are the type of commandments that do not make logical sense even after the Torah tells us to do it.

Mishpatim (laws) are the type of commandments that we would understand to do on our own even if the Torah was not given, Heaven Forbid.

When the Torah says that these laws should be placed “before them”, it is specifically discussing Mishpatim (laws). Therefore, even though the three abovementioned meanings of the words “before them” apply to all kinds of Mitzvos, we must say that there is a special connection between Mishpatim (laws) and these three lessons because the Torah chose to teach these things specifically when it was discussing Mishpatim (laws).

5. The Rebbe now asks the question:

We can understand why the Torah chose to teach the first lesson- not to bring disputes to gentile courts- specifically by Mishpatim (laws); since Mishpatim (laws) are laws which are readily understood by the human mind, it is possible to mistakenly think that regarding these matters it would be allowed to have a gentile court rule, because it is a matter of logic anyways. Therefore the Torah forewarned us and told us that we should not take our disputes to gentile courts, no matter what.

However there is no special connection between Mishpatim (laws) and the other two abovementioned lessons we learned out from them. On the contrary, it seems like it would have been more appropriate to teach these lessons when discussing Chukim (statutes) or Aidoos (testimonies).

6. The Rebbe now explains why it would have been more appropriate to teach these lessons when discussing Chukim (statutes) or Aidoos (testimonies):

The second lesson which our Sages taught us was that when a teacher is educating his students in the Torah’s way of life he should also teach them the explanations, supplements, and beautiful insights regarding the laws.

Now, as we said earlier, Mishpatim (laws) are Mitzvos which the human mind would’ve understood to do even if the Torah was not given (Heaven Forbid). Therefore, the obvious question arises- “Why does the Torah need to teach us that Mitzvos which are easily understood (Mishpatim/laws) should be taught in a way which the student can understand it? Wouldn’t it make more sense to teach this lesson regarding Mitzvos which are not readily understood by the human mind anyways? Shouldn’t the Torah be stressing that even Mitzvos which are totally above logic- Chukim (statutes), or at least not automatically understood by logic- Aidoos (testimonies), should be taught to the student so that he “can eat from a table that is set and prepared for him” and acknowledge their great value and worth?”

The third lesson which our Sages taught us was that one’s knowledge and understanding of the Torah should extend to and trigger the internal part of the Jew learning it.

Again, as we said earlier, Mishpatim (laws) are Mitzvos which the human mind would’ve understood to do even if the Torah was not given (Heaven Forbid). In other words, Mishpatim (laws) are Mitzvos which you would do even without activating your internal element. Therefore, the question arises- “Why would the Torah teach us that we need to arouse our inner Soul while performing Mitzvos when the Torah talks about Mishpatim (laws)? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to teach us this when talking about Mitzvos which are higher than understanding- Chukim (statutes) and Aidoos (testimonies)- and therefore need to have their inner Soul triggered?”

7. The Rebbe now answers the questions and connects the three explanations through first introducing another teaching of our Sages:

Our Sages tell us that when the Torah says, “And these are the laws that you shall place before them (the Jewish people)”, it is teaching us that just like the Aseres Hadibros (the Ten Commandments) were given on Har Sinai (Mount Sinai) at the end of last week’s Torah portion, so-too, these laws stated at the beginning of this week’s Torah portion were also given at Har Sinai (indeed, the entire Torah was given on Har Sinai). Furthermore, being that the laws taught in this week’s Torah portion are extensions of the Aseres Hadibros, the lessons learned from the Aseres Hadibros can be extended to these laws in this week’s Torah portion.

One of the lessons that we learn from the Aseres Hadibros is from their arrangement. On one side of the tablets there are the first five commandments which deliver the fundamentals and essence of Yiddishkeit (Judaism), like “I am the L-rd your G-d. You shall have no other g-ds before me.”; and on the other side of the tablets there are the second set of commandments which bear such elementary ideas like “You shall not murder.” This teaches us that just like the first five commandments are fulfilled because they were said from Hashem (G-d), so-too, we fulfill the second set of commandments like “You shall not murder” not because that’s what’s moral, but because that’s what Hashem said.

This lesson is repeated again at the beginning of this week’s Torah portion. When the Torah says, “And these are the laws (Mishpatim) which you shall place before them”, it is teaching us that Mishpatim (laws) were also given on Har Sinai and we only fulfill them because Hashem said so, not because our mind understands that they are necessary to have a moral society.

Moreover, this fits perfectly with the first meaning of the words “before them”: The reason we cannot bring any of our disputes to gentile courts, even if they are disputes regarding Mishpatim (laws) which are seemingly only a matter of logic, is because Mishpatim (laws) are actually not only a matter of logic- their basis is really that they were said by Hashem on Har Sinai, and the gentile courts do not have this.

This then connects to the third meaning of the words “before them”: As we explained, Mishpatim (laws) are not done because of their logic, they are fulfilled because our inner Soul is connected to Hashem Who commanded us to fulfill them, and therefore we cannot bring our disputes to the gentile courts who do not have this inner connection.

This brings us to the second meaning of the words “before them”: Even though we are supposed to fulfill the Mishpatim (laws) with total self nullification before Hashem, we are also asked to understand as much as possible. What is more, the only reason we intellectually think of and understand the Mishpatim (laws) is because Hashem has commanded us to do so.

Translated and adapted by Rabbi Shalom Goldberg. Taken from Likutei Sichos volume three.