And now for something completely different -- torts? Mishpatim interrupts the narrative of the Torah, the story that began with Creation and has brought the Jewish people to the foot of Har Sinai, with what seems like a diversion into a law school class in civil damages. What just happened?
There was a previous moment when Halachic discourse broke into the narrative. It was intense -- a sudden burst of 20 commandments in Parashat Bo. But just as it was intense, it was also highly focused. As the exodus began, the Torah began an excursion into the laws of Pesach. For two chapters, the text toggles back and forth between narrative and law in order to demonstrate how Halacha and life intertwine. But that legal discussion ended almost as abruptly as it started.
This detour into the realm of Halachic discourse will include no fewer than 24 more commandments. Their organization is not exactly clear -- the sheer breadth causes dizziness. Moreover, these laws are not about anything happening on the ground, so to speak, on Har Sinai.
Indeed, the breadth here tells the story. The listing here is not about anything in particular because it is about everything. It is a short precis of commandments throughout the Torah.
And that is exactly why they are placed here despite the fact that most of them were given weeks before. Just days after the splitting of the Reed Sea -- weeks before the arrival at Har Sinai -- the Torah says that some laws were given. Many commentators see this as an appetizer for the Torah. More precisely, they were a way to ease the people into what was coming.
The Gemora in Sanhedrin says that they were given “Dinim,” or laws having to do with civil society. In other words, our section in Mishpatim. But why then put them here? One way to approach it is to say that it is a way to underscore the importance of the second half of the 10 statements, the laws between humans that could be overwhelmed in the divine encounter.
But it is not just the subject of the laws but the way they are presented that tells us their role here. They are not in the second person used in the 10 statements but rather in the third person; they are given as a list of scenarios instead of as simple laws. This tells us to whom they are addressed -- not to lawyers as such but to judges. This section of the Torah is about applying the law.
The laws that are listed here are often directly related to the 10 statements. But whereas the Torah broadly prohibited murder, this listing goes into manslaughter, premeditated murder, and even the slavery in perpetuity that robs someone of life. This is the difference between the broad strokes of the 10 statements and the way such statements are applied. Indeed, the application of the law assumes the development of the Oral Law, and the raising of a class of scholars who will master that law and apply it.
Placing Mishpatim here is an interposition of the Oral Law directly after the peak experience of the Written Law in the giving of the content of the tablets. There is no coincidence that this lesson commences immediately after the 10 statements. Or that our section begins with the conjunction “and” in order to connect it to the statements and to mark them as equal. There can be no law without the way to apply it to situations, a primary function of the Oral Law. Mishpatim lays the groundwork for the Oral Law, which will always work in tandem with the broad strokes of the Written Law. It will provide the prose application for the poetry of peak experiences.
Shekalim
We begin to read the four special Parashiot of Adar this Shabbat. Each one should be seen as addressing a crucial need for restoration. The Sages saw the end of the year as a dead end with no way out. In terms of the natural course of things, there was no hope. The holiday in the middle of this month marks the swing from hopelessness to bliss. But that swing was a miraculous overturning of fate. Every year, that fate hovers over the month. It never disappears as the baseline theme of the final month. The four special readings are what propel us past this cul de sac and into the new year.
Each reading confronts a different need at year’s end to resurrect a part of the soul. [We spoke about this last Tuesday night in Beit Midrash, and as we’ll continue this coming Tuesday.] There are three parts: What we call Nefesh, Ruach, and Neshama, or bodily soul, spirit, and mind. Parashat Shekalim relates to the Nefesh, the part of the soul that interacts most with the body. When the Torah wants to say the equivalent of the English word “somebody,” it uses “Nefesh.” This is the part of the soul responsible for animating the body. The Rambam associates it with the maintenance of all of the bodily mechanisms that work, under normal circumstances, without consciousness -- digestion, for example, and blood circulation. The Torah explicitly identifies the blood with the Nefesh.
Shekel is the same Gematria as Nefesh, and participating in the giving of the half Shekel, the reading says, is an atonement for the Nefesh. It does this by allowing the Nefesh to express a value. A Shekel is a unit of value, and the giving of the half Shekel is an expression of value. One wants to put one’s money into things of the most lasting value. The half Shekel goes to the funding of the offerings of the community, the Tzibur. Unlike individuals, the Tzibur does not die. It has lasting value, and allows this physical part of the soul to attach itself to something that doesn't perish.
When people are talking about the fatigue they feel in the pandemic, it is not just a physical exhaustion. This affects the soul as well. It’s soul fatigue. This is what Adar comes to address every year. We all need a refresher of the soul at all levels but it begins with this most basic level of the soul, the Nefesh. We are so grateful to those who continue to step up with the Shekalim to keep the Tzibur going. They have shown the lasting value of community, which transcends the normal bonds of life.
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