YIGN Rabbi's Corner
Rabbi Lerner - February 11, 2009
Parshat Yitro which we read this Shabbat is in many ways the central parsha of the Torah. It contains a detailed description of Maamd Har Sinai, when Bnei Yisrael gathered around the mountain to witness the Revelation of Hashem as He came down from heaven to earth. He turned us into a nation of prophets as each and every Jew heard His voice proclaiming the Ten Commandments. At the same time, however, He also made us a “kingdom of priests” by giving us His many mitzvot through which we could serve Him and minister to Him.
Isn’t it revealing, therefore, that when the time came to get past the huge spectacle of Revelation and on to the rest of the mitzvot, that the immediate follow up to Yitro was the parsha of Mishpatim. The parsha begins, “V’aleh hamishpatim asher tasim lifnahem” -“and these are the laws that you (Moshe) shall place before them.” What follows is an entire parsha devoted almost exclusively to the mitzvot bein adam l’chaveiro, the laws between man and man.
We are taught how to treat a servant and how to guard against mistreatment in any way. The punishment for physical abuse is automatic freedom from servitude. Creating a hazardous condition in a public place results in a stiff penalty. Being a highly responsible person is further driven home by the laws of the four categories of watchmen and the high level of liability that exists when you take on the chore of looking after someone else’s property. Proper sensitivity to the plight of a widow, an orphan, a stranger in your midst is heavily emphasized, with the dire warning that if they cry out to G-d for being mistreated by you, you are in big trouble. Hashem commands us to make loans to fellow Jews in need, and not to dare charge them interest.
The combined effect of all of these mitzvot following on the heels of Matan Torah is a resounding lesson. THIS IS JUDAISM! To be ethical, to be sensitive, to be compassionate, to be responsible in the way you relate to others, this is first and foremost how Hashem has defined a religious Jew. Of course, there’s also Shabbat and holidays, laws of kashrut and laws of davening, and all of them are mitzvot from Hashem and must ‘command’ our respect and meticulous observance. Yet, by starting with the “mishpatim” Hashem is revealing what He considers to be the backbone of Judaism.
Perhaps, it was this lesson of the ordering of the parshiot that touched Rabbi Akiva so deeply and got him to proclaim that “v’ahavta l’reacha kamocha”, loving another Jew as you love yourself, is the preeminent rule of the Torah.
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