The Pshat Heard 'Round the World

Pshat: MiIgra Rama l'Bira Amikta!  From a high roof to a deep pit!  That's how some describe the sudden transition from the incomparable, dizzying spiritual heights of Matan Torah in last week's parasha to the mundane, all-too-earthly laws regulating such unspiritual acts as assault, murder, injury, property damage, enslavement and the like. How could Moshe one moment be reassuring the people regarding the lasting impact of their near-death spiritual high at Mt. Sinai, and the next minute be instructing them how properly to sell their daughters into slavery? How do WE move from the sublime and spiritual to the ever-so-concrete and material in a single week? The Midrash is also disturbed, it seems, by the shift to the mundane realm. Our Sages were constantly fending off the attacks of early Christianity and other sects who pointed to the preoccupation with concrete details as an indication that Jews had lost their spiritual way. Shemot Rabba chapter 30 devotes l...

How do you get from “Don’t seethe a kid in it’s mother’s milk” to two sets of dishes?  Actually, t hree, if you include pareve? Oh, make that six, for Pesach? Plus add in the the treif set from the olden days, for the non-Jewish servant, and we’ve got our magic number – seven sets of dishes!! Behind the multiplication of the plates is a serious question, however. This week’s parashah, Mishpatim, is much more than a jumbled collection of laws regulating capitol and civil offenses. Not only is it not jumbled at all (hint: compare the progression of themes in the various sets of laws in Mishpatim with those of the storyline in parashat Shemot!), it contains some of the most powerful “one-liners” in Jewish tradition. “Na’aseh v’nishmah”, for example, is uttered by the people in THIS parashah (and not in Yitro, as some people mistaken think). The definitive reference to the unity of the written and oral Torah also appears herein. But probably the verse which is...

MiIgra Rama l'Bira Amikta! From a high roof to a deep pit! That's how some describe the sudden transition from the incomparable, dizzying spiritual heights of Matan Torah in last week's parasha to the mundane, all-too-earthly laws regulation such unspiritual acts as assault, murder, injury, property damage, enslavement and the like. How could Moshe one moment be reassuring the people regarding the lasting impact of their near-death spiritual high at Mt. Sinai, and the next minute be instructing them of how properly to sell their daughters into slavery? How do WE move from the sublime and material to the ever-so-concrete and material in a single week? The Midrash is also disturbed, it seems, by the shift to the mundane realm. Our Sages were constantly fending off the attacks of early Christianity and other sects who pointed to the preoccupation with concrete details as an indication that Jews had lost their spiritual way. Shemot Rabba chapter 30 devotes lengthy disco...

Amongst the many laws presented in this week's parasha, Mishpatim , is a group of laws regulating the responsibilities of guardians of property. These three paragraphs, Shemot 22:6-14, are understood by the Chachamim as addressing the cases of four distinct types of guardians, the classic arba'ah shomrim . The unpaid guardian, shomer chinam , exempts himself from responsibility should the item he is guarding be damaged, destroyed, lost, stolen, etc., by taking an oath that he was neither negligent in his duties, nor did he himself misappropriate the item. He has no personal benefit from the arrangement, and thus he has the least responsibility. On the other end of the spectrum the borrower, or sho'el , must pay in every case. He has all the benefit – use without payment - and thus he must shoulder all the responsibility. In between fall the renter ( socher ) and the paid guardian ( shomer sachar ). At first glance, this might seem to be a curious grouping – is...