Art by Sefira Lightstone
A WEEKLY TORAH THOUGHT FROM RABBI MORDY
This week’s Parsha – Mishpatim – lists a variety of laws that were taught in the immediate aftermath of the giving of the Torah. So which laws would you expect? Naturally laws relating to faith, G-d, something lofty and spiritual perhaps? Let’s think of the circumstances of the Jewish people at that time. They were in a state of heightened spirituality! They just received the Torah at what was the most monumental occasion in their people’s history! The giving of the Torah sparked within them a desire and a relatability to spirituality and G-dliness in unparalleled ways. So what are these laws? What could possibly follow the Ten Commandments at Sinai? Laws of servants, penalties for murder, theft, kidnapping, assault, robbery and the overall establishing of courts. Wait, what? Talk about an anticlimax! They’re ready for anything! And the laws taught to them are rules any basic society would enact? Where’s the specialty in that?
The answer is exactly what occurred at Sinai. Yes, they were now much more spiritually aware and related to G-dliness, but that was only as good as it was infused into a typical society that dealt with worldly matters. Not one of spiritual nomads who dwell on the mountaintops.
The story is told of the educator who lectured around the world about the importance of teaching with kindness and not severity. How important, he espoused, to teach out of love and never with raising your voice. And one day, he was walking in the schoolyard when he noticed some boys playing in freshly laid cement. He lost it. He began berating these boys about school property and what a shame they were! A bystander, noticing the irony, asked this teacher, “don’t you lecture about the power of educating with a soft tone?” To which the fellow responded, “I believe that in the abstract, but not in the concrete!” Let us realize how great is inspiration, but how it must be used practically. Good Shabbos!