Mishpatim/Shekalim

Following the Revelation at Sinai last week, this week’s Parshah puts the meat on the bones of the covenant. Its many mitzvot form much of the basis of Jewish life. Two paradoxical themes emerge from the many laws in this section, whose juxtaposition can serve to enlighten us in some of our present moral dilemmas. A basic theme that runs through the Parshah is that of human responsibility. People are responsible for their actions and even for the unintentional consequences of their actions. If you dig a hole in the road and don’t properly cover it, or light a fire and don’t guard it, you are held responsible for any damage caused. If your animal hurts another, you must bear responsibility, even though in all these cases their was no intentional malice. Yet this demand for total accountability for your actions is mitigated by differentiation in consequences. Both a wilful murderer and an unintentional killer are held responsible, but their intention and the circumstances of their action are taken into account when determining the punishment for their action. A classic case of this is the law of a dangerous animal, whose owners were warned of its behaviour, which then kills someone. The Torah holds the owners responsible and even says they should die. Yet the fact that the Torah then allows for the possibility of ransom, something normally forbidden in capital cases, leads the Sages to interpret that the punishment intended in this case is ‘death by the hand of Heaven’, not by a human court. Here the Torah clearly expresses its opinion that the person is totally responsible for the death of his fellow, and theoretically is a simple murderer. Yet in leaving the punishment up to G-d, and providing for the possibility of atonement, the Torah also understands that the unintentional killing of someone by your ox, however culpable you may be, is not the same as going and stabbing him. In mitigating the punishment the Torah is taking into account the circumstances of the crime, while not diminishing the responsibility of the criminal. This paradoxical dichotomy has much to teach us today. In cases ranging from euthanasia and the self-defence of burgled householders, to issues of international law, we face the problem of how to preserve the moral force of the law and the responsibility of the individual for their actions, while taking into account the difficult, complex and often tragic circumstances that surround these cases. In the approach outlined above, our Parshah may provide the answer.

ALIYAH BY ALIYAH SYNOPSIS

Sidra Statisics

Parshat Mishpatim

·         has 118 verses ;

·         is the 6th in Exodus, 18th in the Torah

·         6th longest in Exodus, 23rd longest in the Torah

·         has 23 pos + 30 neg = 53 mitzvot.