We’re arriving at this portion after the Revelation at Sinai
Mishpatim contains 53 mitzvot: 23 positive & 30 prohibitions - most deal with civil law, daily affairs, property rights, indentured servants, regulating business, and penalties (murder, kidnapping, assault, and theft, damages, and loans).
Civil law and religious laws are intertwined
Responsibilities are outlined for God’s Messengers.
Laws warn against mistreatment of foreigners; the observance of the seasonal festivals, offerings that are to be brought to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem; the prohibition against cooking meat with milk; the mitzvah of prayer.
God promises to bring Am Yisrael to the Holy Land, warning them against assuming the pagan ways of the ones who live there.
The people’s response: “We will do and we will hear all that God commands us.”
Aaron and Hur are in charge of the camp while Moses ascends Mount Sinai.
Moses remains there for forty days and forty nights to receive the Torah from God.
Nahum Sarna, Exploring Exodus, p.174
These are the rules that you shall set before them: When you acquire a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years; in the seventh year he shall go free, without payment.
This portion commences with the 42nd of the 613 commandments, the law governing the master's relations with the Jewish servant who has been sold into his service.
cited in Benjamin Franklin by Carl Van Doren, p.734
(20) You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
(ג) עֲ֭שֹׂה צְדָקָ֣ה וּמִשְׁפָּ֑ט נִבְחָ֖ר לַיהֹוָ֣ה מִזָּֽבַח׃
To do what is right and just is more desired by the LORD than sacrifice.
ויש במצות עשה מן החמורות שאין המון העם נזהרים בהם כגון הזכרת שם שמים לבטלה שנאמר (דברים ח') את ה' אלקיך תירא ואמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה הוזהרנו בזה שלא להזכיר שם שמים לבטלה. וכן ג"ח שהיא מ"ע שנאמר (שמות י״ח:כ׳) והודעת להם את הדרך ילכו בה זו גמילות חסדים. ואמרו גדולה גמילות חסדים יותר מן הצדקה שהצדקה לעניים וגמילות חסדים בין לעניים בין לעשירים. על כן אמרו על שלשה דברים העולם עומד על התורה ועל העבודה ועל גמילות חסדים. והנה הצדקה בממונו. וגמילות חסדים בין בגופו בן בממונו. כי חייב אדם לטרוח בדרישת טוב לעמו ולשקוד בעמל נפשו על תקנת חבירו אם דל ואם עשיר. וזאת מן החמורות ומן העיקרים הנדרשים מן האדם שנאמר (מיכה ו׳:ח׳) הגיד לך אדם מה טוב ומה ה' דורש ממך כי אם עשות משפט ואהבת חסד. וכן מצוה להכנס לפנים משורת הדין שנאמר (שמות י״ח:כ׳) ואת המעשה אשר יעשון ואמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה זה לפנים משורת הדין. ויש בענין זה דרכים רבים אשר תהיה בהן המצוה הזאת מן החמורות הכל לפי ענין הדין. כמו שאמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה לא חרבה ירושלים אלא על שהעמידו דבריהם על דין תורה ולא נכנסו לפנים משורת הדין.
Among the positive commandments in the Torah are some of the weighty ones that the masses are not careful about - for example the mention of [God’s] name in vain, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 10:20), “You shall fear the Lord, your God.”...and likewise acts of kindness, which is a positive commandment, as it is stated (Exodus 18:20), “and make known to them the way they are to go” - that is acts of kindness (Bava Metzia 30b). And they said (Sukkah 49b), “Acts of kindness are superior to charity, [since] charity is given to the poor, while acts of kindness are performed both for the poor and for the rich.” Therefore they said (Avot 1:2), “The world stands upon three things: On the Torah; on the service; and on acts of kindness.” And (Sukkah 49b) “charity can be performed only with one’s money, while acts of kindness can be performed both with his person and with his money.”
זִרְע֨וּ לָכֶ֤ם לִצְדָקָה֙ קִצְר֣וּ
“Sow righteousness for yourselves; Reap the fruits of loving kindness
Let us take the case of the Jewish slave. That a Jew should buy another Jew as a slave is an intolerable thought which is rejected by everything that the teaching of the Torah in its religious and ethical significance stands for, yet it was a fact accepted and incorporated in a law. Obviously slavery was an institution that in biblical times, given human nature, social and economic conditions, could not have been abolished by any law. So the law limited the duration of the slavery. The slave had to be set free after six years of service. The Bible insists on calling the slave “thy brother,” and prescribes how he is to be treated: “Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God.” The rabbis in the Talmud then went on to explain that the slave’s standard of living had to be equal to that of the master. “Do not yourself eat fine bread and give him the coarse one. Do not you drink old wine and let him have only new wine. Sleep not on a soft bed, while he has to sleep on straw. So much so that people would say: ‘He who buys himself a Jewish slave buys a master for himself.’
(יז) וּמְקַלֵּ֥ל אָבִ֛יו וְאִמּ֖וֹ מ֥וֹת יוּמָֽת׃ {ס}
(17) He who insults his father or his mother shall be put to death.
ומקלל אביו, “and if someone curses his father;” from what is written here we only know that it is forbidden to curse one’s father while he is alive; how do we know that the same law applies to people cursing their fathers posthumously? The word: ומקלל formulated in the present tense, in the widest possible formulation includes cursing him anywhere anytime. Where is the commandment not to curse one’s father stated explicitly independent of the punishment in store for those who violate it? The reader is directed to Exodus 22,27: אלוהים לא תקלל ונשיא בעמך לא תאור, “Do not curse a judge and do not curse an elected political leader within your people.” לא תקלל חרש, “do not curse a deaf person!” The common denominator in these three prohibitions is that they are part of your people, and that your father and mother are similarly not only your relatives and have begotten you, but they are part of your nation, a holy nation. The reason why the Torah interrupts this sequence with verse 16, which deals with kidnapping, is that most people who are kidnapped are minors, who were unable to defend their abductor. As a result of having been kidnapped and sold to a foreign nation they will grow up in a country where they do not even know their parents, and when they get involved in an argument they will likely curse their fate and the father who had not protected them. Therefore this insertion is not a deviation from the theme the Torah deals with here. Verses 16 17 18 have a common denominator, as the Torah hints that in practice the occurrence of these sins are interrelated through the negative experiences in life by the parties who become guilty of them. [We must never lose sight of the fact that the Torah does not address itself to wicked people, as this would be a waste of time. What wicked person would take any notice of it? Ed.] What the Torah did here was listing sins which originate in quarrels between people some of which result in violent action, others in violent language. The honour due to father and mother is based on the honour due to the Creator himself, seeing that father and mother represent two thirds of begetting each one of us, G-d being the remaining third, who had helped father and mother to produce progeny. Therefore, cursing parents or cursing G-d are part of the same phenomenon, the result of frustration of the guilty party. Moreover, in the case of G-d releasing one’s anger by striking out physically is obviously impossible. Therefore all three are treated in a similar manner when it comes to how such release of one’s anger is treated by the Torah. Some commentators approach our whole paragraph as reflecting what our sages call it “not only this but also this.” For example: not only a person who has been so angry that in striking his fellow he has actually killed him, deserves to lose his life as a result of such lack of restraint, but even people who killed without intention actually deserve the same fate seeing that they had been criminally negligent, but the Torah stops short of this by protecting their lives if they succeeded to reach a city of refuge before an angry relative had a chance to avenge his relative’s needless death. This approach is supported by the Torah stating that if such a killer had acted intentionally, and had sought immunity next to the altar, [a symbol for a location where violence is absolutely forbidden, Ed] by taking refuge in the precincts of the Temple, this will not protect him against being brought to court by force and tried. Having stated this, the Torah extends this to people who in their anger only struck a parent also deserve the death penalty. If their act leaves a mark, injury, on the body of either parent they will be treated as having committed a capital offense. Finally, even if the son or daughter did not raise their hands against either parent and cursed them instead, they are also dealt with as having hurt them bodily.
ואמרו עוד (סוטה י"ד): דרש ר' שמלאי תורה תחלתה גמילות חסדים וסופה גמילות חסדים (בתחילת התורה עשה ה' לאדם ולאשתו כותנות עור, ובסוף התורה קבר את משה).
Our sages further taught: "Rabbi Simlai expounded: 'the Torah begins and ends with acts of [loving] kindnesses'" (Sotah 14a).
ואם תרצה לרחם על בניך ועל קרוביך ולכבדם כבוד גדול – תעסוק בתורה ובמעשים טובים, ובגמילות חסדים. וזה הדבר טוב להם מאוד, שיתכבדו בך ולא יישאו עליך חרפה. ואין לך בושה גדולה מזה ממי שאבותיו וקרוביו רשעים,
And if you wish to have mercy on your children and kin and to honor them with a great honor, then you must occupy yourself with Torah and good deeds and acts of loving kindness, this will be the best for them — that they should be honored through you and not bear reproach because of you. For there is no greater shame than that one should have parents and relatives who are wicked people.