Mishpatim

(8) The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim a release among them— (9) that everyone should set free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female, and that no one should keep his fellow Judean enslaved.

(13) Thus said the LORD, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage, saying: (14) “In the seventh year each of you must let go any fellow Hebrew who may be sold to you; when he has served you six years, you must set him free.” But your fathers would not obey Me or give ear.

(1) And these are the rules that you shall set before them:

ואלה המשפטים NOW THESE ARE THE JUDGMENTS — Wherever אלה, “these are”, is used it cuts off (פוסל) the preceding section from that which it introduces; where, however, ואלה “and these” is used it adds something to the former subject (i. e. forms a continuation of it). So also here: “And these are the judgments (i. e. these, also)”: What is the case with the former commandments (the עשרת הדברות)? They were given at Sinai! So these, too, were given at Sinai!

If this be so, why is this section dealing with the “civil laws” placed immediately after that commanding the making of the altar? To tell you that you should seat (i. e. provide quarters for) the Sanhedrin in the vicinity of the Temple.

אשר תשים לפניהם. These are not positive commandments and negative commandments as in the previous parasha. The matters under discussion need to be adjudicated only if and when such situations occur in someone’s life.

(19) The LORD said to Moses: Thus shall you say to the Israelites: You yourselves saw that I spoke to you from the very heavens: (20) With Me, therefore, you shall not make any gods of silver, nor shall you make for yourselves any gods of gold. (21) Make for Me an altar of earth and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your sacrifices of well-being, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be mentioned I will come to you and bless you. (22) And if you make for Me an altar of stones, do not build it of hewn stones; for by wielding your tool upon them you have profaned them. (23) Do not ascend My altar by steps, that your nakedness may not be exposed upon it.

ואלה המשפטים NOW THESE ARE THE JUDGMENTS — Wherever אלה, “these are”, is used it cuts off (פוסל) the preceding section from that which it introduces; where, however, ואלה “and these” is used it adds something to the former subject (i. e. forms a continuation of it). So also here: “And these are the judgments (i. e. these, also)”: What is the case with the former commandments (the עשרת הדברות)? They were given at Sinai! So these, too, were given at Sinai!

If this be so, why is this section dealing with the “civil laws” placed immediately after that commanding the making of the altar? To tell you that you should seat (i. e. provide quarters for) the Sanhedrin in the vicinity of the Temple.

Bar Kappara taught: From where is this matter that the Sages stated: Be temperate in judgment (Avot 1:1)? As it is written: “Neither shall you go up by steps onto My altar” (Exodus 20:23), i.e., do not ascend hurriedly, and juxtaposed to it, it is written: “Now these are the ordinances that you shall set before them” (Exodus 21:1). Rabbi Eliezer says: From where is it derived that a judge may not step over the heads of the sacred nation? It is stated: “Neither shall you go up by steps,” and juxtaposed to it: “Now these are the ordinances.”

(1) A psalm of Asaph. [God/judges] stand in the divine assembly; among the divine beings they pronounce judgment. (2) How long will you judge perversely, showing favor to the wicked? Selah. (3) Judge the wretched and the orphan, vindicate the lowly and the poor, (4) rescue the wretched and the needy; save them from the hand of the wicked. (5) They neither know nor understand, they go about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth totter. (6) I had taken you for divine beings, sons of the Most High, all of you; (7) but

you shall die as men do, fall like any prince. (8) Arise, O God, judge the earth, for all the nations are Your possession.

​​​​​​​(26) I will restore your magistrates as of old,

And your counselors as of yore. After that you shall be called City of Righteousness, Faithful City.” (27) Zion shall be saved through judgment; Her repentant ones through charity.

and enjoin upon them the laws and the teachings, and make known to them the way they are to go and the practices that they must perform.

It was taught in the baraita: “That they must perform”; that is referring to acting beyond the letter of the law, as Rabbi Yoḥanan says: Jerusalem was destroyed only for the fact that they adjudicated cases on the basis of Torah law. The Gemara asks: Rather, what else should they have done? Should they rather have adjudicated cases on the basis of arbitrary decisions [demagizeta]? Rather, say: That they established their rulings on the basis of Torah law and did not go beyond the letter of the law.

(15) He who strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.

(16) He who kidnaps a man—whether he has sold him or is still holding him—shall be put to death.

(17) He who insults his father or his mother shall be put to death.

AND HE THAT STEALETH A MAN. Saadiah Gaon asks: Why was this verse inserted between He that smiteth his father (v. 15) and And he that curseth his father (v. 17)? He answers that Scripture speaks only of the commonplace. Those stolen were young children. They were brought up in a strange country and did not recognize their parents. It is thus possible for them to strike and curse their parents. The punishment for this will fall upon the kidnapper.

וגונב איש ... Another thing these two laws have in common: the death penalty is to be carried out by strangulation.

(12) He who fatally strikes a man shall be put to death. (13) If he did not do it by design, but it came about by an act of God, I will assign you a place to which he can flee. (14) When a man schemes against another and kills him treacherously, you shall take him from My very altar to be put to death.

(15) He who strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.

(16) He who kidnaps a man—whether he has sold him or is still holding him—shall be put to death.

(17) He who insults his father or his mother shall be put to death.

(26) Then Judah said to his brothers, “What do we gain by killing our brother and covering up his blood? (27) Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let us not do away with him ourselves. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh.” His brothers agreed.

(5) When you see the ass of your enemy lying under its burden, refrain from raising it, you must nevertheless raise it with him.

כי תראה חמור שנאך וגו׳ IF THOU SEE THE ASS OF HIM THAT HATETH THEE etc. — כי here has the meaning of “possibly”, “perhaps”, which is one of the four meanings which the word כי serves to express. The sense of the verse is accordingly the following: Can you possibly see his ass crouching beneath his burden and forbear to help him? (The Hebrew word בתמיה in Rashi means “Say this in the intonation of a question”, and is nothing more than our question mark).

THOU SHALT FORBEAR. Ve-chadalta (thou shalt forbear) is similar to chadal (forbear) (II Chron. 25:16), the meaning of which is, forbear from doing this thing. Ve-shamarta (and thou shalt observe) (Deut. 17:10) is similar. The meaning of ve-chadalta ma’azov lo (thou shalt forbear to pass by him) is, forbear from leaving the matter to him alone. On the contrary, assist him in opening the knots and leave the burden as it is, and it will fall down on both sides of the donkey. The beast will then rise. Some say that its meaning is similar to va-ya’azevu (and they restored) in and they restored Jerusalem (Neh. 3:8), its meaning being, thou shalt surely load the burden. However, this is far-fetched.

וחדלת מעזוב לו, “and you feel like refraining from raising it;” you are warned not to remain inactive when faced with the animal’s distress, even if its owner is your enemy. This is also the way the Onkelos understands the word לו, seeing that he describes the Torah’s reflecting the first reaction of the finder here being that he does not have the heart to help him, but he nevertheless need to assist him.

עזב תעזב עמו — ... Our Rabbis expounded it in a Halachic sense as follows: … כי תראה וחדלת “If thou seest etc. …וחדלת” — there are occasions when you may forbear and there are occasions when you must help. How so? If it is an old man who sees the ass in this condition and it is not compatible with his dignity to intervene, then וחדלת “thou mayest forbear” holds good; or if the animal belongs to a heathen and its burden to an Israelite then, also, וחדלת may be applied (cf. Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 23:5:3).

"and you forbear to help him": There are times that you forbear and times that you help. How so? The ass of a Jew and the burden of a gentile — "help shall you help with him." The ass of a gentile and the burden of a Jew — "and you forbear to help him." If he (who saw the animal) were a Cohein and it (the animal) were in the cemetery, he does not become unclean for it.

I might think that if his father said to him "Make yourself unclean" (in the cemetery), he should do so because a positive commandment overrides a negative commandment; it is, therefore, written "and you forbear to help him." If his father said to him: Do not load with him; do not unload with him; do not return his lost object, he should not heed him, because his father and mother are obligated to perform the mitzvoth.

If one found an animal in a stable, he is not obligated to return it. If he found it in a public area, he is obligated to return it. And if the animal was lost in a graveyard and a priest found it, he may not become impure to return it. If his father said to him: Become impure; or in a case where one was obligated to return the animal and his father said to him: Do not return it, he may not listen to his father, as one may not violate Torah law to honor his father. If one unloaded a burden from an animal collapsing under its weight and then later loaded it onto the animal, and later unloaded and loaded it again, even if this scenario repeats itself four or five times, he is obligated to continue unloading and loading, as it is stated: “If you see the donkey of him that hates you collapsed under its burden, you shall forgo passing him by; you shall release it [azov ta’azov] with him” (Exodus 23:5). It is derived from the verse that one is obligated to perform the action as needed, even several times.

To tell you that if he wants to be WITH YOU in his work, and help you lift, then you must help him. But if he is sitting and says: you must help alone as it's a mitzva, then YOU SHALL NOT HELP HIM. The word HIM (לו) is different from the word WITH HIM (עמו), so you are permitted to not help him when he doesn't help with you.

And this is the answer to some of the poor from among our people, who prostate themselves on the community and do not want to engage in any work, even if they are able to do so, or some other method by which to bring food to their family. And they challenge us by saying that if we do not provide for them, this is against what God commanded. So we tell them WITH HIM (עמו), for the poor must do everything in his power to do, and only if he fails then every person of Israel should help him and support him and provide for him, even one hundred fold.

And these are the ordinances corresponds to Thou shalt not covet, for if a man does not know the laws of house and field or other possessions, he might think that they belong to him and thus covet them and take them for himself. This is why He said, thou shalt set before them just ordinances, which they should establish amongst themselves, so that they will not covet that which does not legally belong to them. And thus did the Rabbis say in Midrash Rabbah: “The whole Torah depends on justice; that is why the Holy One, blessed be He, gave the civil laws directly after the Ten Commandments.”

Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani says that Rabbi Yonatan says: Any judge who judges a judgment according to absolute truth [emet] causes the Divine Presence to rest among Israel, as it is stated: “God stands in the congregation of God; in the midst of the judges He judges” (Psalms 82:1), indicating that the Divine Presence is in the midst of the court. And every judge who does not judge a judgment according to absolute truth causes the Divine Presence to withdraw from Israel, as it is stated: “For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, says the Lord” (Psalms 12:6). God will arise and leave the people as a result of oppression.

Rabbi Eliezer, son of Rabbi Yosei HaGelili, says: It is prohibited to mediate a dispute; and anyone who mediates [habotze’a] a dispute is a sinner; and anyone who blesses the mediator is cursing God. And of this, it is stated: “And the covetous [botze’a] blesses himself, though he despises the Lord” (Psalms 10:3). Rather, the judge must assure that the true judgment will prevail at all costs and metaphorically pierce the mountain, as it is stated: “For the judgment is God’s” (Deuteronomy 1:17).

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korḥa says: It is a mitzva to mediate a dispute, as it is stated: “Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates” (Zechariah 8:16). Is it not that in the place where there is strict judgment there is no true peace, and in a place where there is true peace, there is no strict judgment? Rather, which is the judgment that has peace within it? You must say: This is mediation, as both sides are satisfied with the result. And similarly, with regard to David, it says: “And David executed justice and charity to all his people” (II Samuel 8:15). And is it not that wherever there is strict justice, there is no charity, and wherever there is charity, there is no strict justice? Rather, which is the justice that has within it charity? You must say: This is mediation.

... The difference between them is Rabbi Shimon ben Menasya with regard to the principle: After you hear their statements and you know where the judgment is leaning, it is not permitted for you to say to them: Go out and mediate.

ואלה: A man must judge

המשפטים: The judge is commanded to mediate before he judges.

אשר: If they both want.