Rabbi Roodyn

After last week’s light and sound show at Mount Sinai, it’s down to business. Rather than leaving Mount Sinai behind we take it with us, so to speak until the end of Sefer Shemos. This week’s parsha, Mishpatim elaborates on a number of laws, 53 to be precise, governing our day to day contact, all of which were given to Moshe on the mountain. Similarly, according to the Ramban, the commandment to build a Mishkan in next week’s sedra is to keep alive the experience of Revelation.  In fact at the end of last week’s sedra, immediately following the Revelation, we are indeed commanded to build an altar.

One might think that immediately after Maamad Har Sinai the next thing on the national agenda is to immediately build a house for Hashem to enable His Shechina to dwell in our midst. There is a very real need for a sacred space where people can feel and perceive Hashem’s presence as we move away from Har Sinai.

The fact that these 53 Mishpatim come  before the building of the Mishkan teaches us a very important lesson. As well we know, the two tablets are divided into two sets of five commandments each. When we depict these luchos in shul, we often do so with letters of the alef-beis or the opening words of each commandment. However when looking at the actual text of the ten commandments we see that of the 620 letters , 594 are on the first tablet and just 26 are on the second. The Rama MiPano claims that in order to achieve some semblance of symmetry, Hashem altered the font size of the letters on the second tablet so that they appeared larger than the first tablet. This means that when Moshe came down from the mountain, the first thing that the Bnei Yisrael saw was the second tablet with its mitzvos bein adam lechavero!

Rav Hirsch explains that our whole relationship with Hashem is to be understood as one that provides a firm and unshakeable basis for building a society in the spirit of justice and humanity and for strengthening every individual in the spirit of true morality. In doing so, the sword of violence and harshness will be banished from our society. If there are no mishpatim, we will have anarchy, a Hobbesian state of nature where might makes right. Only once we have established a just society where the rule of law is paramount can we be worthy of Hashem’s presence dwelling in our midst.

To listen to this weeks shiur click here https://rabbiroodyn.com/2017/02/23/audio-shiur-mishpatim-what-happens-after-maamad-har-sinai/

Good Shabbos!