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By Rabbi Mario Gurevich,
Beth Israel Synagogue, Aruba

Translated by Inés Baum - Proofreading by Ellen Zindler

Parashat Mishpatim holds laws and precepts of the most diverse nature. But far from being an arid legal code, it offers us a wide standard of conduct which, when observed, not only assures the correct functioning of the social web, but also that people rise to a superior level of spiritual life.

The laws of the Torah, although ancient, are not the oldest in history. Many precedents, such as the Hammurabi Code, Eshmun’s laws in Mesopotamia, the Sumerian laws of King Urnamu (just to mention some inherited throughout time), were undoubtedly known by the first Hebrews and their descendants, for whom such a vast list was not a surprising novelty.

Nevertheless, the laws of Mishpatim contain a substantial difference from its predecessors: its moral basis; the equality of men in the eyes of the Law upheld in justice and in God’s word.

The text includes work relations, the sanctity of human life and the integrity of the body, sanctions against those who violate them; compensations for damages against man, animal or fire; laws and penalties against robbery and theft, precepts against idolatrous customs, security for the poor and helpless, respect and honor for God and the national leaders, absolute equality with no exception or privilege concerning compliance to the law, precepts for the holy days and festivals and ways to observe them.

All these are timeless statements, valid even now in our times. Of course, it would be difficult to find in our cities today an ox that “was wont to gore in time past” (Ex. 21:36), although its purpose is clear: to establish the responsibility of people who keep beasts or objects with the capacity to harm. Likewise, the law considers human factors, judging not just the event but also the intentions, establishing the difference between deceitful crimes and crimes committed through negligence, as in most contemporary jurisprudences.

But here, as in many other issues, the essential element of the law is the readers, and their correct interpretation of the written text. For instance, the famous “Talion” law or law of retaliation, that of “an eye for an eye”, which appears in this text and served as an excuse to accuse the Torah of being a vindictive and barbaric text, although it is just a guideline to compensation for damages that never implied mutilating the aggressor, but rather an appropriate indemnity to the assaulted. Others, such as the laws concerning waifs, allow us to extract moral rules that are contained within its parameters and spirit, even though that was not their original intention.

“If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again” (Ex. 23:4), and if this is valid in the case of goods and enemies, how much will it be when the one who loses something is a friend, a brother, and who may not even recognize what he has lost.

It is our obligation to try to return the faith and love for the Torah to those who have lost them; to attempt, at least, to help those who have forgotten find their way back to our synagogues and prayers and, as in the case of the stranded animals, if we do not know their owners, care for them lovingly until the day they return by themselves to pick them up.

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Forwarded by Rabbi Gustavo Kraselnik, from Kol Shearith Israel Congregation, Panama.
Translated by Inés Baum and proofread by Ellen Zindler, from B’nei Israel Congregation, Costa Rica.

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