Tag Archives: mishpatim

February 12, 2015 · 19:51

Shabbat Shekalim – Parshat HaKessef

This Shabbat is Shabbat Shekalim, the first of four special Shabbatot that precede the Passover season. For the Maftir at the end of the Torah reading, we read verses that describe the commandment to give a half-shekel for the census. The money would be used for the communal sacrifices for the entire year. Since these funds were collected at the beginning of the national year in Nissan, the reminder of the commandment would be read one month earlier, at the beginning of Adar.
Besides the Maftir, we also read a special Haftarah for Shabbat Shekalim. It tells us how King Yoash attempted different ways of raising money in order to repair the Temple. The word, “כסף”, silver/money, is repeated fourteen times in about as many verses.

Shabbat Shekalim usually comes out on Parshat Mishpatim. It is the first set of commandments that Moshe was given at Har Sinai. “Mishpatim” means “civil laws” and the Parsha contains dozens of commandments about money.
Shabbat Shekalim also marks Rosh Chodesh Adar, the month of the Purim holiday. Money shows up there, too: at the crucial moment when Haman gets Achashverosh drunk and convinces him to kill all the Jews, we read:

ט) אִם עַל הַמֶּלֶךְ טוֹב יִכָּתֵב לְאַבְּדָם וַעֲשֶׂרֶת אֲלָפִים כִּכַּר כֶּסֶף אֶשְׁקוֹל עַל יְדֵי עֹשֵׂי הַמְּלָאכָה
לְהָבִיא אֶל גִּנְזֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ:
9) If it pleases the king, let it be written to destroy them, and ten thousand measures of silver, I will weigh out into the hands of the contractors to bring to the king’s treasury. (Esther 3:9)

That money must have been very important, because when Mordechai tells Esther about the meeting between Achashverosh and Haman, he says:

וַיַּגֶּד לוֹ מָרְדֳּכַי אֵת כָּל אֲשֶׁר קָרָהוּ וְאֵת פָּרָשַׁת הַכֶּסֶף אֲשֶׁר אָמַר הָמָן לִשְׁקוֹל עַל גִּנְזֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ בַּיְּהוּדִים לְאַבְּדָם:
7) Mordechai told [Esther’s proxy] about all that had happened to him, and about the matter of the money, that Haman had said to weigh out to the king’s treasury to destroy the Jews (Esther 7:7)

Thus, Parshat Mishpatim, Parshat Shekalim, the Haftarah of Shekalim, and the Megilla can all be called Parshat HaKessef – a matter of money.

There are religions and philosophies that see money as a necessary evil at best; they believe a person of intellect and standing should not concern himself with something so trivial. Then there are societies where money is the ultimate way of keeping score, where entire industries exist for its growth, where it achieves an overriding importance in people’s lives.
There are those that worship its power, and those that attempt to negate it altogether.

How does the Torah view money?

שנא’ (דברים ו) ואהבת את ה’ אלהיך בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאדך … ובכל מאדך בכל ממונך
… as it says, “You shall love Hashem your G-d with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.” … With all your might: with all your money (Mishna Berachot 9:5)

The Mishna equates “might” with “money”. Money gives you the power to build, or rebuild. As we see in the Haftarah, even the House of G-d cannot be repaired if there isn’t money to pay the contractors.

The Haftarah goes out of its way to tell us of the failures of King Yoash’s attempts at incentive-based fundraising. Ultimately, the money did not come from his complicated schemes, but rather through crowd-funding: a tzedaka box placed in the Beit HaMikdash itself, to which people donated as they saw fit. Small contributions from many people added up to more than enough to fund the project.

The commandment of Shekalim carries the same message: everyone gives a small amount, half a shekel, and it adds up to enough money to fund all the daily sacrifices for the entire year.

Money, thus, is not just a source of power for individuals; it is a way for a society to pool its resources to accomplish something that no individual could possibly do alone.

In truth, money only exists because society makes it so. Silver did not become a medium of exchange because of its inherent value, but only because people agreed that it should be one. In our society, money is not even based on silver or gold, but that doesn’t matter. Money is whatever the society agrees to use. It is not true value, but rather a representation of value.

The word that the Torah uses for the concept of a representation of value is “כופר” , usually translated as “atonement.”
In Parshat Mishpatim, we find the following commandment:

וְאִם שׁוֹר נַגָּח הוּא מִתְּמֹל שִׁלְשֹׁם וְהוּעַד בִּבְעָלָיו וְלֹא יִשְׁמְרֶנּוּ וְהֵמִית אִישׁ אוֹ אִשָּׁה הַשּׁוֹר יִסָּקֵל וְגַם בְּעָלָיו יוּמָת:אִם כֹּפֶר יוּשַׁת עָלָיו וְנָתַן פִּדְיֹן נַפְשׁוֹ כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר יוּשַׁת עָלָיו:
But if the ox has gored in the past, and the owner has been warned and did not guard it, and it killed a man or a woman: the ox shall be stoned, and the owner also will die.
If an atonement is placed upon him, he may give a ransom for his soul,
according to what is placed upon him. (Shemot 21:29-30)

The commentaries explain that despite the statement that “the owner also will die,” in actuality, the law is that the owner pays a monetary fine. The reason it is stated in this harsh manner is to point out that it was due to his criminal negligence that this life was lost. However, because he was only an indirect cause, in this particular case the Torah allows a “כופר,” an atonement, to take his place. Money, which is itself is a representation of value, can be used to represent the value of life.

The commandment of Shekalim is stated in similar terms:

הֶעָשִׁיר לֹא יַרְבֶּה וְהַדַּל לֹא יַמְעִיט מִמַּחֲצִית הַשָּׁקֶל לָתֵת אֶת תְּרוּמַת ה’ לְכַפֵּר עַל נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם:
The rich will not give more and the poor will not give less than the half a shekel, to give the donation to Hashem, to atone for your lives. (Shemot 30:15-16)

The donation of half a shekel is meant to represent the value of each individual in the Jewish People. This money was used for sacrifices, which themselves are a representation of G-d’s ownership of our very lives. Through this half a shekel, we “purchase” our lives from G-d.

But why did G-d decide on half a shekel as the symbolic price of a Jewish life? One of the many interpretations is that the half shekel highlights the fact that the amount is incomplete. In order to achieve anything with half a shekel, you need someone else to contribute the other half. This is not about the monetary power of the individual, but rather the combined power of the entire Jewish community. The sacrifices that this money paid for were not individual sacrifices, but rather communal ones that represented all of the Jewish People.

The Midrash points out that the sum total of all the half-shekel donations of the entire nation added up to ten thousand measures of silver. This brings us to Haman, who handed over ten thousand measures of silver to Achashverosh. Haman thought that he was purchasing the lives of all the Jewish People from Achashverosh. Perhaps he would have been successful, if not for the fact that Achashverosh was not the owner.

אמר רבי שמעון בן לקיש גלוי וידוע לפני הקב”ה שעתיד המן הרשע לשקול שקלים על ישראל לפיכך הקדים שקליהם לשקליו:
R’ Shimon ben Lakish said: Hashem knew that Haman the Rasha would weigh Shekalim against Israel, therefore, He pre-empted his Shekels with their Shekels.
(Midrash Yalkut Shimoni Ki-Tisa 386)

The commandment of Shekalim made it impossible for Haman to purchase the Jewish People. We were already “paid for”, and no longer for sale.

Moreover, Haman had described the Jewish People as “dispersed and scattered among the nations.” They were vulnerable because in their exile, they saw themselves as no longer a nation, but rather as scattered individuals. The commandment of Shekalim is the antidote to this self-image. All the little half-shekels put together represent the value of an entire nation.
Shabbat Shekalim heralds the season of the Passover Holidays, the new year that begins in Nissan. Just as Elul is a time of preparation for the New Year of Tishrei, Adar is a time of preparation for the time of national renewal and redemption. Money allows society to abstract the concept of value, and makes it possible to achieve things that would be out of reach for scattered individuals. Parshat Mishpatim, the Megilla, Parshat Shekalim, and the Haftarah all teach us how money can be used to serve G-d, “with all your might.”

PDF for printing, 3 pages A4
Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל

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January 23, 2014 · 17:38

Mishpatim

The Haftarah of Mishpatim is not read every year. Most years, Purim is already around the corner, and we read the first of the 4 Parshiyot, Shekalim. This year, Shekalim is read during Parshat Pekudei, and we read Mishpatim’s Haftarah from Yirmeyahu.

I once heard the Tanach called, “The book of G-d’s disappointments with humanity”. This Haftarah – Linear annotated translation of the Haftarah of Mishpatim – is a prime example.

And this connection between Parshat Mishpatim and the Haftarah will hopefully explain just how much patience He has for us.

Rembrandt's portrayal of Jeremiah. After you read this Haftarah, you'll look like this, too.

Rembrandt’s portrayal of Jeremiah. After you read this Haftarah, you’ll look like this, too.

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· 17:18

Mishpatim – Commitment and Betrayal

The Haftarah of Mishpatim tells the story of how, just a few years before the destruction of Jerusalem, wealthy slave-owners released their Jewish slaves, only to recapture them when the situation quieted down.

G-d’s response is the following:

כֹּה אָמַר ה’ אֱ-לֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אָנֹכִי כָּרַתִּי בְרִית אֶת אֲבוֹתֵיכֶם בְּיוֹם הוֹצִאִי אוֹתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם מִבֵּית עֲבָדִים לֵאמֹר:
מִקֵּץ שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים תְּשַׁלְּחוּ אִישׁ אֶת אָחִיו הָעִבְרִי אֲשֶׁר יִמָּכֵר לְךָ וַעֲבָדְךָ שֵׁשׁ שָׁנִים וְשִׁלַּחְתּוֹ חָפְשִׁי מֵעִמָּךְ וְלֹא שָׁמְעוּ אֲבוֹתֵיכֶם אֵלַי וְלֹא הִטּוּ אֶת אָזְנָם:
So says Hashem, the G-d of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers,
on the day that I took them out of Egypt, out of slavery, as follows:
At the beginning of the seventh year, you shall send away your brother, the Hebrew, who has been sold to you; he will have worked for you for six years, then you will send him free from you. Your fathers did not listen to me, and did not pay attention (Yirmeyahu 34:13-14)

Which covenant is G-d talking about, “on the day that [He] took us out of Egypt”?

First of all, “on the day that I took them out of Egypt”, does not refer to just that one day. The phrase Yetziat Mitzraim, the Exodus, refers to the entire experience from the beginning of the Plagues until the Jewish People entered the Land of Israel. Therefore, when looking for this covenant, we are not limited to the actual day of the 15th of Nissan.
Instead, the phrase refers to the Exodus as a whole, which was, as stated from the very beginning of Shemot, that Hashem would take Israel to be His people, and be their G-d. This was done by means of a covenant between G-d and the Jewish People, and took place at Sinai. The description of this covenant is found in Parshat Mishpatim:

וַיִּקַּח סֵפֶר הַבְּרִית וַיִּקְרָא בְּאָזְנֵי הָעָם וַיֹּאמְרוּ כֹּל אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר ה’ נַעֲשֶׂה וְנִשְׁמָע:
וַיִּקַּח מֹשֶׁה אֶת הַדָּם וַיִּזְרֹק עַל הָעָם וַיֹּאמֶר הִנֵּה דַם הַבְּרִית אֲשֶׁר כָּרַת ה’ עִמָּכֶם עַל כָּל הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה:
[Moshe] took the Book of the Covenant; he read it into the ears of the people.
They said, “All that Hashem said, we will do and we will listen.”
Moshe took the blood, threw it on the people; he said, “This is the blood of the Covenant, that Hashem has made with you, based on all these things.” (Shemot 24:7-8)

What was in this “Book of the Covenant,” and what were “all these things” upon which they based their agreement to enter into the covenant with G-d?

Many of us are familiar with Rashi’s opinion, that these events, even though they are recorded in Parshat Mishpatim, actually took place before the Ten Commandments were given, that they committed to “we will do and we will listen” on pure faith, and that “all these things” that Moshe read to them was a record of the miracles of Exodus.

However, Ramban and Ibn Ezra insist on interpreting these chapters in chronological order. According to this view, which is the simpler reading of the text, the covenant follows the Ten Commandments, as well as the laws listed in Parshat Mishpatim. When the Jewish People said, “we will do and we will listen,” they knew very well what they were committing to do. Parshat Mishpatim contains a representative sample of the commandments such as laws of fair conduct in business and interpersonal relationships, laws of justice and morality, and laws of Kashrut and holidays. G-d wanted them to understand what they were signing up for, and had Moshe read it all out to them – “into their ears”, making sure that they heard clearly – before they entered the covenant.

What was the very first of the laws that Moshe read to them?

וְאֵלֶּה הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים אֲשֶׁר תָּשִׂים לִפְנֵיהֶם:
כִּי תִקְנֶה עֶבֶד עִבְרִי שֵׁשׁ שָׁנִים יַעֲבֹד וּבַשְּׁבִעִת יֵצֵא לַחָפְשִׁי חִנָּם:
And these are the laws that you should put before them:
If a person buys a Hebrew slave, six years he will work, and on the seventh will go free. (Shemot 21:1-2)

The commandment to limit slavery was the first among the commandments that formed the basis of the covenant. Additional laws in this chapter in Mishpatim limit the owner’s ability to exploit and oppress his slaves, especially female slaves .
One might have expected the Jewish People, as former slaves in Egypt, to be particularly careful to observe this commandment, to show extra empathy to their slaves and be only too glad to limit or even abolish slavery altogether. However, the Haftarah tells us that it was not kept by the Jewish People, at least not by generations prior to Yirmeyahu’s time: “your fathers did not listen to Me; they did not pay attention, says G-d.”

So when King Tzidkiyahu forced them to make a covenant to release their slaves, and they listened to him and did so, we might have thought that this would actually make G-d somewhat upset. He might have sent a prophet accusing them of caring more for an earthly king than for the King of Kings. He might have been disappointed that the original covenant at Sinai was not sufficient for them and they needed a new one to make them keep this commandment. Instead, we are told that G-d was unreservedly pleased by their actions:

וַתָּשֻׁבוּ אַתֶּם הַיּוֹם וַתַּעֲשׂוּ אֶת הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינַי לִקְרֹא דְרוֹר אִישׁ לְרֵעֵהוּ וַתִּכְרְתוּ בְרִית לְפָנַי בַּבַּיִת אֲשֶׁר נִקְרָא שְׁמִי עָלָיו:
Today you returned, and you did the right thing in My eyes, by proclaiming liberty, each man to his fellow, and you made a covenant before Me, in the house upon which My name is called. (Yirmeyahu 34:15)

They did “the right thing in His eyes”, they freed the slaves, and G-d was proud of them.

Alas, as great as the pride, such was the magnitude of the disappointment.

When they recaptured the slaves that they had freed, not only did they do an evil and repugnant deed, not only did they break the covenant that they had just made with King Tzidkiyahu, they spit in the face of the Covenant of Sinai itself. They did not fail to observe a random commandment, they took the very first commandment that they signed up for, and violated it in the worst way possible.

Instead of showing the empathy to slaves expected of the Jewish People, they acted as if they had no recollection of the Exodus or of their mission to be the nation that does “the right thing in G-d’s eyes.” They rendered the entire covenant between G-d and the Jewish People, null and void.

Mercifully, the Haftarah does not end with this fiasco, but rather with the following verses:

כֹּה אָמַר ה’ … גַּם זֶרַע יַעֲקוֹב וְדָוִד עַבְדִּי אֶמְאַס … כִּי אָשִׁיב אֶת שְׁבוּתָם וְרִחַמְתִּים.
So says Hashem… would I reject the offspring of Yaakov and My servant, David…? For I will return his captives and have mercy upon them.
(Yirmeyahu 33:25-26)

It is a very good thing that G-d has infinite patience. It is a very good thing that He knows that we are capable of more, that our commitment to Torah can be renewed. The Haftarah’s ending tells us that G-d’s commitment to us is eternal. We can mess up, our actions can be disastrous and detestable, but He will find a way to get us back. The destiny of the Jewish People will continue. G-d Himself will make sure of that.

[2] People often ask why G-d did not skip this intermediate step and just outlaw slavery in the first place. This is not a question that we can answer without a deep understanding of the economics of the time. It is not fair to anachronistically judge those generations through a world view which is based on opportunities that were not available to them. Anyway, we see that even this commandment was beyond their abilities.

Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל

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