Parashat Mishpatim — Judgments (ordinances)
מִשְׁפָּטִים
Mishpatim (מִשְׁפָּטִים) means "judgments (ordinances)" — taken, as every parashah name is, from the portion's opening words in the Hebrew.
The Readings
Torah Exodus 21:1-24:18 Read →
Haftarah Jeremiah 34:8-22, 33:25-26 Read →
B'rit Chadashah Hebrews 9:11-22 Read →
What Happens in Mishpatim
And these are the mishpatim — the judgments — you shall set before them. The voice that thundered the Ten Words now descends into the details of a working society, because covenant holiness lives or dies in ordinary disputes. The code opens, tellingly, with the rights of servants: a Hebrew servant serves six years and goes free in the seventh; and if he loves his master and refuses freedom, his ear is pierced at the doorpost — freedom is the norm, bound service the exception marked in flesh. Case follows case: capital crimes and cities of refuge for the accidental killer; striking or cursing parents; injuries between men, the measured justice of eye for eye; the goring ox and the negligent pit; theft repaid four and fivefold; fire that spreads to a neighbor's field; goods held in trust; seduction; and the crimes that admit no ransom.
Then the Torah turns to those with no leverage, and the voice grows personal: you shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child — if they cry out to Me, I will surely hear their cry. Lend to My poor people without interest; return the pledged garment before sundown, for it is his only covering. Courts must bend to neither mob nor money: do not follow a multitude to do evil, do not favor even a poor man in his cause, take no bribe, and bring back your enemy's straying ox. The Shabbat extends to the seventh year for the land and the seventh day for servant, sojourner, and beast; and the three pilgrimage feasts — Matzot, Harvest, and Ingathering — summon all males before the Lord YHVH, none appearing empty-handed.
Then YHVH lifts the horizon: behold, I send a Messenger before you, to keep you in the way and bring you into the place I have prepared. Obey His voice and do not provoke Him — for My name is in Him. Obedience will bring bread and water blessed, sickness removed, enemies routed by the hornet, and the land possessed little by little. The covenant is then cut in blood: Moshe recounts the words, writes the book, and builds an altar with twelve pillars. Half the blood goes on the altar; the book is read aloud; the people vow the famous vow — all that YHVH has said we will do, and we will hear (na'aseh v'nishma) — and Moshe sprinkles the other half on the people: behold, the blood of the covenant. Then an astonishing scene: Moshe, Aharon, Nadav, Avihu, and seventy elders go up, and they see the God of Yisrael — under His feet a paved work of sapphire, like the very heavens for clearness — and they behold God, and eat and drink. Moshe alone ascends into the cloud, and the glory of YHVH like devouring fire crowns the mountain for forty days and forty nights.
Main Themes
Holiness worked out in ordinary disputes Justice for the servant, stranger, widow, and orphan We will do and we will hear — obedience before full understanding The covenant sealed in blood The Messenger with the Name in Him
Key Events
· The laws of servants and injuries
· Property, restitution, and social justice laws
· The three annual feasts commanded
· The promise of the Messenger and the land
· The blood of the covenant sprinkled on the people
· The elders behold God; Moshe enters the cloud forty days
Key People
Moshe Aharon Nadav and Avihu The seventy elders
Key Verses
Exodus 23:20 Read →
““Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.”
Exodus 24:7 Read →
“He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “We will do all that the LORD has said, and be obedient.””
Exodus 24:8 Read →
“Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Look, this is the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you concerning all these words.””
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