These divrei Torah were adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher Frand’s Commuter Chavrusah Tapes on the weekly portion: # 1369 Lending Money Without Receiving an IOU Slip – Is It Mutar? Good Shabbos!
The Torah Only Refers to a Jewish Slave as an “Eved” the First Time
Parshas Mishpatim begins with the halachos of the eved Ivri (Hebrew slave). The Torah relates the situation of a poor person who stole and is in debt. He can’t pay back what he stole and, as a result, he is sold as a slave to recoup the money, with which he can now make restitution to his victims. The term “slave” is a very derogatory one, especially in our day and age. The Torah teaches the halachos of how a person needs to deal with an eved Ivri.
There are two other places in Chumash where the Torah discusses an eved Ivri. One is in Parshas Behar and the other is in Parshas Re’eh. There is a distinct difference between the way the eved Ivri is described in the parshios of Behar and Re’eh and the way he is described here in Mishpatim.
In Behar (Vayikra 25:39), the pasuk says “If your brother becomes impoverished with you and is sold to you, you shall not work with him slave labor.”
In Parshas Re’eh (Devorim 15:12), the pasuk says “If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, will be sold to you, he shall serve you for six years, and in the seventh year, you shall send him away from you, free.”
In each of these parshios, the Torah shares various details of the halachos of Jewish servitude. However, there is one glaring difference between the description of an eved Ivri in Parshas Mishpatim and his description in the other two parshiyos. This is an inference (diyuk) that the Malbim points out. The Malbim notes that in both Behar and Re’eh he is called “achicha” (your brother), but the term “eved” (slave) is not used. He is only called an “eved” in Mishpatim.
The Malbim explains that the Torah only calls him an “eved” once, to demonstrate its hesitation to use this term concerning a member of the Jewish people. The Torah needs to call him an eved once to show us the essence of his status, but once it has called him an “eved,” it doesn’t want to repeat the term. The subsequent times, he is always referred to as “your brother.”
We are particular about his honor. Now, whose honor is this that we are particular about? We are particular about the honor of a thief! We are even particular about the honor of a person who is really from the dregs of society.
Helicopter Parenting Explains Strange Sequencing of Pesukim
The pesukim in Shemos 21:15-17 say “Someone who strikes his father or mother will be surely put to death. Someone who steals a person and sells him will be surely put to death. And someone who curses his father or mother will be surely put to death.”
Rav Schwab, in his sefer, interestingly points out that the prohibition of kidnapping is stuck in between the prohibition of killing and cursing parents. It would seem logical for the Torah to place the prohibition of smiting and cursing parents together, ahead of the prohibition of kidnapping. What is the message of inserting the aveira of “gonev nefesh” right smack between “makeh aviv” and “mekalel aviv?”
Rav Schwab makes an interesting observation. There is an expression in vogue today called “helicopter parenting.” A helicopter parent hovers over his child so much that he is compared to a helicopter which hovers over a single spot. The parent literally smothers the child and does not allow him to reach his potential and become what he is supposed to become.
Many parents see children as an extension of themselves. They want to live vicariously through their own children. “I couldn’t do so and so in my life, but I want you to do that in your life. If I couldn’t go to Yeshiva, I want you to go to Yeshiva and if I wasn’t very good in Yeshiva, I want you to be good in Yeshiva. If I fooled around in Yeshiva, I am going to make sure that you don’t leave the Beis Medrash until one o’clock in the morning.”
They, in fact, run their children’s lives. That is not parenting. During the earlier stages of a child’s life, a parent indeed needs to be on top of him and educate him properly. However, when the child reaches a certain age, the parent needs to say “I have done what I can do. The child is now on his own!” We are not talking about abandoning the child, but a parent needs to let the child be who he is.
I heard a very interesting comment in the name of Rav Yochanon Zweig: The Aramaic word for son (‘ben‘ in Hebrew) is ‘bar.‘ The word ‘bar‘ in Aramaic also means to be on the outside. The connotation is that a parent needs to remain “outside” the child. The parent cannot remain “in the midst of his son.” The child must be given his own space.
Rav Schwab therefore suggests: First the Torah says that someone who smites his father or mother will be put to death. Later, the Torah says that someone who curses his father or mother will be put to death. These are very extreme situations. A child who hits or curses his parent! What would bring a child to transgress these unnatural capital offenses? The answer is “gonev ish” – the father “stole” the child. He kidnapped his own child by taking him exclusively into his – the father’s – domain, and not allowing the son to have a domain of his own. The son overreacts to the overreaction of his father in trying to control his life. The Torah alludes to the fact that, yes, we need to be parents and, yes, we need to educate our children, which is one of the most important jobs in the world, but like everything else, a person needs to do it with sechel (intelligence).
Sir Walter Scott, Parshas Mishpatim, and Dovid Hamelech All Tell the Same Truth About Lies
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive” is a line from Sir Walter Scott’s poem Marmion. What is its connection to this week’s parsha?
In this week’s parsha, the well-known pasuk says “M’dvar sheker tirchak” (distance yourself from a false matter) (Shemos 23:7). Of course, Sir Walter Scott was not the first person to note that when someone tells a lie, he needs to create an entire web of lies to support the original lie that he first fabricated.
The first person to say this same thing was Dovid Hamelech. Dovid Hamelech writes in Tehillim 52:5 “You loved evil over good, lies over speaking truth, selah.” Even though we don’t leyn this pasuk, the trop (cantillation) over the word sheker (lies) is a shalsheles. The shalsheles is a chain.
Why was the shalsheles note placed over the word sheker? It is for the same reason: What a tangled web we weave when we first deceive. When someone tells a lie, he then needs to tell a second lie to support the first lie, and then a third lie to support the second. It is a whole web and chain of deceit.
Transcribed by David Twersky; Jerusalem [email protected]
Edited by Dovid Hoffman; Baltimore, MD [email protected]
This week’s write-up is adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissochar Frand’s Commuter Chavrusah Series on the weekly Torah portion. A listing of the halachic portions for Parshas Mishpatim is provided below:
- # 043 – Malpractice
- # 086 – Withholding Medical Treatment
- # 134 – Hashovas Aveida: Returning Lost Objects
- # 181 – Medicine, Shabbos, and the Non-Jew
- # 227 – Taking Medication on Shabbos
- # 271 – Experimental Medical Treatment
- # 317 – Wrecking a Borrowed Car
- # 361 – Bankruptcy
- # 405 – Litigating in Secular Courts
- # 449 – Is Gambling Permitted
- # 493 – Bitul B’rov
- # 537 – Losing Your Coat at a Coat Check
- # 581 – Lending Without Witnesses
- # 625 – The Kesuba
- # 669 – Rabbinical Contracts
- # 713 – Adam Hamazik & Liability Insurance
- # 757 – Midvar Sheker Tirchak: True or False?
- # 801 – Oy! My Wallet Went Over Niagara Falls
- # 845 – Is Hunting a Jewish Sport?
- # 889 – The Neighbor Who Forgot To Turn Off The Fire
- # 933 – The Mitzvah of Lending Money
- # 976 – Will Any Doctor Do?
- # 1020 – The Potato Baked in a Fleishig Pan – With Butter or Margarine?
- # 1064 – The Doctor That Erred
- # 1107 – 5772 or 2012 What Should It Be?
- # 1150 – Taking State Farm To Beis Din
- # 1193 – “Dayan, If You Know What’s Good For You, Rule In My Favor”
- # 1237 – The Case of the Sefer That Was Borrowed and Never Returned
- # 1282 – Treating Ebola Patients; The Har Nof Massacre and Kidney Donations
- # 1325 – Finding a $20 Bill in Shul / Finding A Comb in a Mikvah: Can You Keep It?
- # 1369 – Lending Money Without Receiving an IOU Slip – Is It Mutar?
- # 1413 – Reinstituting the Sanhedrin in Our Day and Age?
- # 1457 – Milchig Bread and the Bimbo Bakery Controversy
- # 1501 – My Neighbor’s Son Threw a Ball Through My Front Window – Who Pays?
- # 1544 – Must I Buy From A Jewish Merchant or Can I Buy From Amazon?
- # 1587 – Using Alternative Medicine Rather Than Traditional Medicine – Is There a Problem?
- # 1625 – Is There A Mitzvah To Tell the Truth?
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