Chumash Classes: Mishpatim

Why are the civil laws mentioned here and now. Chp. 21 verses 1 & 2 Starts with the first law regarding if one buys a Jewish slave.

Chp. 21 verses 2 - 7:The laws of a Jewish slave who goes free after six years. If he is married the master may give him a Canaanite maidservant to bear children for the master. If at the end of the six years the Jewish slave decides to stay, the master has to bore his ear with an awl and he stays until the Jubilee year. It continues with a man who sells his minor daughter as a slave, she can only serve for six years or until puberty, which ever comes first.

Chp. 21 verses 8 - 15: Continues with the Jewish maidservant. If the master does not marry her, or give her to his son as a wife then he should help her to redeem herself. He cannot sell her to a gentile. If he does marry her he must give her the same rights as any other wife. If he or his son do not marry her and the six years pass or she reaches puberty she goes out without paying any money. If you kill someone you are put to death. If you kill someone by accident you go to a city of refuge. However, if it is intentional you are even taken from the alter to be killed. One who stikes his father or mother and draws blood is put to death.

Chp. 21 verses 16 -22: Begins with the laws of kidnapping, and continues with cursing one's father or mother. Then the laws concerning a person who injures his friend and the obligation to pay doctor bills and the permission to seek medical attention. The laws about killing a man or maid servant. Then the laws about injuring a pregnant woman and killing her fetus.

Chp. 21 verses 23 - 36: Continues with the woman who is injured by accident and miscarries, if she dies then there is only monetary restitution. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is again monetary restitution. Torah mentions burns, wounds, and bruises, which teaches us about the five things that one who injures has to pay. If one knocks out the eye or tooth of his gentile slave they are automatically freed. Continues with an ox that gores and the laws connected with it and the responsibility of the owner. Also the difference between a goring ox and one that had never gored before.

Chp. 21 verse 37: The chapter ends with the law of stealing an ox or a sheep and selling or killing it. Chp. 22 verses 1 - 8: Begins with the laws of a robber and when you are allowed and not allowed to kill him and his restitution. Continues with the laws of an animal that damages with it's feet or mouth, and the restitution. Next the laws of damage done by fire, and the laws of a watchman and his culpability.

Chp. 22 verses 9 - 21: Continues with laws of the paid watchman, borrower, and the renter. Next the laws of the man who seduces a virgin who has never been betrothed. The laws of a sorcerer and one who practices bestiality are put to death. One is prohibited from serving an idol as one would serve G-d in the Temple. One should not wrong or oppress a stranger since you were strangers in Egypt. You should not afflict any widow or orphan.

Chp. 22 verses 22 - 29: The punishment if you oppress the widow or the orphan. The prohibition of loaning money with interest. Returning a garment that you have taken for non payment of a debt, and the promise that Hashem will listen to the cries of the borrower. Not to curse a judge or a ruler. Tithing of your fields and your animals at their proper time and order.

Chp. 22 verse 30 Chp. 23 verses 1 - 5: Chapter ends with laws of an animal that was mauled and killed by a wild animal, it's carcass should be thrown to the dogs. Chp. 23 begins with the laws of testimony and judges hearing cases. They should not pervert justice whatever the outcome may be. Truth must prevail. If you find your enemies lost animal you must return it to him. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you lying down under a load that is too heavy for it, you are required to help him unload it.

Chp. 23 verses 6 - 16: Begins with not to pervert justice for the poor. To distance oneself from anything false, the law of double jeopardy. Not to take a bribe. Nor should one oppress the stranger. Six years one is to sow and gather his produce, but in the seventh year he must leave the land fallow. Anything that grows must be left for the poor and the beast of the field. One should distance himself from even mentioning the name of an idol. It then continues with the holidays; Passover, Shavuoth, and Succoth.

Chp. 23 verses 17 - 25: Continues with laws of the three festivals. One should not cook a kid in its mother's milk. Hashem then tells them that they will sin and He will send an angel to lead them. However, they must listen to his instruction since he will not pardon any transgression. Hashem will cut off their enemies, the seven nations of the land. They are warned again not to serve idols, and to totally destroy their alters. They are told to serve Hashem their G-d and that He would bless their bread and their water, and that He would remove sickness from their midst.

Chp. 23 verses 26 - 33 Chp. 24 verses 1 - 4: Hashem tells the people that He will make them victorious in their conquest of the land through miraculous means. And describes the boundaries that they would inherit and commanded them not to make treaties with the people of the land, for they would make them sin against Him.