Mishpatim

Our Sidra begins with the words, “And these are the judgments which you shall set before them,” and the last phrase of this sentence has troubled many commentators. What is the precise meaning of the expression “set before them?” Several different answers...

Mishpatim, the name of this week’s Torah reading, means “judgments.” Our Rabbis explain that this term refers to those commandments that can be comprehended by human logic, i.e., the Torah’s laws for business practices, family relations, and communication...

During lunch break, an exciting game of baseball was going on in the field. Heshy’s team was up at bat and the score was close. But Ari didn’t join the game. He had gotten up late that morning; he rushed through breakfast so that he wouldn’t miss the bus;...

Adapted fromLikkutei Sichos, Vol. III, p. 896ff; Vol. XVI, p. 242ff;Sefer HaSichos 5749, p. 243ff. When the World Stood Still When G-d gave the Torah, “There was thunder and lightning, and a heavy cloud on the mountain…. Mount Sinai was all asmoke… the en...

Three Interpretations;Three Categories of Mitzvos On the verse:Shmos 21:1. “These are the judgments which you shall place before them,” our Sages and Rabbis offer several interpretations of the Hebrew לפניהם , translated as “before them.” a) Judgments mus...

At Sinai, the people “saw what is [usually] heard and heard what is [usually] seen.” The spiritual and the G‑dly, intangibles that can’t be seen and can be appreciated only through hearing – was able to be “seen,” accepted by the Jewish people with the ce...

Throughout our nation’s spiritual history, we find scholars who were masters of the Talmud and the Jewish legal tradition, yet wrote little, if anything, about ethics or philosophy and were not overly involved in our mystical tradition. Conversely, there ...

The contraction that manifests itself in Parshat Mishpatim exists in the nature of the world as well. In our lives, the most profound and uplifting things are found precisely in the mundane details of the daily routine.

The Torah begins describing the preparations for the Giving of the Torah in Parshas Yisro. The next Torah reading, Parshas Mishpatim, commences with the enumeration of the Torah’s civil laws. Afterwards, the Torah seemingly returns to a description of the...