{"id":48682,"date":"2019-02-03T19:04:23","date_gmt":"2019-02-03T17:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=48682"},"modified":"2022-05-16T23:32:06","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T20:32:06","slug":"mishpatim-revelation-and-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/mishpatim-revelation-and-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Mishpatim: Revelation And Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[384,414,368,541],"acf":{"old_id":"48682","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36663,"related_cahpter":"1029","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"How to be like God: compassionate, just, merciful","content":"<p>There are routine and peak experiences in both our private lives and in the lives of a people.\u00a0Last week&#8217;s reading of Yitro dealt with the experience of standing at Sinai.\u00a0This week\u2019s reading, <em>Mishpatim<\/em>, ends with a reaffirmation of the Israelites\u2019 acceptance of the laws God promulgated through the prophet Moses, concluding with a reading of the \u201cbook of the covenant\u201d (Exodus 24: 7) in the ears of the people and their assent to its observance by announcing \u201cwe will do and we will hear\u201d or in Hebrew \u201c<em>na\u2019aseh v\u2019nishma<\/em>\u201d (Exodus 24:7). Moses, Aaron, Nadav and Abihu along with the seventy elders of Israel ascend Mount Sinai and have a vision; they \u201csaw the God of Israel and under his feet there was a likeness of a pavement of sapphire like the sky for purity\u201d (Exodus 24:10).\u00a0 Between these two revelations on mountaintops is a vast corpus of laws, <em>mishpatim<\/em>, from the Hebrew root <em>sh-p-t<\/em> which means \u201cto judge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Why are these laws, full of minutiae, juxtaposed between these revelatory pinnacles?\u00a0The position of <em>parshat Mishpatim<\/em> between chapters 19-20 and 24 of Exodus teaches us a powerful message about the significance of Jewish law.\u00a0It is the connective tissue between revelations, the sinew that makes the motion in linking one peak experience to the other both possible and meaningful.\u00a0Between the mountain summits, we are not without guidance on our daily hikes, as the law provides guidance to those concentrated moments of divine connection at revelation.<\/p>\n<p>When we remember \u201cnot to oppress a stranger for you know the soul of the stranger having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt\u201d (Exodus 23: 9) we know that working for the rights of immigrants will connect us to divine power.\u00a0If we make sure that our country has a justice system that does not \u201csubvert the rights of the poor\u201d (Exodus 23:6) we can understand the desires of God more completely.\u00a0 If we are mindful of the food we consume to be a \u201choly people\u201d (Exodus 22:30) so that we do not eat \u201cflesh torn by beasts in the field,\u201d (Exodus 22:30) we can access holiness.\u00a0If we make sure to return a neighbor\u2019s garment taken in pledge by nightfall so that he has something to protect them while they sleep, we are acting as imitators of God for we are told \u201cI am compassionate\u201d (Exodus 22:26).<\/p>\n<p>The laws exist to let us know what humans are able to, within our limits as mortals, about the character of God.\u00a0Both revelation and law tell us that if we are to understand God we must be compassionate to others whether that means compensating another for damage our ox has done (Exodus 21: 28-32) or not wronging or oppressing a stranger because of our historical memory of what it means that \u201cyou were strangers in the land of Egypt\u201d (Exodus 22: 20).<\/p>\n<p>Law and revelation are both means to the ultimate goal of being compassionate, just as God is. \u00a0<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":42529,"id":42529,"title":"","filename":"Mount_Moses.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Mount_Moses.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/sinai-is-everywhere\/mount_moses\/","alt":"","author":"50634","description":"","caption":"","name":"mount_moses","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":42528,"date":"2018-10-21 17:57:27","modified":"2022-05-18 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