5784/2024

In Parashat Mishpatim, the Torah starts out by talking about

Dinei Mamonot, or civil laws, and then shifts focus and talks

about the greatness of Eretz Yisrael. Meanwhile, last week's

Parashah, Parashat Yitro, ended with the giving of the Luchot at

Har Sinai. Why does the Torah juxtapose the civil laws with

Matan Torah and Eretz Yisroel? Why do we have laws that

break the storyline of the drama of Har Sinai and then finish off

Parashat Mishpatim with the rest of Har Sinai?

At Matan Torah Hashem showed Himself through thunder and

clouds and the whole atmosphere reflected His greatness.

After Matan Torah, we don’t get the laws of connecting us with

Hashem, or anything about our Dinim with Hashem. We

instead find the Dinei Mamonot that are Bein Adam

LeChaveiro. Why is it that at the highest spiritual moment of

our existence as a nation we talk about how to interact with

each other?

The Ramban quotes a Midrash Rabbah that says that the entire

Torah stands on justice. If the people don’t have a justice

system they will become corrupt and cannot keep the Torah.

He adds that the only way a person can judge someone is by

knowing all the Torah. The Torah was given to us to connect to

Hashem and then immediately after that we need to connect to

our Chaverim. In order for a community to live any civil life,

they need to first set up laws. We recognized Hashem and then

immediately set up laws that are between us and others to be

able to live the best life and be an example for everyone else.

Just like how in a movie right before the good guy gets to the

place he needs to be or does the certain thing he needs to do,

the movie stops and goes to a different scene, so too the Torah

makes sure that right before this great moment, we need some

background and laws before advancing to the scene.

Later in the Parashah, the Torah talks about the greatness and

beauty of Eretz Yisrael. Shouldn’t this be discussed before the

Parashah about laws, so it can be an incentive for us to keep

them? However, it’s the opposite. In return for keeping

Hashem’s mitzvot we get to inherit the land of Israel. It can be

seen as a reward or just simply as the outcome of completing

His mitzvot. Another reason for this being after the laws is to

keep the nation on the high they were on right then after

receiving the Mitzvot, the largest amount of Mitzvot they were

given at once since they left Egypt, 51. Hashem wanted them to

think about going into the land of Israel and thinking about the

Mitzvot as one big great thing-which it actually is. We need to

look at all of the Mitzvot given to us as the greatest things a Jew

can accomplish and yearn to go back to Eretz Yisrael

immediately so we can receive the greatest amount of Shechina