Parshat Mishpatim
Although the 12th perek of Shemot is regarded as the beginning of the “real” Torah, i.e., the mitzvah section of the Torah (see Rashi’s first comment in Sefer Bereishit), it is this parsha of Mishpatim that truly begins the detailed litany of the taryag (613) mitzvot charged to us at Har Sinai. On most years, this parsha coincides with Shabbat Shekalim, one of the four pre-Pesach shabbatot, upon which a distinctive haftarah that connects to the specific maftir is read. However, as this year is a leap year and “delays” Pesach for one month, we do not read Parshat Shekalim on this Shabbat. Rather, the haftarah we read is a selection that connects us directly to parshat hashavua and is taken from the 34th perek of Sefer Yirmiyahu.
Naturally, it is difficult to find a prophetic section that would connect to the myriad laws and mitzvot found in the parsha. Instead, the rabbis chose to focus upon the opening of the parasha: the laws of an eved Ivri, an Israelite servant, which, as Rav Yehuda Shaviv, z”l pointed out, may have well been regarded by Chazal as the beginning of the “bein adam lachavero” (interpersonal) mitzvot as well as the central mitzvah of our parsha. For this reason our rabbis chose to highlight this mitzvah by establishing the reading of this haftarah. Upon closer observation, we may realize that the haftarah reading does not speak of slavery but rather of the release from slavery.
In the years preceding Churban Bayit Rishon, the nation had become lax in their Torah observance. In this haftarah, Yirmiyahu admonishes the people for their failure to release the Israelite servant as our parsha demands. The last king of Yehuda, Tzidkiyahu, listened to Yirmiyahu’s chastisements and convinced the people to free their Hebrew servants after seven years of service. After agreeing to do, even solemnizing that agreement through a special brit, the people freed their slaves, but soon after enslaved them once more.
Through this haftarah we realize that the parsha too deals with this very topic: not the enslavement of the servant but his release! How beautifully Rav Shaviv now explains the pesukim in the haftarah (34:13-14) where the navi Yirmiyahu states that upon releasing Bnei Yisrael from the Egyptian enslavement, Hashem sealed a covenant, a brit, with the people, commanding the nation to release their slaves. And yet, Rav Shaviv asks, to what covenant is the navi referring? We read of no such covenant! Rather, he suggests, Yirmiyahu was speaking of Brit Sinai—the covenant to which Israel responded “Na’aseh V’nishma,” the response we read in our parsha and which, according to the Ramban, took place after the laws of Mishpatim were given, after we were charged with freeing our servants.
How well Chazal understood the importance of freedom! Not simply as a humanitarian need but as a spiritual necessity; not a freedom from but a freedom for. In effect, when the Jews of Yirmiyahu’s time turned their backs on this “first” post-Sinaitic mitzvah, they also turned their backs on the national proclamation of “Na’aseh V’nishma,” a proclamation that, through the word “na’aseh,” acknowledges Hashem as the universal King Who must be obeyed, and through the expression “v’nishma,” we recognize God as our “Father” to whom we thirst to embrace and please.
These simple words express what Jews have said throughout all generations: that God is both “Malkeinu,” our King Whom we must obey, and “Avinu,” our Heavenly Father Whom we love and to Whom we yearn to draw close.
Rabbi Neil Winkler is the rabbi emeritus of the Young Israel Fort Lee and now lives in Israel.
