Bostoner Torah Insights: Bostoner ‘Chassidus’ in Hebrew and English: Parshas Mishpatim – 1 Adar Alef 5784
Bostoner Torah Insights - Yerushalayim
Bostoner Torah Insights
Bostoner ‘Chassidus’ in English
Parshas Mishpatim – 1 Adar Alef 5784
Bostoner Rebbe shlit”a – Yerushalayim
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Commentators ask why the Receiving of the Torah and Aseres HaDibros in Parshas Yisro are followed by the specific laws given in Parshas Mishpatim. In Yisro we learned about how Yisro advised Moshe on how to select judges and divide the court system into various officers of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens, which formed the basis for judges and the Sanhedrin of Klal Yisroel.
‘From Tzion comes Torah’, this is the Sanhedrin which is located in the Lishkat HaGazit in the Beis HaMikdash. Perhaps this is why the Torah begins the ‘Mishpatim’ with Mitzvos between man and his fellow man, since they come before the court to decide what or who is correct and just.
In Yisro we read how the entire nation saw the voice and sounds at Har Sinai. What was the need to ‘see’ what is heard. The Shlah HaKodesh explains that the written Torah is not allowed to be recited orally, so the in order for the giving of the Torah to be in accordance with Halacha, those present needed to see the text of the Aseres HaDibros as it was recited, as if Hashem, as if it were possible, were reading from the text. Similarly, the Oral Torah was not originally permitted to be written.
Only because of the dire concern that the Oral Torah would be forgotten in exile and times of persecution, did Rebbe Yehudah HaNasi write down the Mishnah, based on the principle Es L’Asos L’Hashem Hafaru Torasecha עת לעשות לה' הפרו תורתך. Just as Pikuach Nefesh allows us to override the majority of (but not all) Torah laws to preserve the life of a Jew, in extreme circumstances our Sages decided to nullify a law of the Torah for the preservation of the Torah itself
Recently in the Daf Yomi cycle, we learned that the blessings of Birkat HaMazon after a meal as well as Birkas HaTorah before learning Torah have a higher status of D’Oraysa, ordained by Torah law, as opposed to other Brachos which are fulfillment of Rabbinic ordinance. If so, it would seem that Klal Yisroel should have recited a Bracha before receiving the Aseres HaDibros at Sinai.
At the end of Parshas Mishpatim we find the famous phrase of נעשה ונשמע Naaseh V’Nishma, “He took the Sefer HaBris and read it in the ears of the people and they said: Everything that Hashem has said we will do and we will obey” (Shemos 24:7). Even though this takes place in Parshas Mishpatim, Rashi (Shemos 24:1) reminds us, based on the Talmud (Shabbos 88a) that this section of Parshas Mishpatim is actually taking place on the 4th of Sivan, several days prior to Matan Torah.
In the Gemara (Brachos 40b), Binyamin the shepherd fulfilled the first blessing of Birkat HaMazon, the Mitzvah D’Oraysa with the statement, “Blessed is Hashem the Owner of this bread”. Bear in mind that before there were universal blessings and prayers formulated by the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah and later Sages, each person would formulate blessings and prayers on their own.
Today, we instructed not to deviate from the Bracha formulations that they have already been enacted. We might suggest that the statement recited in unison by Klal Yisroel, ‘Everything that Hashem has said we will do and we will obey’ was in fact a fulfillment of Birkas HaTorah.
May our firm commitment today of ‘we will do and we will obey’ merit us divine assistance in both the war effort and on the homefront to help Klal Yisroel through these challenging times.
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