In Parshas Mishpatim, the narrative of Matan Torah continues. However, unlike the “fire and lights” Revelation at Sinai of Parshas Yisro, Mishpatim presents us with many mitzvos which teach us how to build a society.
In the parsha, we are presented with a wide-ranging body of mitzvos that translate the revelation at Sinai into daily life, governing civil law, interpersonal responsibility, and moral sensitivity. The parsha outlines laws that: address damages, loans, treatment of the vulnerable, honesty in judgment, prohibition against oppressing a convert, the obligation to protect widows and orphans, returning a lost or overburdened animal even to one’s enemy, and the ban on bribery and false testimony. It also addresses Shabbos and Shemittah observance, respect for judges and leaders, and the prohibition of causing harm through speech or action.
Hence, it is accurate to say that the parsha teaches us that holiness is expressed not only in ritual, but in the ethical structure of a just society. The myriad laws - with their common theme of honesty, integrity, kindness and compassion - underscore the Torah’s demand for social responsibility in every sphere of Jewish life.
In the middle of the parsha, the Torah warns us against mistreatment of a widow or orphan. The pasukim tell us: תְעַנּֽוּן לֹ֥א וְיָת֖וֹם כָּל־אַלְמָנָ֥ה - any widow or orphan you shall not oppress. Rashi notes: This is the law for every person, for it is forbidden to oppress anyone else! However, the Torah singles out these individuals because it is more common for others to take advantage of them. צַֽעֲקָתֽוֹ אֶשְׁמַ֖ע עַמֹ֥שָׁ אֵלַ֔י יִצְעַק֙ קעֹ֤צָאִם־ כִּ֣י אֹת֑וֹ תְעַנֵּה עַנֵּ֥האִם־ - If you will surely oppress him, for if he will surely cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry (Shemos 22:21-21).
It is interesting to note that in this pasuk, there are three sets of double leshonos: תְעַנֵּה עַנֵּ֥ה, if you will surely oppress; יִצְעַק קעֹ֤צָ, he will surely cry out; אֶשְׁמַ֖ע עַמֹ֥שָׁ, I will surely hear him. Could the Torah not have conveyed the same lesson using each verb only once? What do we learn from the doubling of each of these verbs?
The Kli Yakar (to Shemos 22:22) asks this question and answers beautifully (his lashon is so beautiful and moving I include it here in the original for those who are proficient in lashon ha’kodesh. The English translation is below):
ובדרך ,אשמע שמוע ,יצעק צעוק ,תענה ענה הכפל ומהו ליה מבעי אותם .אותו תענה ענה אם לאל ואין וכלות רואות עיניה אלמנה ואמו ,לבד היתום את מענה אדם שלפעמים לומר נוכל הפשט ומענישו לשניהם שומע ה"והקב צועקים ושניהם מעונין שניהם מהם אחד ענוי י"וע ,בנה את להציל אם יתומים אבי ה"שהקב מאחר לומר נוכל הרמז צד ועל .אלמנה ואשתו יתומים בניהם שיהיו ,בכפל והלא !יתומים אבי שהוא ,אותו גם תענה אז ענה אם אמר לכך ,כביכול ”צר לו צרתם בכל“ ודאי כן צעקת מקבל הרחמן ה"והקב למטה צועק והיתום למעלה עליו מקטרגת הדין מדת ,צועקים שניהם שניהם
“If you afflict him” - the verse should have said ‘them’, why, then, does it use the singular? And why the repetition: ‘afflict, you shall afflict’; ‘cry, he shall cry’; ‘hear, I shall hear’?
On the level of simple meaning, we may explain that at times a person afflicts only the orphan himself, yet his mother - the widow - witnesses it with her own eyes, her strength failing her, unable to save her child. Through the suffering of one, both are afflicted; both cry out, and the Holy One, blessed be He, hears the cry of both. Therefore the punishment is doubled: that the offender’s children become orphans and his wife a widow (v.23).
On the level of allusion, we may say that since the Holy One, blessed be He, is called the Father of orphans, it follows that in all their suffering, He Himself is distressed, as it were. Therefore the verse says, “If you afflict—then you afflict Him as well,” meaning the Father of the orphan. For both are crying out: the Attribute of Justice accuses him (the oppressor) above, while the orphan cries below, and the Merciful One, blessed be He, accepts the cry of both (the cry of the Shechina, and the cry of the oppressed).
This is a powerful, awesome and important teaching. On the simple level, when the child is afflicted and cries out, his mother sees, and unable to help or save him, she too cries out. And HKB”H, in His mercy, hears the cries of both of them. On the deeper level, when the oppressed cries out in their suffering, the Shechina cries too, and the Almighty hears the cries of ‘both’ of them.
Rav Yaakov Bender presents a different reason for the double lashon. He writes that during one of his father’s final shmuessen, he addressed why this pasuk doubles the terms three times. “He shared a thought, which I later saw in the name of the Kotzker Rebbe, that the pain of widows and orphans is twofold. They are constantly in pain, and when they are treated cruelly, this reawakens the deep wounds they carry, making the anguish that much more profound. ‘If only I had a husband, you would not speak to me this way,’ the almanah thinks, and so the pain is double.
“My father compared this to a person who has an open wound. If they receive a blow directly on that wound, the pain is compounded, is that much greater, because they are already hurting. This is what happens when an almanah or yasom is oppressed, and it is true for others in pain as well (emphasis added)” (Rav Yaakov Bender on Chumash, Artscroll Mesorah, p.153).
How careful, thoughtful, sensitive and caring we must strive to be to the pain of those already hurting, and to anyone else around us. To cause pain to another is a grievous transgression. Just as we would never want to be on the receiving end, we must strive mightily at all times to ensure we are not, G-d forbid, on the giving end.
For as Rabbi Akiva teaches us “love for your fellow what you love for yourself - this is a great principle in Torah” (Vayikra 19:18 with Rashi).
שלום ושבת טוב חודש בברכת
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