Parashat Mishpatim: An Eye for an Eye

Parashat Mishpatim is full of various monetary and civil halachot. One of the more famous halachot is one that deals with altercations amongst two Jews; ( עין תחת עין (כא:כד, “An Eye for an Eye.” The Torah says if a person fights with a fellow Jew and knocks out his eye, meaning he blinds him, then we should take “an Eye for an Eye.” What does this mean? Does this mean we should blind the offender as a punishment for his actions? Who should blind him? The victim or the Jewish courts? Is this meant as revenge? I thought the Torah does not condone revenge...

Ironically, most people take this verse to mean that if I do something to damage you, I should be punished by having the same thing done to me. In other words, if I blind you, I should literally be blinded in return. In some extreme Arab countries, this is in fact the way they understand the verse. If you Google the phrase “an eye for an eye,” you will find some horrific stories of men being blinded for blinding others. Yet, Torah Shebeal Peh teaches us this is not what the Torah had in mind.  The Talmud explains this verse is not to be taken literally; it does not mean you take any physical retaliation, but rather the offender must pay monetary damages to the victim. The courts will have to determine the amount of money this will cost the victim in lost wages, medical expenses, etc. It is meant as restitution, not as revenge.

But there is one glaring question you are likely asking yourself:  If the Torah meant the offender must pay monetary restitution, why not just say that? Why use the phrase “An Eye for an Eye,” which creates the uncertainty of the Torah’s intent?

The Chazon Ishe zt”l explains that sometimes the Torah intends to teach us more about the morality that can be gleaned from a law, than from the actual law itself. In other words, the Torah here is trying to teach us something important about the morality of restitution. An example of this can be found in the Talmud, where a Jewish Beit Din which killed one person in 70 years  was considered a “deadly” court. So if a justice system is set in place and yet one execution in 70 years is considered a lot, then there must be something more to learn. The lesson is that we are supposed to learn something deeper, beyond the fact that there are death penalties for certain offenses. The deeper lesson is how precious one life is. Even the life of a murderer is precious, and so a court that executes more than one in seventy years is deadly. So too here, “an eye for an eye” is teaching us the lesson of damaging another individual. True, if you damage someone you must pay restitution, but the Torah uses the language “An Eye for an Eye” to teach a moral lesson about how serious it is to damage another person. The Torah, so to speak, uses an exaggerated language to help us understand just how serious it is to damage another person.

The apparent lesson to all of us is not to underestimate one’s capacity to damage another through our actions. This is true in a physical sense, but it also means being sensitive, and sometimes delicate, with the words we choose to use. Our words have the power to destroy and the power to build up. We must be mindful of our choice of words at all times. We must think before we speak.  It also means we have to be good role models; we must lead by example and use our words carefully and thoughtfully. “An Eye for an Eye” gets our attention; it sounds serious and real. Let us not forget that hurting another individual, whether it be physically, verbally or emotionally,  is not anything less than taking out their eye.

Parashat Yitro: The Experience of Kabbalat HaTorah

The essence of Judaism, the thing that makes us different, is Torah. The main event of this week’s parasha is the historic event of Hashem giving the Torah to the Jews at Har Sinai. This, perhaps, is the most important event of all time, as it signifies the purpose of the life of a Jew. Yet, if we look deeper, we will find there are multiple times and multiple ways that the Jews accept the Torah.

Let’s take a look.

The first, most famous mechanism of kabalat haTorah is נעשה ונשמע, we will do and then we will learn. In this week’s parasha the pasuk says,

,ויענו כל העם יחדו, ויאמרו כל אשר דבר ה׳ נעשה (יט:ח).  

meaning the entire Jewish people answered in unison that all Hashem tells us to do, we will do. This is reiterated again in Parashat Mishpatim (24:7) where the Torah says

ויאמרו כל אשר דבר ה׳ נעשה ונשמע

This means the Jews accepted the Torah; they accepted to do every mitzvah regardless of their level of understanding. They accepted that following in Hashem’s ways and doing mitzvoth should never be dependent on what we understand. We do it because Hashem said so. Once that is established, we are encouraged to spend our entire lifetime learning the reasons behind each mitzvah, but never should that impact our performance of them.

Nearly twenty pesukim later in the Parasha, we see a very different picture of what kabalat HaTorah means. The pasuk says, (19:17) that Moshe went out to the people… ויציצבו בתחתית ההר, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Rashi quotes the Talmud in Shabbat (88)

א''ר אבדימי בר חמא בר חסא, מלמד שכפה הקב''ה עליהם הר כגיגית, ואמר להם, אם אתם מקבלים התורה מוטב, ואם לאו שם תהא קבורתכם, the Torah is teaching us that Hashem lifted up the mountain above the heads of the Jews and said to them, if you accept the Torah it will be good for you, but if not, this will be the place you are buried.

What is going on here? First of all, is Hashem forcing the Torah upon us? Did we not just accepted it willingly? Also, don’t we have free will? Didn’t we already accept the Torah? Than why the need to accept it again?

I take from this that there must be something for us to learn, something to be added with these two acceptances of the Torah; one willingly and one by force.

On the one hand, נעשה ונמשע is an amazing level to be on. It is stating that we are so committed to Hashem that we will not let our intellect get in the way. We accept the Torah purely because we believe in Hashem. So what is the downside to this? Why the need for the mountain being lifted above our heads?

I share a few possibilities here:

1. The Baalei Hatosfot say the Jews said נעשה ונשמע before Matan Torah. But perhaps when the Jews would experience the awesomeness of Matan Torah, they would be scared and change their minds. So Hashem had to put a certain element of fear into us.
2. Maharal explains that Hashem felt we had to understand that without the Torah, שם תהא קבורתכם – there is no life without the Torah. With just נעשה ונשמע we run the risk of seeing Torah as some nice added element to life, but not something we cannot live without. That is why כפה עליהם, He had to sprinkle in some fear.
3. Rav Soloveitchik  explains the Jews  were prepared to accept the Torah in that generation, but there would be many challenges in future generations that might rock the belief and commitment of future Jews. This is why Hashem had to force us to accept it. That’s why it says ואם לאו, if you do not accept the Torah at some point, שם תהא קבורתכם over there in that generation will be your kevura.

Despite all of this, as an educator I know research tells us that forcing people into doing something is not an effective way to effectuate long term change in behavior. If I scare you to do something, it might work in the short term, but it will not have a long term effect. We do not have to go further than this topic of Matan Torah to see this reality. Only forty days after this episode, the Jews committed one of the worst sins of all time, with the worshipping of the Golden Calf. How could they? Forty days after receiving the Torah from Hashem himself? Yes, the kabalat haTorah here was incomplete; not perfectly effective.

Perhaps this is why we find another place in Tanach where the Jews accept the Torah again. At the very end of Megillat Esther, the pasuk says קיימו וקבלו, Chazal explain this to mean they re-accepted the Torah. But why? We already had accepted the Torah at Sinai? Twice? It must be that after the story of Purim, the Jews finally completed the incomplete acceptance of Torah from Sinai we just described. Why did this happen after the story of Purim? You will have to wait two months until Purim and then we will revisit this most important topic. Stay tuned...

Shabbat Shalom!

Parashat Beshalach: Why Did Hashem Bother Splitting the Sea?

Parashat Beshalach is known as Parashat Shira, the parasha with the special song the Jewish people sang after experiencing the splitting of the sea. This comes off the heels of two parshiyot where we watched the hand of G-d destroy Egypt with the ten Makot. One might now wonder, what was the point or the need for the splitting of the sea?

After the ten makot were complete, we were ready to leave Egypt; Hashem even gave us mitzvot to mark the beginning of the redemption. He gave us the mitzvah of  Brit Milah and Korban Pesach. He even gave us the mitzvah of tefillin, specifically as a zecher lyetzias mitzraim, a remembrance of leaving Egypt.  Then Beshalach comes and we are going out with another miracle: the splitting of the sea. Why did we need it? 

Rav Moshe Feinstein writes that the exodus was not complete until the splitting of the sea; somehow this was the completeness of yetziat mitzrayim. Similarly, from the Pesach Seder we are familiar with the four languages of redemption, one being וגאלתי, which Rabbeinu Bachya says refers to the splitting of the sea. Again we see the splitting of the sea as the end of the redemption. But we were already free? The slavery was over? Why did we need this?

Perhaps we can suggest the Egyptians were still alive and might chase us, so Hashem decided he needed one last way to kill them. But that can’t be the reason;  the only reason they chased us was because Hashem hardened Pharaoh's heart so he would chase after us. Moreover, even if the reason for the splitting of the sea is to destroy the Egyptians, so why not just kill them in Egypt? Why didn’t Hashem kill them as part of the last plague, the plague of the first born? Or better yet, perform a huge, miracle in Egypt and have them all sink into the earth?
Why does it have to happen at the sea?

Rabbi Eytan Feiner suggests  we see from Chazal that the splitting of the sea had a uniqueness that brought those who witnessed it to sing a shira. Even the lowly maid servant saw a revelation of Hashem’s shechina that was not seen  by all the other plagues.  The Talmud in Shabbat (132) quotes the opinion of Abba Shaul who explains the pasuk from this week’s parasha ואנוהו - we learned that we must emulate Hashem and act in his ways of mercy and kindness. But again, what did they see at the splitting of the sea that was so special for us to learn this lesson. 

To make this question even stronger, what does the first pasuk in the shira tell us about how miraculous Hashem was? סוס ורכבו רמה בים, “the horse with its rider, he threw into the sea.”
That is so miraculous? More than the ten plagues?

Rashi says the miracle was they were tied together and defied the laws of gravity. Normally, if you were on horse and went in the water you would fall off; the  miracle here was they didn’t, for they stuck together and Hashem shook them up and down from the top of the water to the bottom and back.

But still, was this so much more impressive than the makot?

Rav Yochanan Zweig in his sefer Shirat Hayam says we are not talking about the awesomeness of the miracle, rather the uniqueness is that here we saw Hashem’s involvement like never before. In previous plagues, Hashem manipulated things to show He was in control of the creatures of the world; the supreme omnipotent playing with forces of nature, yet you don’t see Him, as it is all done behind the scenes.
By the splitting of the sea, Hashem is changing the laws of nature by combining the horse and its rider. So what is keeping them together? It wasn’t nature keeping them together. It is as if Hashem is holding them together and taking them to the bottom and then to the top, shaking them up and down. Who is taking them up and down? It is Hashem Himself! The water couldn’t do that. There were no fish or alligators swimming here and keeping the horse and rider together! There were no acts of nature keeping them together! It was Hashem Himself!

The miracle of the splitting of the sea is Hashem saying to the Jewish people, “I am here, come watch so you can see Me like never before.” This was the special gilui shechinah! It was only through this new level of the relationship,  back united with Hashem, close to Him never like ever before, where the Jews could be considered fully redeemed!

Parashat Bo: Our Personal Exodus from Egypt

We now enter the parashiyot of יציאת מצרים, the exodus from Egypt. For generations, the exodus from Egypt has been the foundation our faith in Hashem - our emunah. Why and how is this so?

Parashat Bo concludes with the mitzvah of tefillin. והיה לאות על ידכה ולטוטפת בין עינך כי בחזק יד הוציאנו ה׳ ממצרים - “And it shall be a sign upon your arm, and an ornament between your eyes, for with a strong hand Hashem removed us from Egypt.” (Shemot 13:16).

The Ramban explains that Hashem created the world in a way that we all have free will: the choice to believe or not to believe. It is a confusing world, with many things that draw us away from Hashem and Torah. To counteract this force, Hashem performed the miracles of יציאת מצרים to demonstrate His existence, His creations, His knowledge of everything that goes on in the world, and his rulership over all creation. To that end, Hashem gave us mitzvot זכר ליציאת מצרים, to remember the exodus from Egypt. He gave us the mitzvah of Shabbat, Pesach, Tefillin and many others that the Torah specifically states are a remembrance of that exodus. The goal is that our performance of this miztvot will help strengthen our faith in Hashem.

My Rabbi, Rabbi Moshe Weinberger would often explain that when a person wants to grow in his Judaism, there is an evil inclination that tries to convince us that we are not worthy of serving Hashem. Afterall, we are mere mortals - how can we connect to the master of the universe? After the sins we might have committed, how could we ever change to become beloved in the eyes of our creator? The answer to this is

זכר ליציאת מצרים, remembering how Hashem took us out of Egypt. We must remember Jews had been on the 49th level of impurity, and they had a matter of weeks to raise themselves up to be worthy of receiving the Torah...AND THEY DID! The miracles of the exodus strengthened their faith in Hashem; it allowed them to re-prioritize their lives, to focus on religious growth. They understood this: No matter what they had done, they could always return to Hashem.

And so it appears to me that he mitzvah of Tefillin is teaching us two things:

1. As with all mitzvot, it is a physical act that draws us closer to Hashem. It is physical, but it is our way to connect to the spiritual. We should never underestimate how our physical exteriors impact our actions. When we put on tefillin, wear a kipa, or any other outwardly Jewish act, there is impact on how we connect to the Torah in the way Hashem intended.

2. We must remember that we can always grow; can always return to the ways of Hashem. Regardless of how we have acted in the past, we have the free will to change. The tefillin is placed on the weak hand to remind us that even when we feel incapable of growing, we must remember that every Jew has within him, the power to create his own exodus from Egypt.  We can all become great!

Parashat Va'era: Why was Pharaoh Punished?

While sitting at our Pesach Seder reading through the story of the ten plagues, we confront a difficult question: Why was Pharaoh punished for not letting the Jews go? After all, we find by numerous plagues that Hashem hardened the heart of Pharaoh, effectively removing his free will. So then why was he punished?

The Ramban suggests a novel idea; Pharaoh’s initial acts of killing Jewish babies was so bad that his ability to do teshuvah was removed. Without the ability to do teshuvah, he was judged and punished on his initial acts of killing the babies and in actuality he was NOT punished for anything he did after Hashem hardened his heart.

What does this mean? He was punished for his original actions?

Rabbi Andi Yudin once told me the following idea in the name of Rav Yisrael Salanter: when it comes to mizvot, we know there is a principle of לפום צערא עגרא. The more effort you put into a mitzvah, the more reward you shall receive. When you do a mitzvah that seems simple or easy, you are rewarded as if you did a challenging mitzvah. For example, at first davening every day with a minyan may seem challenging, but one who commits himself to it will get used to it, eventually it becoming second nature. Rav Yisroel Salanter states that you still get rewarded as if it was still hard for you to perform. Essentially, you earned the fact that it has become easy by doing it over and over.

The same is true about aveirot. In the beginning it is not so challenging to overcome a sin and correct your ways. But, as you get used to performing aveirot it becomes harder to stop doing them. So how does Hashem view us and choose to punish us? Since at the beginning it was easier to stop, I am punished for things as it were in the beginning, since I could have stopped them from reoccurring.

For Pharaoh, included in his end game was his beginning game. Since he committed terrible aveirot in the beginning, he was punished for his original aveirot; he could not be punished for his later actions which were done without free will.

There is a powerful message for all of us here. Some mitzvot are harder for us than others. The effort you make in the beginning allows you to continue to be rewarded later on, even if it gets easier to do that mitzvah. So Lefum Tzara Agra goes both ways. Pharaoh was punished at the end for what his actions were in the beginning, when he should have stopped, but he was not punished for his later actions after Hashem removed his free will.

Let us all remember that unlike Pharaoh, we have free will to choose good and to keep the Torah and Mitzvot. We will be rewarded for our efforts, even after mitzvot become easier to perform!