Mishpatim Archives | Academy for Jewish Religion

9 02, 2026

Parashat Mishpatim – Shabbat Shekalim – 5786

Marisa Amith2026-02-09T13:46:34-05:00

A D’var Torah for Parashat Mishpatim – Shabbat Shekalim

By Rabbi Anat Katzir

Reading the laws presented in the parashah this week was an opening to struggle with some of the discomfort caused by what feels like a gap of values between my world and the biblical one. It is through grappling with the reality of ancient history, and with the input from generations of Rabbinic leadership that followed, that I can see how behind the laws there are similar values and shared truths that needed to be redefined and amended through time and space. It is a lesson in context and adaptation of values over eras and cultures, and also a struggle with finding ways to overcome the gaps between Jewish communities of different interpretations, when it comes to understanding communal responsibilities and sharing the burdens of sustaining a modern-day state while finding guidance in ancient law.

When working with b-mitzvah students, the question Read More >

Parashat Mishpatim – Shabbat Shekalim – 5786Marisa Amith2026-02-09T13:46:34-05:00

18 02, 2025

Parashat Mishpatim – 5785

Marisa Amith2025-02-20T14:34:44-05:00

Promises, Promises

A D’var Torah for Parashat Mishpatim

By Rabbi Greg Schindler (AJR ’09)

While last week’s Torah portion is so famous that they made a movie about it (something with Charlton Heston), this week’s parsha – Mishpatim or “Laws” – has a very different flavor. This week, we get – count ‘em – 53 different laws on a vast array of topics. They include the treatment of servants, betrothal of handmaidens, insults, injuries, theft, loans, false witnesses, bribery, return of lost animals, land usage, festivals and many more.

Then, after 80-something verses of laws, we get the following line

(Exod 23:18-20 ): https://www.sefaria.org/Exodus.23.18-20?lang=bi&aliyot=0–

“I am going to send an angel before you to protect you on the way, and to bring you to the place that I have designated.”

Wait…what?!

You’re sending an angel before us? Where did that come from? It’s like reading the U.S. Federal Tax Code and coming across a line from Harry Potter.

Now that it has our attention, the Read More >

Parashat Mishpatim – 5785Marisa Amith2025-02-20T14:34:44-05:00

6 02, 2024

Parashat Mishpatim 5784

Linda Ripps2024-02-06T14:26:11-05:00

“Na’aseh v’nishma (We will do and we will heed)”~ Shemot 24:7 Just Do It ~ The Nike slogan In my other life, I am a theater producer.

Parashat Mishpatim 5784Linda Ripps2024-02-06T14:26:11-05:00

13 02, 2023

Parashat Mishpatim 5783

Linda Ripps2023-05-03T12:09:35-04:00

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

Yearning for Divine Intimacy, and the Call of Ordinary Life
A D’var Torah for Parashat Mishpatim
By Dr. Yakir Englander

The weekly Torah portion – Parashat Mishpatim – opens with a long list of laws governing daily life. On the face of it, there is no hint of the previous portion’s numinous encounter between the People of Israel and the Divine at Mount Sinai. The dark cloud and the thunderous voices are gone, and instead we find Israel saddled with a tedious inventory of colorless rules.

And yet, as this portion unfolds, we learn of more intimate divine/human encounters – described now with a kind of holy pathos. The people respond, to each of the divine injunctions, na’aseh ve-nishma’ – “We will do, and we will hear!” Moses and Aaron, with the latter’s two sons and also seventy elders representing Read More >

Parashat Mishpatim 5783Linda Ripps2023-05-03T12:09:35-04:00

27 01, 2022

Parashat Mishpatim 5782

Linda Ripps2022-11-09T14:58:05-05:00

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

A D’var Torah For Parashat Mishpatim
By Rabbi Jeffrey Segelman

Parashat Mishpatim includes the mitzvot pertaining to one who is responsible for guarding something owned by another. Similarly, it speaks of the responsibility of one who borrows something from another (Exodus 22:9-14). Without going into detail, the Torah points to the difference in obligation depending upon whether the “shomeir,” the one who is watching the item, has been paid for his efforts or not. It also depends on the degree of reasonable concern and/or negligence that the person demonstrated. Obviously, these laws have great application in the lives of people who wish to live together in peace.

There may also be great spiritual significance to this idea. But in order to discuss it, let us first digress.

A few weeks ago, when we read the conclusion of Shirat HaYam, we listened as Moses and Read More >

Parashat Mishpatim 5782Linda Ripps2022-11-09T14:58:05-05:00

12 02, 2021

Parashat Mishpatim 5781

Rabbi Enid C. Lader2022-07-29T11:24:22-04:00

Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah

A D’var Torah for Parashat Mishpatim
By Rabbi Enid Lader (’10)

In planning for this D’var Torah, I was set to focus on “Na’aseh v’nishmah” – “we will do and we will listen/understand.” (Ex. 24:7) Our Torah portion is filled with so many mitzvot – 53 to be exact; 23 positive imperatives, and 30 prohibitions. Moses shares this list with the Israelites and they say, “Na’aseh v’nishmah.” What does that mean? We’ll do these things first, and ask questions later? Even if we do not understand, we will do – and in the process of doing, understanding will come?

Then, a little over two weeks ago, I received the following text from one of the high school teachers in my congregation’s religious school:

Good evening, Rabbi! I was just walking three of our high school students through Mishpatim when we got to Exodus 23:23. Read More >

Parashat Mishpatim 5781Rabbi Enid C. Lader2022-07-29T11:24:22-04:00

20 02, 2020

Parashat Mishpatim 5780

Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD2022-07-29T11:24:29-04:00

Knowing What We Don’t Know
A D’var Torah for Parashat Mishpatim
By Rabbi Jill Hammer

Parashat Mishpatim deals, among many other matters, with the laws of robbery. Exodus 22:1-2, which is part of the larger discussion of robbery, reads: “If one finds someone who comes through a tunnel [into one’s house], and one strikes them and they are killed, one is not liable for bloodguilt [murder]. But if the sun shone upon them, there is bloodguilt [it is murder if one kills them]…” When I was in rabbinical school, in one of my Talmud classes, we studied a section (sugya) of the Talmud known as “haba b’mahteret” or “one who comes through a tunnel.” (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 72a)—which comments on these verses. The sugya offers three possible interpretations of this verse, which invite us to contemplate how we judge others we fear.

The text considers the possibility that, as safe as we Read More >

Parashat Mishpatim 5780Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD2022-07-29T11:24:29-04:00

31 01, 2019

Parashat Mishpatim 5779

Rabbi Len Levin2019-01-31T12:18:25-05:00

We the People, in Covenant with God
A D’var Torah for Parashat Mishpatim
By Rabbi Len Levin

“And these are the rules that you shall set before them.” (Exodus 21:1)

Who are the them before whom God instructs Moses to set the rules in this week’s portion?

Rashi, following the Talmud (Gittin 88b), interprets this verse as teaching that the judicial rules are to be entrusted to the ordained Israelite judges, not to gentile courts or to Israelite lay persons. On this reading, them refers to the judges (playing on lifneihem to suggest lifnim [within]—a subset of the people).

But the context of this passage suggests a broader audience. This verse is a continuation of the speech beginning in Exodus 20:19: “The Lord said to Moses: Thus shall you say to the Israelites: You yourselves saw that I spoke to you from the very heavens.” On this contextual reading, the rules of Parashat Mishpatim are Read More >

Parashat Mishpatim 5779Rabbi Len Levin2019-01-31T12:18:25-05:00

8 02, 2018

Parashat Mishpatim, 5778

Cantor Sandy Horowitz2018-02-08T09:21:34-05:00

A D’var Torah for Mishpatim
by, Cantor Sandy Horowitz, ’14

Parashat Mishpatim contains over fifty laws covering a range of subjects, which are related to the Israelite people by God through Moses. Having just received the ten commandments in the previous Torah portion, now come the details.

The first law in Mishapatim states, “Should you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall work [for] six years, and in the seventh [year], he shall go out to freedom without charge” (Exodus 21:2). Slavery is certainly a hot topic for the newly freed Israelites. While not abolishing slavery, this and other related laws insert an insistence on humanity with regard to the treatment of others. This ethical backbone is reinforced as we read, twice in this portion alone, about the treatment of the stranger: “And you shall not mistreat a stranger, nor shall you oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Ex 22:20). “And you shall not oppress Read More >

Parashat Mishpatim, 5778Cantor Sandy Horowitz2018-02-08T09:21:34-05:00

22 02, 2017

Parashat Mishpatim

Rabbi Len Levin2017-02-22T17:36:46-05:00

From Sanctity to Social Justice: The Message of Mishpatim

By Len Levin

“And these are the judicial rules that you shall set before them.” (Exodus 21:1)

Last week, God’s majesty was revealed in thunder and smoke, proclaiming the cardinal rules that express universal human morality. The rabbis declared that they were broadcast in seventy languages (Midrash Tanhuma), and history corroborates that they have been disseminated to the ends of the earth.

This week, the focus shifts to the prosaic and the particular: What are the rules for a slave’s manumission after six years of labor? If my ox gores your ox, how much compensation is due? If you borrow my animal and it dies, who bears the loss?

Judaism is famously a religion with a great emphasis on law. The word halakhah (from the verb, to walk) could have been translated “the way” (the Jewish Tao, if you will), but it denotes the detailed prescription of the Read More >

Parashat MishpatimRabbi Len Levin2017-02-22T17:36:46-05:00

All shall unite to do God's will with an open heart.

All shall unite to do God's will with an open heart.

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