Ziv: Parashat Mishpatim 2


Each week, Gad Barnea or Sister Agnès de la Croix (from the Community of the Beatitudes) proposes a reflection on the portion of the Pentateuch that is read in the synagogue (parashat hashavua). This week the portion is from Exodus 21:1-24:18 with the haftarah (additional reading) from Jeremiah 34:8-34:22; 33:25-33:26. They call their reflection “ziv” – a ray of light.

ziv mishpatim2

You shall not go up by steps to my altar

Last week’s parasha - Jethro - together with this week’s parasha make a pair where the latter serves as a commentary on the former. In the previous parasha, the Hebrew people received the Ten Commandments and now a set of examples is given to them so that they might see how these commandments can be applied to their daily life; therefore, this parasha contains a long list of laws. The link between the parashas passes through some brief rules regarding the construction of an altar to God, which seem out of place in their immediate context: “If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it. And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it” (Exodus 20:25–26). The rules for constructing altars properly belong in next week’s parasha (Ex 25) and the question therefore arises: what are these rules doing here?

Rashi answers: “why was the section dealing with laws juxtaposed to the section dealing with the altar? To tell you that you shall place the Sanhedrin adjacent to the altar”. Indeed, the answer is that all the rules given to Moses, which will be applied to the people by the elders of Israel - the Sanhedrin - are to be done with a view to the altar, to the worship of God, before whom the Sanhedrin is accountable for its actions. The altar itself is said to be “an altar of earth” (Exodus 20:24) with natural (unhewn) stones and on a natural incline (not steps) leading up to the altar. The image created here is that the altar is in fact a small mountain and indeed, according to the Ramban, the main role of the sanctuary, and especially its altar, is to carry mount Sinai forever with the children of Israel - even the altar in Ezekiel’s vision is called “HarEl” (mountain of God, cf. Ezek 43:15).

The list of rules covers laws of the Hebrew and Canaanite slaves, physical harm, sexual immorality and ethics. The Hebrew slave for example, is a man who according to Rashi has been “caught in his thievery” and who did not have money to pay back what he had stolen. These rules are given with one main objective: to repair the lives of those who had fallen into difficulty or crime. The thief or the extremely-poor are given a structure in which to work, gain possessions, gain a family and - at the end of their service, which can come at the end of the sixth year, the year of jubilee or the death of the High-Priest, leave with a dignified social status and a strong foundation. They certainly have to work hard for this - it is not simply given to them - but this is precisely what gives them dignity when they return to free-society. Just as the altar serves as a place of propitiation where God is asked to repair the children of Israel and not judge them, so the Sanhedrin is tasked with applying laws that aim at repairing those who are weak. Shabbat Shalom.

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