Covenant of Emancipation by Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz Parshat Mishpatim 5778

[Music] that's again one welcome my friend Lauren Lewis back and again it's wonderful to see see you and we all know us all of us are praying that you should continue to have a real reform i'ma and I don't know if I want you to ride your motorcycle again but whatever I have whatever equivalent activity would be safe and and building so today we're beginning a big parsha that has many many laws in it and we're connected we can connect to have Tory to the park as we normally do remember what happened last week of course was the big event of montant hora and where the partial last weekend's Moshe is on our scene I and for 40 days he's receiving the Torah and all of these laws were given to Moshe while he is in our scene I before the sin of the golden calf I see you have to remember when you read the Torah these laws are not being communicated to the Jewish people yet because this is not why you divert Hashem emotional a more Hashem is speaking to Moshe to tell been a thrill Hashem is speaking to Moshe while he is on Mount Sinai for those forty days in fact when you read the comment you always have to differentiate between when I am speaking to Moshe when his Moshe speaking have been a thrill that does not occur at the same time if I gather one stuff like this Barrios right now but let me point out the claim that Casals say that Moshe Rabbeinu received the whole Torah on her Sina like turkey opposes motion Keeble Torah mici night that sentence has to be understood because the way it is commonly understood it makes no sense because Matt's on Torah is right in the middle or towards the very beginning of after they left with right now much of the Torah occurs after the event of Monsanto the story of Corral the story of the spies now if you say I'll show you gave that to motion to see night that means currently reading from a script' that means Hashem tells correct like and not a commotion so start ok go rock according to the script you're supposed to stay on this line and the ground is going to open up so it's obvious that's the narrative portions of the Torah were not written down until after they took place now yes LPFM I am told Moshe what to write that's not the issue but it was not given at rc9 so at a minimum when we say Moshe received the Torah at Sinai we mean he was given the 613 mitzvot another it's Torah does not mean the five books of Moses Torah refers to the 613 mitzvot that are contained in the five books of Moses but even that is not a full statement because after all if you read the Torah we see throughout the whole Torah mitzvahs are given at different times and at different places throughout the 40 years so for example after another vanity you die and one reason is because they drank wine there is a command not to drink wine many many mitzvahs are given in response to situations pests are SHANY which is almost a year later there are too many people and Moshe has to ask Hashem so mitzvot are given throughout the 40 years if you were to take a snapshot of the Jewish people in any given year of the desert until the very end there were various Commandments they didn't ask so what is the claim that Hashem gave the mitzvot that scene I so the rottenness writes a very very important basic idea that you have to differentiate between when did Moshe get the mitzvahs and when was Moshe authorized to communicate them to us Moshe got all of the mitzvahs during the 40 days he was in har see night but he was not yet authorized to tell it to us until various occasions arouse now why that's so you would have to analyze every individual Mitzvah for that particular reason but that is the significance of the ubiquitous sentence via da bear Hashem l Moshe l'amour which in English is translated and God spoke to Moshe saying so the word saying is superfluous really but the present he says no lame or is very important Hashem is speaking to Moshe lame or authorizing him to tell this to been a thrill that is the green light meaning Moshe got it at Sinai we get it on various occasions throughout the 40 years we did not have a hole safer Torah till the very day of Moshe Robinho's death we did not have all of the 613 mitzvot until more or less the very end of Moshe a famous life so Moshe keepeth or Mussina is when he got it not when we got it now this explains the cousin that says just to digress for a moment there are four situations in the Torah where Moshe Rabbeinu did not know what the halacha was and he had to consult with the Almighty as to what was the halacha the four cases are number one pest of shaney the people who were table a impure and unable to bring the carbon Pesa Moshe didn't know what to do he asks God God says a month later they can bring a make up offering if they are far away which was not the case in the desert or they are ritually tongue a pensive Cheney is number one number two mikoshi a shade sin the fellow that was gathering wood on Shabbos Moshe did not know what the punishment for the offense was he has to ask God and God says in his stoning number three it's also like punishment issue the McDowell the person who blasphemes the name of God once again they didn't know what the promotion didn't know what the punishment was he asked so Shem Hashem tells him and number four is at the very end of the 40 years when the daughters of Salah flood their father had died actually according to some shock on him he was the mikoshi he was together of the would die there were no sons and the question was when their daughters have a right to inherit because basically it was so loveless brothers who were claiming to be heirs if there are no sons the daughters claim we ought to be heir and Moshe didn't know he asks a Shem and Hashem gives him the hahaha that daughters indeed do inherit when there are no sons now in all four of these cases Moshe didn't know the law and the anti-fashion tell another question is if you really accept the idea that Moshe was given all the missus and icy night then whatever came up later he was already given that commandment and rc9 what is it that he didn't know now you might learn and there's some addresses say this that Moshe was of course given those laws but he had forgotten them for various reasons or some caused them to forget either because it's various times mo she got angry or as Shem wanted the micellar to be rediscovered through the merit of righteous women right that's one interpretation but the fuzziness says radically different interpretation which makes a lot of sense Moshe knew the answer to every single question but he was not yet given the authorization to reveal it to Bnei throughout so motor of beggar's dilemma is exactly this what if you're sitting in a business dilemma what if you're sitting on inside information that could be very very detrimental or very important to somebody but you're not supposed to say and that was moshus dilemma what Moshe Rabbeinu didn't know was not ignorance of the law but it was not knowing do I have permission he asks a Shem Hashem gives him a green light this is actually a very very clear understanding because if you read the Torah it's very pleasant that the nostril are getting mitzvahs at different times because of different events it didn't all come from our Sina but the Mishpatim were in fact communicated on her scene I promotion it's open a Israel as soon as he comes down that's that's that is that is an excellent question and the assumption has to you have to know but I can only you can only answer it by giving hundreds of answers we need to say B'nai Israel needed certain mitzvahs at certain times they didn't need all the mitzvahs all the time and there were certain occasions in which there Seamus required that they get miss us at certain times for example there are bad points out a lot of the mistress in the book of devar him are only relevant when you're coming to Eretz Israel so they given only only there and and alike so there's another interesting measures that says the following the metrics points out that Moshe got the bulk of the Torah at Mount Sinai during the day but the Mishpatim he got at night these laws wish for Tim he got at night it says by bulk air he got Torah ruble I long he got the Mishpatim and the question is what exactly because ma she didn't sleep for those forty days and forty nights the question is well what is the significance of which puts him at night so the truce over food are you sure explains that Mishpatim portrays a very scary world you know in one hand we had you see us with Ryan the greatness of God the mercy of God the love of God from B'nai Israel you leave mizrahim you have a sense of confidence a sense of strength a sense that God is with you and God will protect you against anyone that tries to hurt you but then I read mr. Putin and Mishpatim is one had a lawyers paradise but maybe a client's nightmare oxen are going and killing and slaves and and then things are happening and there are burns and people lose eyes and people lose teeth and and a lot of rich for Tim is about accidents and tragedies and destruction and how do we adjudicate so in a sense it seems like a world where everything is falling apart all of the nightmares are happening there is death and illness and destruction mmm symbolically Moshe got that at night because night is always a symbol for concealment Hess step on him when God's presence is not readily perceptible and the lesson is that even within that darkness there is the guiding hand of Hashem that tells us how to navigate how to deal with it how to reconstruct how to rebuild and that's an important lesson in many many ways you know even from a secular perspective law is a guidepost through turbulence fusion by creating a structure that even when bad things happen in society there are ways to try to make it better and certainly when those laws are divine laws and not just social constructs this is conducive to try to create a greater amount of Shalom in the world but nevertheless it's connected tonight because the initial events seem to say that God is letting things go in unpredictable in unpredictable ways now the haftorah is from the number yume o yume o we've already looked at the right the three so-called big profits don't go big I mean all the BM are big you know the idea that there are twelve minor prophets and three major prophets is a total misnomer I mean every single movie is great and holy I don't know it's a Christian sure there's certainly not yeah it's absolutely not a Jewish term so the word Minor Prophets makes no sense at all but the only significance of that designation is simply the size of their books so we call the major prophets are the ones that are big books many many chapters and they are of course you show your head scale and your Bo and the so-called minor prophets were something I shouldn't even use the term but they refer to the tre aside the twelve the VM whose books are very small and therefore they were combined in a single work called tre asar which is just Aramaic for for twelve but we spoken before about the fact that you know when you learn the big prophetic books you know there are very very difficult books because there's not so much of a storyline they are poetic highly poetic and the language is sometimes obscure but again it's important to know that this yo-yo is much earlier than the other two prophets yo-yo was a prophet before the ten tribes were exiled meaning to say more than a hundred years before the destruction of the base of McNish so he is much much earlier you're me oh and you scale however our Maj contemporaries the difference is your mio was a prophet in the Land of Israel and he was there at the very time of the Corbin based on Macduff yes yes Cal somewhat uniquely because he's the only prophet who had this prophecy outside of the Land of Israel was exiled to Babylon eleven years before the Corbin again if you recall Babylon has conquered Eretz Israel a number of years before the destruction and the lemon years before the destruction before the destruction the aristocracy and the learning classes were exiled to Bevelle and the de la tourette the impoverished ignorant classes remained in Eretz Israel yes Cesco went with the aristocracy yo-yo stays in urges realm so in a sense they're both simultaneously prophesying about the Corbin base of Mick - yes ESCO was not an eyewitness to the Corbin yo-yo was and of course the book of April is Rubio's eyewitness testimony to the destruction of the base of McNish so the have Tyrel that we have this for purchase Mishpatim is a Parekh alam adalat of the book of memmio and the connection on one hand to the parsha is fairly obvious but the obvious connection although it is an obvious connection would seem to be a little bit superficial and therefore I want to show that there's perhaps a deeper connection than would be a parent and that is the following Mishpatim is a potpourri of many many many different laws many different was in fact learning which part it was Rocky's Parrish is actually a very excellent introduction to Moustakas bava kamma and government seal that government SIA which has many many different laws about damages about Watchmen of property etc all of this is purchased respect him so you literally with wrapping Rashi brings so much of the Gomorrah so much of the Michelle to etc it's that gave very very excellent introduction I know once people are Gemara they stop learning from it unfortunately but never less it's a very worthwhile lien but the very first law in parts of Latin is about the event every the Jewish life not the captive of war the you and the non-jewish life but inevitably how does it you become a slave how did you become servants so there's actually two different ways that a Jew can become a servants one is if he stole and he does not have the resources to make restitution for his theft so he could be sold into a type of servitude for a limited term of up to six years and through his work he would pay back the retina he would pay back the theft that is called a mejor based in a Jew that is sold into slavery and form of slavery by operation of the court again let me emphasize this is only for sex this is not a debtors for prison or a debtors servitude if I borrow money and I didn't pay I am not sold into slavery just oh the money okay this is not referring to all debts this is specifically for Samson now in addition a person could voluntarily sell himself into a type of servitude in exchange for room and board if a person has extreme poverty is unable to take care of himself and the light now the common denominator is both the mejor Basin and the McCoy ASIMO or the Mahatma the one who sells himself the Torah says there is a limited term of service the service can normally not exceed six years and the seventh year the slave goes free now let me emphasize this has nothing to do with shmita it is six years my time that he sold meaning even if she meat is in the middle shemitah does not free the event the only thing that does free in heaven even in the middle of the six years is the occurrence of the jubilee year the Yeovil year will free him and the life now then the Gomorrah the the Commish goes on and says what at what if after those six years the slave desires the being supported by the master he likes what he's doing so there is a procedures a very strange procedure where his ear is pierced and then rubbish literally says he works forever but because I'll understand forever means until Yeovil so yoga could be 50 years or yoga can be the next day once y'all go clubs there is no way he is allowed to remain well initially it would be from the sales price meaning meanings the owner the in other words the basic idea would be that when the Evan is sold on a slave market so the proceeds of sale I replied to to to to restitution now if it's a little complicated because sometimes let's imagine the seventh is greater I must say somebody stole a hundred thousand dollars and spent it doesn't have the money to pay it back on the slave market even even from a six year basis let's say somebody pays only twenty thousand dollars so the twenty thousand dollars will go to the victim of the theft but there's still an $80,000 shortfall so how does the victim of the theft recoup the eighty thousand dollars that's still owing so in truth my statement earlier that inevitably cannot work for more than six years unless his ears pierced that only applies if the theft was paid off it was not paid up he can actually be resold for successive three six and six year terms now that's a little awkward because there's no apparent provision for partial I mean let's imagine you know he doesn't need six years to pay off let's imagine that a just an extra year would pay it off so apparently it's all or nothing and anything in excess of the proceeds if that's go to the Evan himself the evidence keeps the proceeds just as one who sold himself might might have that is what I get no not not the only way you have to the captive warriors is the most common but indeed a non-jewish slave can sell himself or if a non-jewish slave has been a slave by virtue of the non-jews you can buy a non-jewish slave from a non-jewish slave owner so there are different ways now what is the significance of piercing the air I want to mention it now because it will come up I think as a very important part of the haftorah so Rashi brings from the glory and bava kamma the idea that in a sense we are rebuking the slave for wanting to be a slave because the ear the ear that heard on Mount Sinai I am Hashem your God you are my slaves you are not supposed to be slaves to slaves and then you want to be a slave you know apparently your ear is not processing what you're supposed to be hearing so the ear gets hit a little bit so that's an important idea that in a sense the Evan who wants to stick around that is a spiritual discernment that is a lack now in truth the idea that we call them every day every a slave might be somewhat of a misnomer it's really what would be called an indentured servants in fact cuz I'll say he who buys a Jewish person as a slave has really bought a master for himself because if there's only one pillow you got to give it to the effort you know yeah it really ever better that you even a treat treat yourself but ok now the haftorah has a very very obvious connection your meal is prophesying a few years before the bun and there were Jews who were very poor and they sold themselves into slavery and some of the masters refused to relinquish control after six years or it was even worse they relinquished can but then somehow we're not really clear with the process was reclaim them as slaves and your mio says because of this God will punish you severely and that you will become enslaved by the Babylonians etc so the simplest most obvious connection well it obviously is because your Bo connects this to the Corbin base on mikdash that will be coming that will be coming so the obvious connection is that the first Mitzvah and Mishpatim is about the freedom of giving the slave freedom after secures and yummier gives moosa and gives toka God gives rebuke about people not following this a lot but if that would be the only connection involved that would be a little arbitrary because the of ideological II saying well the Torah has a connection to something in the parsha and that's enough even though it's not connected to most of what the parsha is talking about another aspect to keep in mind is the following the idea that the prophets are concerned with justice and interpersonal relationships is of course a very obvious phenomenon that that we know very well in fact the reform movements used to term itself prophetic Judaism and why do they call themselves prophetic Jews because they say you know the prophets didn't care about the ritual the prophets in fact criticized ritual the prophets often say I don't want your core Bono's I don't want your prayers I don't want your fast days if you're not moral to other people if you don't treat the widow and the orphan and the powerless with kindness and compassion so the reform movement which at least in its earlier stages now they're a bit more traditional but in the earlier stages they really wanted to get rid of all ritual parts of Judaism they emphasized taken all of them fixing of the world social justice so they like to say we represent prophetic Judaism rather than priestly Judaism which was fixated with ritual and the light so we do know that the prophets talked about social justice all the time but what's interest and therefore you might say well for a Navi to condemn slavery and oppression and exploitation that's consistent with any general theme in the prophets but the problem is you're me ah who himself is not one of those prophets that talks a lot about social justice that is very very interesting that if you look at the book of your Meo as a whole talking about this particular aspect of interpersonal behavior is not the common of area he talks about Yeshayahu Isaiah talks about it quite a lot Hashem doesn't want insincere urbanos even yes SQL in Babylonia talks about oppressing the widow and the orphan yirme'yahu indeed I wouldn't meet the definition of prophetic Judaism under the reform movement because you're me oh it talks about the sin of idolatry as a betrayal of God and he uses the image of the harlots very very often the prostitute the unfaithful wife he talks about I'll go to Zara he talks about desecration of Shabbos yummy yo is not a big social justice prophet you sure you always Mitra is our Moses I'd almost and is the most quoted prophet in the American political system every politician likes to quote amos for whatever whatever reason let justice roll like water you know Martin Luther King used to quote that first quite a lot and the one so it's interesting why hear me oh all of a sudden does talk about peanuts a little better now why there's a difference I mean certainly we're not gonna make the Klan your Bo is indifferent to social injustice thank you be always only been or don't have a loan not be none of them a mahkum that's been unfair that's certainly not true but some of the foursome suggests that history play plays a role here when you shallow was giving prophecy the ten tribes were a rich fluence large and powerful Kingdom so the lifestyle was hedonistic materialistic rich people were exploiting the labor of the poor and therefore the main aveiro Samuele were engaged in were these interpersonal of Abraham's which they thought they could cover up by ritualistic worship in the temple and God is saying you know God doesn't want these insincere core - yeah if you understand by the time here mio is on the scene number one the kingdom of the ten tribes has been destroyed but number two the remaining kingdom of yehuda is small is powerless is impoverished the and of course right now there are a vassal of Babylon anyway they've already been conquered by Babylon and has already been a significant exile so consequently the concept of the rich exploiting the poor was not a major issue because nobody was rich I mean that reminds me I think in one of Chekhov's plays he just has a scene that you know in Russia priests is tabs I pre here revolutionary Russia Tsarist Russia everybody has to have a statement you were not considered a dignified person unless you have a servant so there was some guy who was so poor all he had was water didn't even have tea but he had a servant whose job it was to boil this water right so everybody have to have everybody has to have a servants so the thing is therefore the concept of social exploitation was not as major an issue in your Bo Stein simply because people were poor there was a lot of anxiety and instead the major issue was they're looking around for God to help them and if I gem doesn't help them will turn to idols false and also false prophets in the name of God were very very so each Navi is addressing the particular of eros of the time but even going with that very interesting thought we still have this issue why this yummy Oh bring up this idea of slavery since he normally does not bring up the way nothing but rivero issues so the truth of the matter is the key is a puzzle at the very end of the haftorah which actually says the following is actually very very famous bussing most of that timer simply says you're not following the rules of freeing the slaves so you will be enslaved collectively but then we have a famous puzzle which is a more general verse cooperation in lo BC yo Mambo Lila if not for my covenant of day and night who goes shall my amorous love something I would not have established the natural laws that govern heaven and earth it's a bit of an obscure verse but as I'll understand this first to refer to the Covenant of the Torah that without the Covenant I made with armies well to give them the Torah which is to be studied day and night the world would cease to exist the world exists the universe exists only because the Jews accepted the Torah in fact the morale of proud says a very interesting point you know we have a ghazal that say that a Shem held the mountain held Mount Sinai over B'nai Israel and said if you accept the Torah that's great if you don't accept the Torah I'm gonna flatten you and the Gemara seems to suggest we were forced into accepting the Torah now the question is if we were forced into accepting the children then why are we praised for coming forth and saying now 7 Ishmael whatever God says we will do we were forced into it so here's where else at Morrell says exactly the opposite hashem didn't told the mountain over our heads before we said not say banishment hashem held the mountain over our heads after we said not so much room meaning to say after we voluntarily accepted the Torah without duress without coercion Hashem then reveals to us how momentous our decision was as if to say wow it's lucky you made the right decision if you didn't make the right decision the world would cease to exist but I couldn't tell you that because if I tell you accept the Torah I'm gonna blow up the world that's getting you get even being forced into it so by definition the morale says we have to accept the Torah willingly but if we wouldn't have done it willingly the world would have disappeared so it's like wow you made the right decision so the world exists but I think world the whole universe exists only so there would be a holy nation that would accept the Torah and the word bris as describing my Torah a covenantal relationship is actually used in purchase mascota purchase wish putnams a little out of order and Rashi says it's out of order towards the end it talks about the sprinkling of the blood the bringing of Corbin house and the famous verse whenever the Jewish whatever got Shem says not now sevenish mom that is his purchased respective Mountain purchased Israel I'll discuss why that's so so your miios point about slavery is making a much larger point slavery in many many ways is a betrayal even though it's tolerated and allowed but fundamentally it is a form of betrayal of the Covenant and this is true both from the perspective of the enslaver and from the perspective of the slave from the perspective of the slave we already examined it in the context of the near truck and the context of the piercing of the year that if a human being wants to assume subservience to another human being that is wrong because one should owe their allegiance only to God one should not submit to the rule of another person in fact to some degree the novice ul criticized the Jewish people for even wanting a king Hashem is your king why do you need a king I see erratically we should just submit to the will of Hashem we need a king because society is often not willing just to walk in God's law so we need coercion we need laws we need governmental structures right but the ideal situation Jamal said would be the law of God itself would be enough to keep society moral and righteous and in its place so for a person to voluntary voluntarily elect slavery is considered to be sinful because you are placing a sham with some other idea now if you take the idea little further a little further with some homiletic eliza's the point is anytime you make anything your master other than a sham that is a betrayal a person can make many things their master the person could make their careers their hedonism their materialism their own ego right I should become a slave to my ego to my arrogance right and I'm making myself a slave to something other than a sham no there's I don't know if he's still alive but there was a black actor mr. t I don't know his real name is but and his persona was that he would typically wear a lot of gold jewelry around his neck and when he was asked why he wears the jewelry he said I Irish thought this was very perceptive of him he said he wants to imitate his ancestors who came to the United States from Africa and they came as slaves in so he wears chains to imitate his ancestors to emulate to connect to his ancestors but the difference is their chains were ironed around their legs and his are gold around the neck so IIIi don't know if mr. t meant the meaning I'm going to put into his words perhaps it was accidental but mr. t is a big finish here and that is the gold chain around the heck it's also slavery okay you could be a slave to a taskmaster you could be a slave to materialism and hedonism and everything else so becoming a slave is moving away from the British Putnam describes mutton Tory as a bris the end of the haftorah says without the bris the covenants the world has no purpose of existing so slavery is not just a question of a novella it's a particular favor but it represents a betrayal of them it's also true from the perspective of the master who are we to be masters over other people how la vie vie la vie we should be masters over ourselves as a yogi born Pirkei avos says who is a mighty person who was their rowing person how Cove Asia sees from one who controls the evil of the negative dispositions within him self-control the pus success initially pretty Elvis actually got it from Michelin Michelle buteau meal ok there he who rules over the storm eat impetuous personality that might what might have is greater than the person who conquers the city my role in life is to dominate other people control other people I should control myself and then you know good things will happen so slavery by definition is kind of a double betrayal of the bris the slave who says I put my trust in other people to take care of me instead of fashion and the master that says I dominate to other people instead of subjugating myself to the rule of our code is broken so this might explain the question that was raised at the very beginning about collective punishment because we can assume that not every Jew has slaves not every Jew committed the particulars of the severa but to the degree that this a very symptomatic of abrogating the Covenant it is really exemplary in other words it's it's it's indicative of the Marita of the rebellion that long ago had against the rule of Kadesh Varro and that's why therefore I would suggest that the connections about Torah is much larger than simply connecting it to the very first of era rather partials Mishpatim is about the bris that a sham made with zombie Israel at not doctora and slavery represents the betrayal of the of the principle again slavery is one of the more difficult issues there are certain parts of the Torah that we sometimes have difficulty fully understanding the morality of like I'm all that killing I'm not like there are different types of things and it's been suggested that there are some types of institutions that the tolerance tolerates by regulating in a more civilized way but they are not considered optimal it's been suggested that slavery might be one of those things certainly the laws of slavery even for the non-jewish slave were far far far more humane than existed in the ancient world and therefore the tourists sometimes tolerates institutions which on an optimal level was not exist but I had discussed this before I do have a difficulty with this because although the Jewish life goes free after six years unless he wants to go through the ear-piercing and then he remains a slave until y'all Bale a non-jewish slave not go free unless he is freed which can't be done and yet the Gemara tells us it is prohibited to free your non-jewish life if you do it it's valid right I think it was Washington a lot of the founding fathers in the United States were slave owners and quite a few of them freed their slaves in their wills they didn't free them when they were alive but they freed Jefferson did not by the way Jefferson actually the slaves were yard Johnson by by his heirs although Jefferson it is fairly well established actually had an affair and had children from one of his slaves but he did not free his slaves so it's an interesting question why not but be it as it may according to halakha in avid Kanani a non-jewish slave is inherited and you're not supposed to free him because the Torah says Leo long for heaven Thabo do he shall work forever and the Gomora gives us a famous story of an exception that Rabbi Eliezer walked into a show his my Jewish slave and there were nine people and the slave the slave would be number ten but a slave a nun freed slave does not counts for a minion so he freed the slave that's a very significant second verse because the slave was a major economic investment that's like you know he gave up a whole slave just for once Fela to have a minion and the Gemara asks on it how can he free a slave you're not supposed to free your psyche and the guards answer is for a special mitzvah like this it was permitted so what bothers me about this and this is this would bother me that is if we understand that slavery was never a desirable institution in the Torah it was simply a tolerated institution meaning sham said well listen everybody in the ancient world had slaves so we're not going to tell Jews they can't because that would be too difficult to standard for them to live by so we will tolerate it but we will regulate it than we require humane treatment but it's not inherently the rutzou national that there should be slaves so I think we're back to a big problem then why should it be forbidden for me to free my slave we ought to say the opposite that we're not going to make you for your slave but if you do so it is a virtuous act so that seems to suggest the very fact that you're not supposed to free your sleigh and the non-jewish life indicates that there was something desirable in the institution of non Jewish labor which kind of undercuts the arguments that this is tolerated but not really and not really gratitude for a lifetime of service as was often done in the room in the room and you can engineer the situation manufactory meaning to say if there is a show that has a regularly scheduled Dominion I'm not sure if you can see I'm gonna you know do a private one in my house and make a minyan that party no that's correct but but but is that a reason not to free or the reason it now yes so the assumption might be in a more benign level that being a slave in a Jewish household was a way to educate and uplift the savage primitive pagan and bring him to a higher more uplifting standard effective iris title for example offers pretty almost precisely that type of justification for additional rationale for colonialism yeah the idea that we are helping we are helping the savage beasts have become a more civilized civilized person but the difference being that the way Jewish slavery worked in that it may have actually accomplished that as opposed to just being being worse so these are questions I don't I don't have the answers for it but I do want to suggest that at least the institution of the Jewish slave because priceless prospective a she does not talk about the non-jewish life that's elsewhere in the Torah but the Jewish life is a betrayal of bris and because it's a betrayal of bris that is why it is so pivotal II connected to the Torah and the word brisk that appears at the very end in lopburi see yo mama Lila whoo kosher my rehearsal or something yeah well because the following because he's gonna become a Jew but what kind of Jew is he gonna become meaning that there is a concept that the longer he remains in a kosher Jewish environment yes right non-jewish slave is high oven mitts was like a woman which actually means if he is a you know Shiva she she's the same as a Jewish woman it's only a man that would have the difference cuz I were very suspicious I understood that the Torah itself was very suspicious that once an Evan is free he would rapidly degenerate into his pagan ways idolatrous ways so cuz I did not really have trust in the rectitude of the event and that's how they understood the Torah Torah as well okay let me just end with one are very very interesting thoughts all of all of us know that the very famous formula by which the Jews accepted the Torah was not seven ish man right those famous words we will do and we will understand and the significance of that is we're giving God a blank check if you saying nish ma let us hear the nos and we'll do it that would imply a certain amount of kin meaning let's hear what you're offering and then we'll see if we're gonna do it when you say not said we will do and you don't even know what it is then you say so tell us what it is that's giving a sham a blank check and that's that's the highlight of a Munna of absolute trust in a college portal but what's so fascinating is these are such famous words but if you look in last week's parsha which which is the 10 commandments the Jewish people did not say that the knishmas they only said not a set and you're almost waiting there to hear that person call the Cadi brush I'm not saying hey is there something missing from the coalition something missing from the Torah what about not say banishment so do not be afraid in this week's parsha we have not sevenish man but the question is why do we have these two verses one says call why share D perish at NASA and call a share deeper Hashem NASA varnish map so we have a very beautiful shot from the measured cosmic mayor simpler that says prophetically the Torah is encoding these two different ways of accepting Torah because it represents two different epochs in Jewish history as it would envelop in the future that is we know all of us know that ghazzal had a macabre a tradition and there are 613 mitzvot in the Torah even though the count is somewhat problematical but we say 613 and we divided into 248 positive and 365 negatives cuz I'll correlate both the positive and the negative two parts of your body there are 248 bones and each Mitzvah shall say that you do give some type of spiritual life we don't know exactly what that means because as far as enough you don't get arthritis for you know through certain Mitsos but it gives a certain vibrancy to your bones and the 365 corresponds to sinews or ligaments and if you violate a negative commandment Thanks something now here's the problem so it turns out that the 613 correlates to the parts of my body every person's body but here's the thing there's never been a single individual that can keep all 613 mitzvot some are for men and not women some were women not men some are Kohanim many only apply in air which is rel of course and many apply only when does the base of make that so it turns out that even if you're the greatest sadiq in the world you will not be able to keep 613 and yet if 613 is somehow correlated to the spiritual perfection of my limbs and my sinews that Hashem has created a standard that can never be met each one of us no matter how righteous is defective we're missing something how could that be how do I get the light of the 613 when it's not Shia it's not possible for me to keep the 613 so the before shim say there are two answers to this yes your number one is the importance of learning Torah because when I learned Torah I can learn not only the mitzvot that I'm able to keep but I can even learn the it's well I'm not able to keep because I'll say for example he occupies himself with the laws of corbino's is as if he brought apartment that's why the carpets high America the carpets high am in addition to the Mishnah brewery and the books on motion are on actually wrote many many spartan and cuts him on the service and the base on McNish and somebody criticized her says why don't you spend time on holic on works as if as if the carpets clam didn't spend time and a lot of work says why are you writing about things that are not relevant bluffing and the puppet time gave two answers answer number one is if you believe in machine and you believe that the basic income every day this is relevant la huaca why are you assuming this has no practical relevance you don't believe a sheet of makeup that's answer number one but the answer number two is that there's a specific importance in even learning things that are not practical because that is the only way - Shama can get the light of that Mitzvah think about this there are many myths I'm not even supposed to keep for example giving a get one of the 613 mitzvot in the Torah is that if a man wants to divorce his wife he must give her again now that has to correspond to some whim in my body right there must be a gatling because 248 so what does that mean I said I'm sorry you know honey I gotta give you a get because otherwise I'm not going to be perfected right that would be an absolute so obviously it's not a shams will that we just go around and divorcing our wives if there's no reason to do want to do that so how do you fulfill how do you get there how does a person get the gett bone so you gotta learn my second skin right you learn the laws of getting etc and then that way you're - arbok get some absorbs the goodness in Desmond's that's the answer number one Talmud Torah answer number two is the path of Abbas UL unity love togetherness what's the connection because when I stand before I am as an individual there are so many mitzvahs I cannot do but when I connect myself to the nation of Israel with love and artists then I become a Lim or maybe even a cell on a transcendental organism that has a past present and future so the same way when I put fill in on my aunt my arm I don't say my arm put on tefillin today I put on tefillin because my arm is part of me when I am macabre myself - I'm Israel the Mitzvah of the women are the mistress of the men the mitzvahs of the past are the mistress of the present because I am part of a collective entity and therefore that is how I am Muslim teriyaki Mitzvah so these are the two pathways Talmud Torah and diversity throughout so since the master Kozma this is my room oz in the differential wording in parshat see Israel it says the following via I know call her Yaakov underlying octave everybody answered in unison so that puss ik is talking about when there is love when there's artists when there's connection we can declare everything a sham commands us now said we will do I cannot do everything you cannot do everything we can do everything because we're connected but in purchase mesh button it says well yeah I knew her arm but it does not say the word young stuff that's the remans what happens when there's hatred polarization dissension lack of unity at that point we can't say we can do because I can't do it and you can't do it and we're not together so you gotta go to plan B not sevenish malwan symmetric are interprets we will do finish MA by our learning and by your understanding so plan a is yok stuff we're together how much you sprout plan B is the Torah learning right these are the two two entries that emergence of the puzzle so these seem like two different roads the path of Amish Israel and the path of Torah learning but in fact they are two roads that ultimately converge because because I'll give us a very important teaching we say this actually never just other meaning as we say it every day but the standard Ashkenazim Asaf is only a Chaves and that is Toby they hung him Marvin Shalom boma people who learn Torah they're supposed to increase peace in the world mm-hmm so we but October is supposed to be a vehicle for peace peace meaning how do you get peace peace is not by ignoring each other but peace meaning our bus you swell bringing people together now if you ask me the very difficult question so how come there was so much bitterness and divisive this among people who learned Torah I don't know I don't have an answer all I can say is cuz I'll say that's not the way it's supposed to be Toru learning is supposed to bring peace into the world so therefore in a world where there is dissention in which there is sin as we know the pathway of Talmud Torah pursued in a true manner will actually lead to togetherness and the building of bridges so the Metro hakama says that is why we have these two different sukham because the Taira is more amazed that we will be mush when we will complete the the light of the 613 in one of two ways I wish israel or talmud torah and through talmud torah we should be so good to come to our bus you through one of the things that puzzles me about the slave story yeah and i think it kind of gives us a little bit of grays instead of blacks and whites is the whole thing about leaving your family you know the choice under the slave has you can you can stay a slave or you can leave your family and i know with so the baby what we're certainly not talking about the family that he came in with we're actually talking about a special master prerogative that if I have a Jewish slave I can give him a maidservant with whom they'll have children that remain my slaves so that's the family that he has to he may have to leave because they are not really his family there are my slaves that I gave him for breeding purposes if he came with his own wife then the Torah says he certainly leaves with his own wife and the master has no claim on that whatsoever for any subsequent children what the same thing in other words any children that he has even while he's a slave from his Preet from his pre-existing life so to speak there is family the only thing the master can keep I know I gave you my maidservant to reproduce so those are mine that's my property women trying the altar no debate about in pity tunnel yeah there seems to be a redundancy from me from Egypt we will be redeemed and from the house of slavery so I think that this actually ties into to our point and that is the base of Adam could be understood as a mindset of slavery meaning God took us out of Egypt but more than just taking it out of Egypt he also designed to liberate us from the mindset that we should be subservient to other human beings and therefore even within our own land and it's not proper that we should be in the house of servitude the house of slavery I think I think that's that's the point that's being made I took you out of Egypt so you will be liberated from the mindset of belonging into a house of servitude or a house of slavery in fact this goes back to why you have the concept of the nerd son that pierced ear is so severely criticized you know the Ebenezer's famous Pandya Vanessa made eight points that the Jews at the ops of were panicky like the Egyptians are coming after them but it's very very clear there were many many more Jews than there were Egyptians and in fact because I'll understand the posit that the Jews even had Tsar armaments they had arms they had swords they had Spears so they could have overpowered Egyptian the evidence were says that you see the devastating controlling power of a slave mentality at the Stockholm Syndrome or what would be in which when they see the Masters coming they lose all courage and the ever master says that is why only Moshe Rabbeinu from a rational level obviously their deep spiritual that will apply Moshe Rabbeinu was our leader but he said only someone who did not grow up in servitude mm-hmm would have the strength and the courage to take a nation out of slavery it would have been very very difficult for the slaves themselves to ever make that decision yeah yeah I have to check because you're have 2 percent correct so that my Ralph's shot is I can't he can't disagree with it because it's my Kamara but the morale shot seems to run contrary to the famous Kamara right that's that's a very very excellent question the Gemara makes the point that on Shavuos we were forced into receiving the Torah and I'm poor am weary accepted the Torah out of free will that's a famous idea that's why poram is a joyous day because not only will be saved but we accepted the Torah out of love and not out of fear the question is according to the explanation of the morale that I thought I gave you even the first time we accepted it willingly and that a sham showed us how we had to accept it it is a very excellent Asha I have to check I don't know how the morale will interpret that tomorrow but that's a good point ok I believe that luck is he can be sold as many times as is necessary to repay the if what or yoga it's right of course what happens if the omen comes what happens to the death right well the answer is then it just remains a liability meaning he still owes the money in other words Yoga does not erase the debt but slavery can no longer be imposed on him it seems that that's not theirs let it just be a new a new sale but it's it seems I don't know I have to try understand no but it seems to me that if the theft for which he's being sold is a pre Yeovil event Yoga said you can punish him for that now if he steals after Yeovil that's a new business every time it's after some yoga right so obviously he could be results but he's maybe sold for that okay take care [Music]