Parshat Mishpatim: The Lesson of a Jewish Slave - Rabbi Yisroel Perelson

[Music] so we're right after McIntyre we received the Torah and the Torah trains us and teaches us the way of life and amazingly the first law that we have in this week's parsha right after math and torah we have key sickness evan so we have all about all the laws of damages of stealing from another person of damaging property of all the interpersonal laws are really in this week's partial and the first one is evidently Everett Avery how does he how does a person how does a Jew become an avid slave so things worked very differently in Torah law then in the Lord that we have today meaning to say if you take somebody's money today and you don't have money to pay back so what do you do so we all know you chant you file a bankruptcy or chapter 11 or whatever it may be in your and you're off the hook a worst-case scenario you spend a little bit of time behind bars and after a while the old you're out and you don't have to pay the money but in Jewish law there's no such thing as bankruptcy believe it or not it doesn't exist a person takes money he's got to give it back even gleamer even just the the code on his back says he's got to give it back what happens if a person doesn't have that money well in Jewish law there's no such thing as jail we don't keep people in jail if you think about the jail system it doesn't really make sense from a Jewish perspective first of all we value times much but besides valuing time we have a different issue we have the issue this person will go into jail so he came in as an amateur thief and now he'll walk out as a mature a person that understands the system that understands how to cheat the system and that's the person that's going to come out who is he amongst he's amongst the worst criminals sometimes and therefore the concept of jail doesn't exist but what do we do so we take this guy and we say we're going to train him we're going to train him how to be a good citizen of society and we sell him for an avid canal and epidemic he's now a Jewish slave and when he's a Jewish slave who was the one that buys a slave many times the one who's gonna buy a slave it says corner Abbot corner a boy if he buys a slave what's going to end up happening he's buying actually a boss because if he has only one pillow that law says he's got to give it to the effort he's got to give it to the slave there's all kinds of laws of how to act with a slave and therefore the only ones that are really going to purchase the slave is someone that cares about other Jews and is willing to train them in the proper way what do we do with this slave but we do with this slave is we give him we give him the other than that says he could give him a ship like an honest ship token honest is a maidservant a non-jewish maidservant and this individual begins to build a family and after he builds a family after six years what happens to the Jewish slave he goes out free what happens to the children and the wife they stay in a sense we rip apart the family the family now is going to come apart this Jewish slave is losing his family there are bog asks why is it so necessary why is this why is this the item that takes place this Evan he comes in he's built a family and all of a sudden after six years he loses the family very very painful very very hard say he says he brings down a Gemara the Gemara says that there are three things that a person has a natural charm to a person loves what are these three things pain Odom Alyosha a person enjoys his dwelling place the place where he lives he loves st. a Shambhala a woman a woman is very beloved by her husband her husband looks at her and he says wow she's beautifully she has a certain charm for him he loves her and say Makaha let koi and anything that a person purchases that's something that he loves he loves he feels like he got a good deal he feels like he got a good purchase he loves it now you take each item okay normally Yasha a person likes the place that he lives you see that all the time yes a person from Brooklyn how do you like he loves Brooklyn yes the guy from LA who was visiting Brooklyn for a number of days he's going crazy he doesn't know how people live here right but a Brooklyn guy he loves it he loves Brooklyn's garbage he loves the honking he loves the you know he loves the the no parking he loves it it's great there's this constantly something happening here right it's the guy from LA he loves a light you bring a New Yorker to LA it's too quiet right the green light nobody's honking the guy's just standing there all right there's no double parking or what kind of city is that right it's why sane sane automata a person loves where he lives it's very interesting somebody was telling me that in Haifa in Haifa an artist wrong somehow I'm not sure why but with the wiring and with the electricity that is that is exposed over there people are prone to cancer and it's known and it's known and yet people love it people will not people who are who are from Great Father they're they're not good they wouldn't move right you have the same thing as you dare out yeah brackets falling is there oh I'm not talking about people who economically can't afford it but they love steroid that's that's the thing where a person lives is where he loves so where he loves you have the same thing cainy Shambala the Gemara tells us that a person loves his wife and he sees her is very very charming how do we know because we know by the wedding what are we seeing Carla Novica pseudo this color is beautiful right she's beautiful so the Kumari asks what do you mean what if she's not so beautiful then you're lying the Gemara says no this guy married her that means to him she looks beautiful she looks beautiful and the Gemara finishes off that same Mecca halaqah I look like that a person loves something that he bought and therefore if let's say a person buys a time and he asks you how is it how does it look you can never tell him right are you kidding me how do you wear such a thing you can't tell them that how logically you can't tell him that right sometimes your wife comes over how do I look am i overweight you could never say yes right you can never say yes right how does this fit on me so you got to be very very careful you got to be very careful why how logically a person that buy something the camera tells us he or she loves it and therefore you have to know even if you want to give real real feedback you have to know how to do it you have to be very careful in the way you're doing it so the Gemara says says there i'll bog that this is the idea over here the idea over here is that you have this individual that takes something that doesn't belong to him meaning to say this item the person could have saved thousands of dollars for this item you take a diamond ring from a lady she could have saved a lot of money or the husband could have saved a lot of money to purchase it and now you take it away you're taking the same you're taking that beauty that charm from the individual being that you're taking that pain how could this Buerkle says that it's not enough to train the individual it's not enough to go ahead and tell the person what he's doing wrong no that's not enough a person has to live it emotionally the person has to go through this concept of having something that he loves having a wife that he loves as a slave and then being torn apart Oceano be he was a prophet and a shinobi would get in the voice will get prophesies for my college bar hole and one time I could this broker who tells them go marry this a modest woman that's a pretty look he's a Navi he's a holy person it's not what he's looking for right and a shinobi doesn't really understand the Neva but this is what God tells him but we know that there's another name for that he gets and the second a boy he gets is he gets an award that I could aspire who tells them born I thought oh my children have sinned and I don't know what to do with them because this boy who gives him this Nevada and Hosea listens to the Naboo and he tells I could this barkal you know what why don't you make a recoil like a recoil instead of them take a different nation start up from a definition you're right there are a lot of trouble it's not easy the Jewish nation there's stubborn we talk to them we tell them we prophesize we tell them what you want and they still don't do it so it's very very difficult change them time to change him how could this burger who says joking you old man mean to say almost an idiotic derogatory way he says to him I want you to divorce this woman that you got married - and a chance is why now I should divorce her I finally I developed feelings for her you told me to marry to begin with I wasn't so thrilled but now I developed a connection with her how could this birth who says then so what's bothering you he says I have children from her I have I built an entire life cannot turn so Sharon he says hoe sham but she was an immodest woman you don't even know if those children are yours they may not even be yours and you still want to stick it out you still care it still you still feel like your life is being torn apart how could this Buerkle says my nation my nation that I that their forefathers have sacrificed so much and have passed so many tests for me to consider them my own nation I'm completely intertwined with this nation I invested so much in this nation I made I gave him the ten markers to make sure that there Adam it's rhyme I split the see I sustained this nation for 40 years this is my nation this is my baby and you want me to just give them up like this the only way Hosea could have understood a cottage barcoo it's only by literally living through what I could have broke was living through and therefore our code is Burke who wanted him to marry this lady to feel what he feels to feel what it means to be completely connected and then to be told to divorce this lady to let her go there was an interesting a powerful story with a German emperor ever William and this German emperor goes to check out on his army and when he goes to check out of his army the opposing army all of the sudden corners his army and he realizes that he's in deep deep trouble and he quickly just runs to wherever his feet could carry him and he runs and runs and he sees a small little Hut and this small little hottie knocks on the door and a Jew opens up and the Jews name is Moshe the sureste der sister their sister that's the pur that's the Jews name Moshe the shirt their sister and this motion he says what are you doing here he says I'm the Emperor I'm the joke I'm a German emperor I need your help if you help me out I promise you that one day you're going to need me and I will help you out I'll get you out of there fine so he decides you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna help to simper out so he hides this Emperor he has like a stack of hay he puts him in there hides him over there and he goes back home and the army heard that this Emperor is around so they began to search every single home and they come to this Moishe's home and did you see it did you see the Emperor no so but they're not taking no for an answer so they search they search their home they search the area around and they go to that haystack and they have at the end of their their there their guns they have these Spears and they're sticking it they're sticking it all over the place and they see there's nobody there they want to stick it around to make sure that there's nobody alive over there fine they don't they don't end up stabbing him I guess he's in between they don't end up stabbing him and they leave he this Moshe goes to that taste stack and he takes out the Emperor he says they're gone he says you sure yeah they're gone says listen to me if you ever need anything come to me I will take care of it you won't have a problem just remember I owe you a big favor two years later two years later this motion remembers you know the emperor owes me a favor it was a favor I could use a favor so he goes down to this Emperor and of course the Emperor gives a tremendous amount of Honor tremendous amount of covered and the Emperor tells him no so what do you want he says I have to tell you that this is one thing that's been bothering me for a very long time he says what is it he says you know when you were there and they were sticking this thing into the haystack and they stuck it on your right and on your left and they missed you and you know that the next one could have been inside your heart how did you feel and the Emperor turns red and he gets upset and he says that's a very insulting question how dare you ask me something like that and he says you know what I'm ordering you now to get out and my people are going to go and hang you and this guy turns white a moment ago he was awkward all this honor and now he's like--he's he's being wheeled to the Year to town square and they're going to hang him in front of everybody and they put the noose around him and they put the chair under him and a moment before they're ready to kill him the Emperor walks in and he says let him go let him go and he comes to this Moshe and he tells this Moshe this is exactly how I felt when I was up in this haystack if I would have told to you in words you would never have understood this guy is half dead from the fear but now he understands exactly what the Emperor was talking about because what hotels this ever did bring you took something from someone else that he worked hard for that's something else was beloved beloved 10 and therefore the only way for you to really understand what it means to take something away from somebody else is you have to live through it you have to live through that emotional build-up so we're going to now take you as a slave we're going to give you a wife you're going to have children and after six years you're going to have to let all that go and at that moment you will understand what you have done to your friend because up to that moment there's no real understanding we could explain it but you'll never understand it person has to realize that what is the first thing it's very interesting what's the first thing they teach in yeshiva right they could teach about Broca's they could teach about anything tomorrow what's the first game are they teach they teach Baba kama baba metzia why because it has to do with Nas Oken suka means has to do with intrapersonal laws it has to do with understanding that the property of your friend is very very valuable that's the basic of Judaism that's the step one if you don't have that step one you got you haven't started you haven't started understanding that another person's property is extremely valuable in God's eyes and of course in the individuals eyes and therefore you cannot touch it he works for it he loves it and that's the reason that's the first thing that we start with the relationship Einstein was very upset when you Shiva's would start with with Moustakas breakfast he said no this is the first thing that we should we should train a child in Gemara the first thing in fact he used to say breakfast has to do with davon Inge what happens if you will see his father coming in late automatically boom or you see his father talking during shul so he's learning about about the after sprockets he's learning about what you're supposed to do he comes to shoot with the father and he's getting them he's getting literally the wrong message right he says no that shouldn't be the first thing you start with he says start with start with the interpersonal laws start with valuing what another person's property is that is the most powerful and basic tenant of a beautician and therefore mr. Spartan as we're starting right after McIntyre that's the first thing we go to know that another person's property is extremely precious to him he loves it don't tamper with it treat it like your own thank you for listening and I wish everyone a good Shabbos [Music] you [Applause]