18: Mishpatim
Welcome to TLDR Torah: a synopsis of the weekly parsha based on Robert Alter’s translation, plus a question to spur your Shabbat dinner (or any!) conversation.
Parsha Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1-24:18)
TLDR:
Recall that the Israelites are gathered at the bottom of Mount Sinai. Now, God lays down the law. Buckle up for the so-called “Book of the Covenant” because this parsha gets strange.
There’s an assortment of laws covering slavery (juxtaposition?), flavors of murder and manslaughter, kidnapping, parental insults, and property destruction, capped off with the the famous “eye for eye… bruise for bruise.” There’s some overlap with the ordering of the ten commandments, and punishments associated with each prohibition.
The Torah seems to start with the most severe prohibitions — violence between people — to less severe property laws, such as injuring livestock.
I won’t go into each law, but try to make sense of this one: “If the thief is seized while tunneling, and he is beaten to death, there is no bloodguilt in his case.” What would the Torah’s stance be on the Castle Doctrine?
The Torah shifts from conditional laws to outright prohibitions against sorceresses, laying with animals, mistreating widows and orphans, and false testimony.
The legal section ends with commandments to observe the three festivals (Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot), and a declaration against boiling “a kid in its mother’s milk,” the derivation for Kashrut laws around eating milk with meat.
God tells the people that an angel will guide them and destroy the other nations living in Israel. The people say that they will do as God has commanded them.
Moses writes down the commandments, creates a 12-pillar alter, sacrifices bulls, and throws it [blood] on the people.
Moses and the 70 elders of Israel go “up” and “saw” God standing on “sapphire pavement.” God tells Moses to come up the mountain to receive stone tablets. Moses tells the elders to wait for him.
Question:
I invite you to dissect all of the strange italicized bits above (those are just the tip of the iceberg), but this week take a step back and consider the point of the laws in the context of how, when, and why they were given. What is the point of the prohibitions and the punishments they bring? Diving into criminal law, which of the five punishments - deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, retribution, and restitution - is emphasized most by the Book of the Covenant?