Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan - Parashat Mishpatim

[Music] today we're learning parashat mishpatim passion patim is a parsha filled with many mitzvoth a lot of commandments a lot of ideas that may be new to us and a lot of surprising um concepts that living in modern society we might not be familiar with or we might be misinformed about and as we go through the parasha i'm going to point them out this parsha has 54 commandments 23 positive commandments and 31 negative commandments we're going to try to cover all of them but if we're short on time we'll skip the ones that are less common so we are on page 417 of the art scroll homage and chapter 25 verse 1 um starts these are the laws ordinances that you shall place before them the word ordinances means laws and in hebrew it is mishpatim means civil civil law uh it is these are laws that are governing society these are mostly not laws between god and man but rather laws between one man and his uh fellow so the first law that pasha bishop speaks about is about jewish slaves if you buy a jewish slave he shall work up to six years and in the seventh he will go free now what is the concept of a jewish slave there in judaism there are two kinds of slaves one is a jewish slave and one is a non-jewish slave a jew who is poor can sell him self into a slavery or a jew who stole and he doesn't have money to pay for the stolen property the jew the jewish court baiden will sell him into slavery until he pays back or the the money for his sale will go to the victim what is the concept of slavery for a jew slavery in judaism means a contract that you cannot bring for six years this jew must work for his master a regular worker does not have any contracts a regular jewish worker is allowed to stop his work at any time even in the middle of the day because the jewish people are servants of hashem they are not servants of other people and as such no one can force a jew to work and the jewish people are not supposed to sign contracts obligating them to work for a period of time that would be equal to slavery so what's a slave a slave is a regular corporate worker that has a contract for six years that's all a slave is but in in addition to a corporate worker a jewish slave is uh even more uh lucky he has more rights for example the master the the um employer is obligated to provide the slave with shelter food and all his needs for him as well as for his family imagine that you go to work and the employer is obligated not only to pay your salary not only to pay for your health insurance but also to buy you food to pay your rent for yourself and for your whole family that's how many rights does a jewish slave had has have now that is why the sages say that somebody who buys for himself a jewish slave really he's buying for himself a master because he has to take such great care of him it's as if he becomes his servant in fact the the master has to treat the slave of such respect that he has to provide him with the same comfort as he himself has in fact it says that if the master happens to have only one pillow he must give it to the slave if he has two pillows then he can take one for himself as well so we might have a wrong concept of what slavery is and yes the concept of slavery was corrupted by by the nations of the world where they abused and tortured and killed their slaves just like when the jewish people were slaves in egypt they were tortured and murdered and abused but the concept of slavery in judaism is just a worker that signed a contract that he cannot break and the contract can only be for a maximum of six years now additional laws of a slave is that if he is already married when he becomes a slave then his master can give him another woman this time he can give him a non-jewish slave woman and the children that she gives birth to belong to the master which means the the jew who sold himself into slavery he works additional hours at night providing his master with more workers now here we come to the concept of a non-jewish slave a non-jewish slave is also a unique concept unlike again other nations where slave goes down in stature in judaism when an anju becomes a slave of a do he rises in his stature how in order for anandju to become a slave of a jew he first must undergo partial conversion he must accept upon himself he must abandon his idols and he has to accept upon himself all negative commandments plus all positive commandments that are not time bound which basically means he has to keep all the laws that a jewish woman would keep and if he is a man he also has to undergo circumcision and both men and women have to immerse in a mikvah so they become partial jew and if a master frees his slave the slave becomes a full-fledged jew automatically because he already had circumcision he already accepted one god and the mitzvot and he already uh immersed in it was a muslim in the mikvah so the only thing that is left is for him to become free as soon as he becomes free he becomes a full-fledged jew so for a non-jew to become a jewish slave that's a step up he becomes closer to uh he is now obligated in keeping misfort and he if he is a slave of a kohen he can even eat teruma the holy uh um part that every jew separates and and gives it to kohen a regular jew is not allowed to eat it but the slave of a kohen is allowed to eat it now we turn the page 4 19 let's say six years pass the shemitah here arrives all slaves go free all jewish slaves go free but if the slave shall say i love my master my wife my children that i got over here i don't want to go free what's then is he allowed to remain a slave and not a free jew being a slave is uh for a jew is not good because it limits him in uh studying torrid performance myths of mitzvot and plus now he has an additional master over him in on in addition to hashem it's not good for a jew to be a slave so perhaps the torah will not allow a jew to remain a slave more than six years but the torah says it is permitted in certain cases for example if this jew knows that the background he came from is very risky maybe he had problems with police with addictions and if he goes back to free life he might meet his old bodies and he might re enter his old life and he'll end up in prison or he might even be killed as a criminal and he says you know what for me in the free world i don't want to take such a risk i would rather work for you live by you get my food shelter and clothing from you you give me the wife and i'll have the children it's okay i forgot my freedom because i would rather be righteous than free in such a case the torah says he is allowed to remain a slave another case might be he might be um poor and he knows if he goes back he's going to be again poor no food no no shelter he says i would rather remain a slave and eat and enjoy life than be free so in this cases in verse 6 the torah says then his master shall bring him to the court and then when the court allows him to remain the slave he brings him to the doorpost and the master makes a hole in his ear with an awl with a special thick needle and then he is allowed to remain his slave until the jubilee year until the yoza which is the 50th calendar year whenever it arrives all jewish slaves must go free even though the torah allows them to remain a slave past first six years but once the 50th year calendar year comes he is not allowed to remain a slave he has to go back he has to start life again he has to try out he has to take bring his children out of slavery and give them a chance to be free and even though a jew who was already married and had children only he becomes a slave his wife and his children don't become slaves but they're still supported by his master but still it's not a good feeling to live to live in someone else's house knowing that your father or your husband is a slave and so the torah says when the jubilee year comes all jewish slaves must go free so we see from here that um for a man to have a a hole in his ear for an earring is a sign of slavery the torah does not allow mad men to have earrings unless this man is a slave now we go to verse seven and until now we spoke about a man who is asleep now we're going to speak about a jewish girl who becomes a maid servant a female slave if a man will sell his daughter as a servant now why would a man sell his daughter as a maidservant if a man is poor and he doesn't have money to feed his children he doesn't have money to pay rent and he tells his children i'm sorry i don't have food to feed you you have to go out and work so the boys will go and work but what about the girls for a girl to be out in the street looking for work is very dangerous she might ruin her life like that she might be taken advantage of so the torah says don't let your daughter before marriage go out and get a job it's too risky instead you should find for her a family a jewish family that will take her as a servant the torah again calls it slavery because whenever there is a contract that is called slavery and the father sells his daughter into servitude but this servitude is temporary for a jewish girl a jewish girl has more privileges than a jewish man a jewish girl will go out free not only when the seventh year arrives she will also go free when she turns 12 as soon as she turns 12 she can no longer stay as a slave she goes out free and additionally when the master buys her from the father he promises that once she turns 12 he will marry her and if he is already older he will have his son marry her so the father is selling his daughter into servitude so that she shouldn't starve but he's selling her not to a random person but rather a rich individual who is a good person the father checked him out and the father agrees that his daughter should become his wife when she becomes 12 and that's what usually happens uh so someone is asking what about job contracts today that's exactly what it is a jew should not sign a job contract that obligates him to work for a company if a jew is doing it as security for himself to make sure that he is not fired by the company that's okay but if he is signing a contract to obligate himself not to be able to leave the job or else have a penalty that he's not allowed to do because by doing that he's declaring himself as a slave to that company to that man and uh he is placing uh upon himself another master besides hashem okay so normally when a a man sells his daughter she will become a wife of the master or his son when she turns 12. but the torah says if she is displeasing in the eyes of her master let's say she lived by him for a couple years and he sees that her character is not so good she's lazy she might be a thief or whatever else she doesn't like her doesn't want to marry her she doesn't want his son to marry her so what should he do he shall assist in her redemption if she is not yet 12 years old and he already knows that he's not planning to marry her he should allow her to be redeemed if somebody comes along whether it's the father or another relative and says you know what we would like to buy her back he has to lower the price whatever time she worked for him has to be subtracted and he has to uh number one sell her if he's not planning to marry her don't keep her as a slave if somebody is willing to buy her freedom and number two he has to lower the price as much as possible however if nobody redeems her then she goes free at 12 or whenever the shmita year comes the seventh year verse 10 gives us a a negative commandment that if he will take another wife in addition to her which means here it concluded happily the master married this made servant but then sometime later he married another woman and that second woman was from a wealthy family if he shall take another in addition to her she shall not diminish her food her clothing and her marital relations which means that whenever a man has two wives even if one has a a higher status comes from a better family he is not allowed to treat them differently he has to provide them with equal food clothing and marital relations even if one of his wives is a former maidservant he still has to treat her with as much respect and care as his uh wife from great leaning age and certainly when the person has one wife it is a a strict prohibition for him to subtract her food clothing or marital relations now return to page one who strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death and here the death penalty for murder is strangulation but if it is not murder but rather manslaughter which means a person was killed but without malicious intent it was uh it was through negligence but not intentional murder then it says i shall provide you a place to which he shall flee when the jewish people came to the land of israel there were 48 cities set up so that if there is um killing through negligence the the murderer has a place to run to save himself from the vengeance of the family the family is upset that through his negligence he killed their loved one and they might take revenge so for his protection he has to run there as well as for his punishment because he was negligent now he has to be exiled to one of these 48 cities in these 48 cities the the living the levites lived and uh he has to live there until the kohen gadol who who was there at the time of the murder dies as soon as the kohen gadol dies this man can go free back to his family now we are in verse 15 someone who strikes his parents deserves death penalty and here striker means that that he causes a bruise or he causes injury that blood comes out otherwise there is no death penalty but a person still transgresses a total law if he he hits his parents verse 16 one who keep kidnaps a man and sells him or enslaves him shall be put to death there's a death penalty for kidnapping one who curses his parents shall be put to death verse 18 if men quarrel if men fight and one injures the other he has to pay for five separate things he has to pay for his uh loss of work during the time that he he had to recover he has to pay for his healing for his doctor bill bills he has to pay for the pain that he caused besides the the loss of income that the victim suffered not going to work he also receives a separate payment for the pain that he endured plus he receives another payment for the shame that he received if this this fight if this injury was sustained in the the presence of other people he was embarrassed and therefore the attacker has to uh pay him for the shame and he has to pay him for the loss in his market value for example if one man injures another so much that he loses his arm we evaluate a market plot price of a slave with two hands as opposed to with one hand and he has to pay him the difference so he pays five things the market value of uh missing arm the shame that he inflicted upon himself upon him while injuring him the pain that he caused him dr bills plus loss of work verse 20 if a man hits his non-jewish slave and the slave dies the master shall be avenged which means he will be put to death imagine that this is another proof that a non-jewish slave of a jewish master is is respected very much he is a human being he is partially a jew and therefore if a master kills not even intentionally if he hits his slave so much that he kills him the master is put to death for killing his non-jewish slave but if he will not die immediately aft temporarily even if at the end he will die there is no death penalty for the master next on page 423 the next paragraph speaks about uh another fight that two men have two men are fighting and the wife not a wife but a pregnant woman is walking by and by mistake instead of hitting the guy he hits the pregnant woman or one pushes the other at the pregnant woman if the woman survives but her but she miscarries then they must pay for the value of the lost child there is no death penalty because a child in a woman's womb um is um is not considered fully alive like a a an adult or a a born baby because we don't know maybe a woman will miscarry since there is a suffix a doubt we cannot kill somebody for um even though it is strictly prohibited to kill a baby in the mother's womb it is equivalent to murder but there is no death penalty for uh killing a baby in the mother's womb because we can only kill a murderer if we know that the person he killed was a healthy person who is not about to die but we cannot say this about a baby and the mother's womb therefore there's no death penalty however if the if the woman herself will die from the the the injury then there is death penalty on whoever struck her then the torah says the famous words an eye for an eye in verse 24 a tooth for a tooth a hand of her hand a foot for food a burn for a burn a wound for wound a bruise for bruises what do these strange words mean and what it means is that you have to pay for every injury that you caused equivalent to that injury and as we said on the previous page you have to pay five different things loss of work doctor bills shame pain and the market value the diminishing of market value and that's what it means eye for an eye you have to pay the value of an i for an injured eye and so for every part of the body next what if a man causes injury to his slave we said previously that if a man kills his slave he the man the master has to die what if a man shall strike the eye of his slave and destroy it or a tooth of his slave or destroy the slave goes out for free here we again are speaking about a non-jewish slave imagine if the master causes permanent injury to a slave an eye a tooth or one of his fingers is chopped off whether on hands or feet or an ear or a nose the slave goes free therefore jewish masters were very careful not to hurt their slaves because they might lose their investment if they cause a permanent injury the slave goes free and he turns automatically into a full-fledged jew if through negligence the master kills the slave he himself will have to die so non-jewish slaves were protected very much by jewish law next verse 28 laws of death to a person caused by the animal if an ox shall gore a man or woman and they will die the ox must be stoned and any animal that kills a human being must be put to death immediately and has to be buried cannot derive benefit from its flesh so the owner of such an ox loses his animal completely now on on the page 4425 it gives us an additional law if this acts gored three times and for some reason it was not put to death and the owner still kept him then the the torah says the ax shall be stoned and even its owner shall die but here we learn that it is not a death penalty in court but rather it is heavenly death he will die young but he can avoid it by paying a special payment to his children to his descendants the the victim's descendants this is called in verse 30 when an atonement payment shall be assessed against him she shall pay a redemption for his life verse 32 what if an ox gore's a slave then the master of the ox must pay 30 silver shackles to the to the owner of the slave and even in such a case the ox must be put to death uh a an animal that kills a jew or an unju must be put to death next is the law of an obstacle put in public domain if a man shall uncover a pit or if a man shall dig a pit and not cover it and an animal falls in it the owner of the pit shall make a restitution he has to pay for the the dead animal verse 35 if one animal injures or kills another animal if one man's ox shall strike his fellow's ox and it dies so they shall sell the living ox and divide its money and the carcass too shall they divide which means if an animal uh kills another animal but this is a a new thing for for this animal he usually doesn't do such things then they split the loss the owner of the attacking animal has to pay for the half of the the dead animal however if this animal gourd already three other animals he becomes a habitual killer and the owner must pay full damage and he has to slaughter his axe and eat him if an ox kills a human being the ox must be put to death and its meat cannot be eaten but if an ox kills another animal three times then he must be killed but his flesh can't be eaten verse 37 laws of a thief if a man shall steal an ox or a sheep or a goat and slaughter it or sell it he must pay five times for the ox and four times for a sheep or a goat this is a unique case usually if a person steals and then he is found guilty he has to pay double if he admits himself he just returns the stolen property if he is found guilty in court he has to pay double but if he steals domesticated animals an ox sheep or gold then he pays more than double but not only if he steals it he also has to either slaughter the animal or sell the animal to someone else so in such a case there is a quadruple payment or five times the payment okay now chapter 22 self-defense if you find a thief who is digging a tunnel under your house and you're worried that he might attack people who are inside and kill them but therefore you strike him and he dies there is no guilt for him which means the owner of the house or the passerby is allowed to kill a thief that is trying to enter someone's house because we assume that a thief that is entering a house if the owner will stand up to protect his money the thief will kill him and therefore if you see a thief entering someone's house assuming that someone is in the apartment or the house you may kill the thief because you thereby you're saving the owner of the house from death however if you know for sure that he is only going to steal he is not planning to kill the owner if he sees anyone in the house he is going to run away you know it for sure he is unarmed then you're not allowed to kill him and therefore verse 3 says if the theft shall be found in his possession he shall pay double but the previous verse says if he has nothing he shall be sold for his theft he becomes a slave and the money from his sale go to the victim verse 4 speaks about an a a person who allows his animals to go into someone else's field and they trample his produce or they eat his produce he has to pay for the damage verse 5 says if a man starts a fire and the fire spreads and goes into someone else's property and burns the man that started the fire has to pay next verse 6 and the next few verses speak about the laws of four kinds of guardians number one unpaid guard if a man shall give money or vessels to his fellow to safeguard and that it is stolen or lost the the guard is not obligated to return the property because he is unpaid his responsibility is minimal he is only responsible from uh for a neg for negligence as long as he does a good enough job whatever happens he's not responsible if he leaves it unattended or he himself breaks it then he has to pay but otherwise he is patoo and if the thief is found that himself pays double now um page 429 verse nine if a man shall give his fellow a donkey an ox or sheep or any animal to safeguard he will speak about the paid guard therefore if it's in verse 11 says if it is stolen from him he has to pay to the owner because he's paid for his services his responsibility is greater and he's responsible for loss or for theft the third kind of uh guard is verse 13 and that is a borrower if a man shall borrow from his fellow then he is obligated to pay not only for loss or theft he also has to pay for death of the animal or if the animal gets an injury and the fourth kind of the guard is a renter at the end of verse 14 it says if he was a renter it came in return for his rental which means any wear and tear of an object that you rented is covered by the rental price and even death if you rent a horse and while riding the horse the horse dies you're not responsible you rented it the horse was supposed to last until the end of the rental period and it died in the middle you're not responsible for the damage now we speak about in verse 15 laws of seduction if a man shall seduce a virgin who was not engaged he must marry her which means if a boy and a girl which is forbidden but if they have pre-marital relations the boy is obligated to marry the girl on the condition that she wants and her father allows but if the father refuses to give her to him he must pay the father um 50 silver shackles because he because of the loss of virginity verse 17 says a negative commandment you may not allow a store service to live anyone whether man or woman that practices sorcery must be put to death anyone who practices bestiality lives with an animal must be put to death anyone who serves idols must be put to death verse 20 laws of um converts as well as members of society that are less fortunate you shall not hurt or oppress a stranger stranger means a convert you shall not cause pain to any widow or orphan if you do cause cause pain to one of uh less fortunate members of society i shall surely hear his outcry and my wrath shall blaze and i shall kill such a person by a sword and their wives will be widows and children orphans we have to be very careful with widows orphans and converts hashem loves them and and gives them special protection verse 24 speaks about laws of lending money when you lend money to my people do not act toward him as a creditor which means don't press them don't say where's my money what are you going to pay and don't threaten them don't behave like a collection agency that is strictly forbidden on top of that do not lay interest upon him we're not allowed to charge interest on loans that we extend to jewish people okay next we're not allowed to curse not not god and not a leader of our people next verse 28 speaks about um laws of terumah various laws of uh agriculture agricultural laws someone is asking even after the law the time for the loan elapsed yes we can never charge interest as well as we can never press the the borrower to pay if we truly see that he cannot pay his poor we have to be as patient as possible to the point that when the seventh year comes we forgive the loan now will continue the law of animals if if an animal is born you have to wait for seven days you have to allow the baby animal to be with its mother for seven days and only then you're allowed to bring it as an offering from here we learn that a an offering can only be brought with an animal that is at least um in its eighth day this it's interesting that by by by baby boys we do a similar thing for seven days the baby is with its mother and only on the eighth day we offer him to hashem which means we do brit milan and similarly we do with animals they can only be brought as an offering on the eighth day of their life now laws of kashrut in verse 30 people of holiness shall you be to me you shall not eat flesh of an animal that was torn in the field that is called terefa any animal that was not slaughtered properly were not allowed to eat to the dog shall you throw it any non-kosher meat may not be eaten by jews but it can be given to our dogs chapter 23. laws of witnesses and judges do not accept a false report and that means that a judge is not allowed to listen to one witness only when um there are two witnesses you are allowed to listen because we don't trust one witness and therefore one witness turns into lashon because if we cannot act upon the information why is he saying it to us there is no point in it must be he is just slandering the the the victim if two people come then their word is trusted and therefore they're allowed to say these negative things about the victim okay witnesses have a prohibition to accept uh to be hired to accept bribes and verse two says do not be a follower of the majority for evil if you see that majority of society or majority of judges are doing bad thing you're not allowed to follow them even though we follow majority but we only follow the majority uh in in the in the decisions of the court as it says in in the same verse at the end of the verse in hebrew which is interpreted that um in in deciding judgments if you have an odd number of judges they will vote and we go after the majority but an individual judge shouldn't say oh most of my colleagues already made their verdict so i don't want to go against them my opinion is not going to matter anyway because the majority already expressed their view against me so i might as well just follow them no if you have an opinion that differs with the majority you should express that opinion okay so again we don't follow majority um anywhere except for the the court cases and we this is called we follow with the majority of expert opinion in judaism we don't have democracy and democracy really doesn't make sense because you're giving you're giving um the same vote the same weight to someone who knows nothing and to someone who is intelligent and uh and thoughtful and moral individual you might have a criminal a terrorist a a member of society that [Music] wants anarchy you will give him the same voice as uh as a sage as a righteous individual and therefore we see that the societies with with such um uncontrolled democracy they eventually break apart as we see is happening to the united states right now because in all elections most people vote and they have no idea what they're voting for whoever whoever advertises the most whoever screams the most whoever bribes the most gets elected that is not democracy so again um when we follow the majority it's the majority of expert opinion in verse 4 we have the law to return the lost object now we turn to page 435 and here we have um amitsva to help another jew to to unload his animal which means if you see a jew suffering struggling you have to help him whether he is carrying or having a burden you have to run and help him or even if his animal is carrying a heavy burden you have to go and help now some more laws about jewish court a judge must not have any bias whether the the one of the two litigants are rich wealthy or famous and the other one is not he has to treat them with the same respect and give them same rights a judge may not accept bribe and we have a law that a person is innocent until proven guilty this is a jewish concept and therefore we cannot execute a person or punish a person in any way unless we have two kosher witnesses that we checked them out and there there is uh firsthand um testimony they saw it with their own eyes we do not accept circumstantial evidence in the jewish court okay now in verse 10 and on we have a law of shmitan for six years you may work the land but in the seventh year you must let your land rest and then we have a positive commandment to rest on the day of shabbat six days shall you accomplish your activities and on the seventh day you shall stop and your animals must also rest even animals of a jew must rest on shabbat now we go to page 437 the name of the gods of others you shall not mention we're not allowed to mention names of gods of other religions and therefore if we have to mention uh false gods we change their names we give them a nickname to make fun of them in such a way you can mention them but not using a name that their followers consider uh respectful next we have the laws of the three the three festivals three pilgrimage festivals pilgrimage means that all male uh adult jews must go to yerushalayim three pilgrimage festivals shall you celebrate during the year the festival of matzot passover the festival of the harvest of the first fruits shavuot and the festival of the in gathering at at the close of the year that is sukkot verse 17 three times during the year shall all your men appear before hashem now verse 19 bikurim the mitzvah to bring bikurim the choicest first fruit of your land shall you bring to the house of hashem and then we have a negative commandment not to cook meat in milk you shall not cook a baby animal in the milk of its mother verse 20 hashem sets an angel to guide the jewish people some say this angel's name is michael some say it's an angel metatron and the gematria of the of the of the name metatron is the same as the gematria of hashem's name shaddai um behold i send an angel before you to protect you on the way and to bring you to the place that i have made ready verse 22 if you hearken to his voice and carry out all that i shall speak then i shall be the enemy of your enemies and persecute your persecutors verse 25 if you shall worship hashem your god he shall bless your bread and your water and he shall remove illness from your midst and there shall be no woman who loses her her young or is infertile and i shall fill the number of your days so many blessings we receive by serving hashem we get food and water and health and children and long life verse 28 i shall send the hornet swarms before you and they will drive away all your enemies which means hashem will send natural causes to help the jewish people fight against their enemies verse 30 little by little shall i drive your enemies away from you until you become fruitful and make the land your heritage and now the borders of the land of israel i shall set your border from the sea of reeds on the south and the sea of polish team philistines which is the mediterranean sea on the west and from the wilderness until the river until the euphrates river on the north and east so in times of mashiach these are going to be the borders of the land of israel from the sea of reeds the red sea all the way until euphrates river now we turn to page 441 you shall this is a negative commandment that we are we we are not allowed to allow uh to let idolaters live in the land of israel they shall not dwell in your land lest they cause you to sin against me that you will worship their gods and it will be a trap for you now chapter 24 the last chapter in mishpatim gives us more details of the giving of the torah matan torah what we learned in parashat yitro now we are speaking um about it again hashem set to motion of the elders of of israel but moshe alone shall approach hashem moshe came and told the people these words and they said all the words that hashem has spoken we will do moshe wrote all the words of hashem he arose early in the morning this is the day before matantora on the fifth of sivan and he built an altar at the foot of mount sinai and now we're gonna learn about the process how jewish people entered into the covenant with god every jew who was present then he underwent the process of conversion because until now they were monotheistic but they were not jewish yet now at mount sinai they became jewish how first they brought elevation offerings and and peace offerings shlamim and moshe took part of the blood and threw it on the altar and part of the blood he sprinkled on people he then read the book of the covenant so the people should hear it and people accept it upon themselves all the mitzvot everything that hashem has said we will do and we will obey moshe took the blood and threw it upon the people and he said behold the blood of the covenant or the hashem sealed with you concerning all these matters so the jewish people said the famous words na seven ishmael we will hear we will do and we will hear now all these steps that we learned about a non-jew has to undergo when he converts number one there must be circumcision just like jewish people did before they left egypt there must be uh mikveh must be immersion here instead of the immersion moshe sprinkled blood on them as well as in pasha detroit we read that jewish people had to immerse and wash their clothing immerse their clothing a convert likewise needs to bring offerings as we read here nowadays we don't do it because we don't have beta big dash but when beta big dash will be repealed soon in our days all converts who are alive then will bring the offering to hashem and the convert has to accept them it's what just like the jewish people here said i'm willing to do everything that i hear now verse 10 and all the way at the end of the page they store the god of israel and under his feet was the likeness of sapphire brickwork and it was like the essence of the heaven in purity these cryptic words what does it mean they saw god what does it mean that under his feet what does it mean the likeness of sapphire brickwork work and what does it mean essence of the heavenly purity these are deep concepts we're not going to speak about them now verse 12 the continuation of matan torah moshe ascends to heaven to receive the tablets of law hashem set to motion this is already on the day of matantora the sixth of sivan ascend to me to the mountain and remain there and i shall give you the stone tablets and the teaching and the commandment that i have written to teach them verse 15 moshe ascended the mountain and the cloud covered the mountain the glory of hashem rested upon mount sinai and the cloud covered it for six day period he called moshe on the seventh day from the cloud the appearance of the glory of hashem was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop before the eyes of the children of israel moshe arrived in the midst of the cloud and ascended the mountain he went higher and higher and moshe was on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights in parsha kitisa two more weeks from now we will learn about what happened in the meantime in the camp about the story of the golden calf but that will be later this concludes parashat mishpatim thank you for listening shabbat shalom