Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan Parshat Mishpatim 2

the second reason why you it cannot be taken literally is because it would only be possible if there was a way to afflict the exact same um punishment on the person on the attacker which is impossible um because we don't know how much pain he experienced we don't usually know how um far the knife went into his flesh how many millimeters we don't know whether there will be infection or we will cause more infection we don't know um the difference in in their sensitivity to pain maybe the victim wasn't so sensitive so he didn't feel pain or maybe he the injury happened so fast that he didn't feel pain and when we going to cut the attacker maybe he will feel more pain because he's sensitive or because we're going to do it a little bit slower or because he's going to know that we're about to cut him and therefore it's impossible to give exactly the same injury and if we by mistake give a little bit more injury then we are going to be the attackers then we are going to be guilty and we will sin and therefore the only possible uh um way to to give the victim compensation is by assessing the loss and forcing the the attacker to pay okay now we learn about damaging a Jewish slave verse 26 if a man shall strike an eye of his Jewish slave or Jewish slave woman and destroyed he shall set him free in return for his eye which means if you I'm sorry this is talking about a non-jewish slave a Jewish slave is the same as a free man if you injure a Jewish slave you have to pay him the five uh payments however if you injure a non-jewish slave for example you knock out his eye he automatically goes free and if he knocks out the tooth of his slave he shall set him free so too if uh the master causes injury to to non-jewish slave by knocking out his tooth even one single tooth the non-jewish slave becomes free okay next we learn about death to a human being caused by animals if an ax shall Gore a man or woman and he shall die the ax shall surely be stoned but the owner is innocent because accidents happen verse 29 but if if it was an ax that goes habitually if it already had happened three times and its owners had been warned but did not guard it and it killed a man a woman for the fourth time the ax shall be stoned and even its owners shall die here that means that the owner will will suffer early Death at a young age at the hands of Heaven because the owner did not actually commit murder there is no death penalty from the court however because he was negligent and he did not uh kill the the killer Ox he is put to death I'm sorry he deserves death penalty at the hands of Heaven which means he will usually die before the age of 60 however he can avoid the early death in verse 30 when an atonement payment shall be assessed against him he shall pay as a Redemption for his life whatever shall be assessed against him so again because it was not an intentional murder and not um direct murder he can avoid um the the Heavenly death penalty by paying to the victim the value of his life now um in verse 32 if the ax shall Gore a slave a non-jewish slave then 30 silver shackels shall he give to his master and the ax shall be stoned a human life is precious and therefore any animal that kills a human whether he is free man whether he's a slave whether he is adult or a child that animal is put to death and in addition the for the damage that this um animal caused the master by killing his slave the owner of the ax must pay 30 silver coins next we learn about damages um done by a pit or by obstacles left on a street if a man shall uncover a pit or dig a pit and not cover it and an ax or donkey fall into it the owner of the pit shall make full restitution and uh now what about damages by um one animal to another animal if one man's ax shall strike his fellow's ax which dies the Torah tells us they should divide the damages because again it was um an accident unexpected the owner of the ax pays for half the damage and the owner of the Dead ax suffers only half of the damage however if the ax gored habitually which means three times it already gored then the owner must pay full price in place of an ax uh he pays full damages if it's the fourth time that the ax goes now punishment for stealing livestock if a man verse 37 if a man shall steal an ax or a sheep or a goat and Slaughter it or sell it he can no longer return it he shall pay five cattle in place of an ax and four sheep in place of a sheep this is a unique punishment specifically for an ax or sheep if a man steals an ax he has to and the ax is no longer alive he has to pay five times its value to the owner and for a sheep he has to pay four times its value to the owner now we're on page 427 chapter 22 laws of self-defense if you discover a thief going into someone's house and you kill him you're not guilty because we assume that the thief that is going into an inhabited house he understands that there might be people here there and if they will see him they will try to protect their money and they will fight him and he is willing to kill them and therefore you can kill such a thief even before he enters the house verse three if the theft shall be found in his possession he shall pay double so there are various payments that the thief must make in a regular case if he steals and then he regrets he just Returns the stolen property however if he's taken to court and the witnesses testify against him he denies and the witnesses have to prove that he's guilty then he pays double and then we have a special case if the stolen object was an ox or sheep then he will have to pay five times or four times now in verse four we learned about laws to uh your property by someone's animals if a man permits his livestock to eat in the field or to trample someone else's field from the best of his field and from the best of his Vineyard shall he pay he should either pay cash for the damage that his animals ate in his field or trample or if he doesn't have cash he gives the best of his own field he gives a portion of the field that is worth that money or he can give any um object that is worth money now in verse five we learned about damages by fire if a fire shall go out which means you made fire in your own property legally but you did not watch it properly and the wind carried the fire into someone else's property the one who kindled the fire shall make restitution the the person who started the fire must pay full damages um to the victim now in verse six and on the next page we have laws of four guards and there are um four different categories the uh volunteer guard someone who watches your items for free no payment unpaid guard or a paid guard or a borrower or a renter each one comes with their own unique set of rules for example verse six says if a man shall give money or vessels to his fellow to safeguard and it was stolen the householder has to swear that he did not damage it he did not take it or use it and the owner of the object accepts the The Vow and the guard doesn't have to pay because he was a volunteer he did him a favor he's not responsible for theft however a paid guard is responsible for um theft or loss in verse 9 if a man shall give his fellow a donkey or an ox or a sheep or any animal to safeguard for money then he is responsible for theft or loss however if the animal dies or is broken it gets a broken foot which is an accident or was looted looted means he was um robbed by force armed robbery then he is not guilty an oath of Hashem shall be between them both of them that's all he needs to do to swear that he did his job properly that he didn't do the damage he he didn't neglect it and he doesn't have to pay in verse 13 we learn about the borrower if a man shall borrow from his fellow then he's responsible for all damages except for regular wear and tear and uh at the end of verse 14 we learn about the renter if he was a renter it came in return for his rental then he is not only not responsible for wear and tear he's also not responsible for uh death of of the animal because he hired him to work and if the animal died it's not his fault he he would he was using it properly according to the manufacturer's instructions and it's not his fault okay now in verse 15 we learn about seduction of an unmarried uh girl who is a virgin if a man shall seduce a virgin who was not betrothed was not uh engaged to any other man and lie with her he shall provide her with a marriage contract as his wife so he has to do one of two things anyone who has premarital relations with another woman either must marry her immediately medely or if the father refuses or she doesn't want he must pay her 50 silver coins as a punishment for premarital relations now we're on page 431 laws about sorcery you shall not permit a sorceress to live there's a commandment to kill a anyone who practices black magic Verse 18 about bestiality anyone who lies with an animal shall be put to death idolatry one who brings offerings to the gods or to Idols shall be destroyed then we learn about the sensitivity to the helpless and poor verse 20 you shall not taunt or oppress a stranger here we mean a convert verse 21 you shall not cause pain to any widow or orphan because if they cry to me to God I will hear their outcry and my wrath will shall Blaze and I shall kill you by the sword and your wives will be widows and your children orphans very severe punishment for hurting poor people converts widows or orphans verse 24 we learn about um proper lending of money when you lend money to my people do not act toward him as a creditor which means do not force them to pay if they don't have money be gentle with them even though the time to pay back came but you know they cannot afford it give them extra time and additionally do not do not lay interest upon them here we learn that it's forbidden to charge interest on loans then in verse 28 we learn that you have to observe the order of uh Priestly gifts first you have to separate the first fruits then tum the portion that we give to Coen then ma the portion that we give to Levites and then M sh the 10% that we separate to be eaten in Yus by ourselves then in verse 29 we learn that if an animal is born you cannot offer it as a sacrifice for the first seven days of its life you have to first allow to live with its mother and only on the eighth day you can offer it now verse 30 laws about not eating non kosha meat people of Holiness shall you be to me you shall not eat flesh of an animal that was torn in the field to the dog shall you throw it that means that if an animal was a domesticated animal was attacked by a wild animal and it's about to die we are not allowed to kill it and eat it you can kill it and feed it to your dog because it was injured that is called ter chapter 23 some laws about Witnesses and judges the the whole court system do not accept a false report and do not accept uh witnesses that take bribes do not be a follower of the majority for evil here we learned the law a unique law that in the court case if we're judging someone whether he is guilty for capital punishment and the judges are split with a majority going that he is guilty but the majority of one we cannot kill him unless we have a greater majority you must have a majority of three or more in order to put someone to death even though there are two witnesses that saw it and they warned him and they come and testify and we check out the witnesses and they're correct and the majority of the Court rule that he deserves death penalty since it's only a small M majority of one per judge we are uh lenient with this person and we don't put him to death because again human life is so precious that we we don't kill someone unless we're 100% sure and for that we need the majority of three verse three do not glorify a destitute person in his grievance which means if a poor person comes to court against a rich person the judge cannot show him extra Mercy cannot say oh he's poor I have to help him let me tell him that he is right the rich person has a lot of money he's not going to feel the loss let him support the poor we're not allowed in court cases we must be completely honest we cannot take money from Rich and give it to poor that is evil that's called perversion of the law um now in verse four we have a Mitzvah of returning the Lost object if you encounter an ax or donkey wandering you shall return it to him repeatedly and the Torah tells us you have to do it even to those that you don't like even if he's your enemy a Jewish enemy Shalom you have to return to him the Lost object now we're on page 435 we have a Mitzvah to help unload and animal if you see the Dunkey of someone you hate crouching under its burden you shall help rep repeatedly with him and some more laws of proper Justice verse six do not pervert the Judgment of your poor person which means uh similar to what we learned before that you're not allowed to treat a poor person with more Mercy here we're learning that you're not allowed to treat the poor person more uh harsh than the rich you have to be completely honest don't bend the law not towards mercy and don't bend it towards harsh judgment verse seven distance yourself from a false word not only don't say falsehood but be far away from falsehood from here we learn that sometimes it is permissible to say something that is not true for example to protect someone's fin uh F money or to protect someone's dignity whether it's another person or yourself also you're allowed to uh not say the full Truth for modesty reasons and for privacy reasons which means information that uh others are not supposed to know you don't have to tell them then the verse continues do not execute the innocent or righteous which means even though you feel that somebody is guilty but you don't have witnesses he's considered innocent and you cannot punish them but you don't have to worry because God says I shall not exonerate the wicked which means live it up to Hashem don't do anything illegal if you cannot accomplish Justice in a legal way leave it up to God and he will take care of the criminal verse eight do not accept a bribe judges are not allowed to accept bribes verse 9 do not oppress a stranger for you know the feeling of a stranger be because you were strangers in the land of Egypt now we have laws of sh of a sabatical year for 6 years shall you plant in your land and gather its produce but in the seventh year you shall leave it untended and UNH harvested you cannot plow you cannot plant and you cannot Harvest however you have to open your borders your Gates and the poor people and even animals are allowed to enter your fields and eat the grass or the fruit the land becomes ownerless nobody can take possession of it but anyone can enter and eat people cannot Harvest and take home but they can eat whatever they want from your field verse 12 some laws about Shabbat six days shall you accomplish your activities and on the seventh day you shall rest from work now page 437 the name of the Gods of others you shall not mention from here we learn that we're not allowed to mention the gods or Idols that other religions believe in and you should not even use their names in passing for example you shouldn't say oh meet me by that place where they serve that Idol like meet me by the church or whatever the the synagogue is right across the street from such and such place of idol worship should not mention the names of um Idols in verse 14 we have some laws of the three festivals P sh and Suk three pilgrimage festivals shall you celebrate for me during the year pilgrimage means when all the Jewish males have to go to yam to bet mikdash and and bring offerings the Festival of matot that's the PES in verse 16 the Festival of the Harvest of the first fruits that's the shav and the Festival of the in gathering at the close of the year that is sukot in gathering means when you bring the Harvest back in into your home verse 17 summarizes it three times during the year shall all of your men people appear before the Lord Hashem and in verse 19 we learn about Bim the first fruits the choicest first fruit of your land shall you bring to the house of Hashem your God and now the famous law of not C meat with milk you shall not cook a baby animal in the milk of its mother and it's repeated in the Torah three times to tell us that we're not allowed to do three things with meat and milk we're not allowed to cook it even if we're not planning to eat we're not allowed to eat it even if someone else cooked it and we're not allowed to derive benefit from it which means meat and milk that were cooked together we're not allowed to feed it to our our animals and therefore when you buy dog food or cat food you have to check that the ingredients don't have dairy and meat together specifically Dairy with beef if it has Dairy with pork or it has Dairy with chicken that is permitted for a dog not for humans but for a dog but if it's dairy milk and beef that we cannot even feed to dogs now verse um 20 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 we're on page 439 here Hashem warns the Jewish people that if they misbehave and they sin Hashem will will withdraw his presence from them and instead he will send his Angel to guide them um and now in verse 22 we learn about blessings for observing God's word for if you listen to his voice and carry out all that I shall speak then I shall be the enemy of your enemies and persecute your persecutors I will annihilate the amorites the kites the pites canites Kites and yit verse 2 5 continues the blessings you shall worship Hashem your God and he shall bless your bread and your water and I shall remove illness from your midst there shall be no woman who loses her young or is in Fertile in your land I shall fill the number of your days you will have long life verse 28 I shall send the Hornet swarm before you and I will drive away all your enemies verse 30 explains how we will conquer the land little by little shall I drive them away for you until you become fruitful and make the land your heritage borders of the land are described I shall set your border from the sea of reeds on the Southeast to the Sea of Philistines this is the Mediterranean Sea on the west and from the Wilderness on the south until the river Euphrates River on the North these are the biblical boundaries of the land of Israel it it goes all the way from the the Sea of reeds the Gulf of akaba all the way to the Euphrates River now we turn to page 441 uh we have a commandment not to allow idolators to live in the