This is how you CATCH people doing GOOD things (Parshas Mishpatim)

we love to be judges we love judging people it's very easy to judge and fun too we love doing it okay friends we are back we're discussing the Torah portion of Misha teim of laws the Jewish Court justice system and much of this portion is dedicated to to discussing various ethical and reasonable laws in the Torah the Jewish value system prior to diving into the Jewish system of law that the Torah opens up with if you look at the end of the previous Torah portion it discusses the laws of the altar now when you look at an actual Torah book it's just one seamless uh continuation laws of the altar laws of the Jewish Court Justice and even though they're in two different portions the sentences are just opposed next to each other and Rashi says that this touches us an important lesson the Court justice system the courthouse the ultimate authority of Judaism the Sanhedrin the high Supreme Court had to be located in the temple near the actual Altar and that's why in the Torah the two concepts are josed next to each other but why is that important why is that such a big deal why does the higher abinal Court the Supreme Court the San hedrin need to be located adjacent to the Altar and why is the Torah going out of its way to tell us that and to make such a big deal out of this if you know an answer to this question share it in the comment section below I'd like to share with you the perspective of the Cleo that when you look at the laws of the altar in the temple the Torah tells us specifically that the altar cannot have stairs going up to it it was quite High it has to have a ramp what's the reason for this there are several reasons but one of the reasons is stairs are so you can go quickly so you can expedite your your journey a ramp compared to stairs takes a little bit more time you take smaller steps and it's it's a little bit slower the alter that has a ramp that you have to go up slowly and approach slowly is located right outside the courthouse to remind the judges that they need to approach cases slowly they need to judge slowly they can't be quick to judge this is an important lesson because you could have seen this case a million times you've seen this before and you could be desensitized but the judge needs to treat every individual uniquely every case as unique because no two people are alike no two situations are alike and this is a powerful lesson in our own lives because we love to be judges we love judging people it's very easy to judge and fun too we love doing it and it's so important that we judge people slowly that we're slow to judge that we're humble when we judge we're not quickly thinking oh I've seen this I know what he's up to I know what's going on we never know almost 100% of the time you have everything to gain and nothing to lose by judging favorably by coming up with the most best case scenario especially if you're not a judge and you don't need to be um impartial if you're not actually a judge we just like to judge so let me tell you a story I run a summer camp and several months ago at the beginning of the summer we were training our counselors and I wanted them to keep an eye out for uh vandalism and I said inevitably you have that child who likes to take the paper towels and make a big mess and throw them all over the floor and you know we can't have that we're renting a public space and we need to be respectful so let me know if that happens a few weeks in a counselor comes up to me Rabbi Josh the kid I found the kid what kid the kid who throwing the paper towels everywhere Sirens go off I'm kidding I run towards the kid and I'm about to chastise him and let in and I decided you know what and thank God I did I decided to approach this a little bit more slowly and just to talk it out with him the kid was four years old and I said to him did you put these towels in the flo he says yeah I said why he says to me not everybody can reach the paper towels he's looking from the perspective of a four-year-old and I want to help people so I pulled them out and I put them on the floor so people can reach it how beautiful imagine if I would have been quick to judge and just crack down we don't throw paper towels on the floor and start chastising I never would have seen the beautiful intentions of this child this child was trying to do something beautiful he was trying to help if we're slow to judge we may catch somebody doing something good that's my story and I'm sticking to it