Parashas Mishpatim: Wonderful Contradiction

I thought it odd that the rabbi referred to the contradiction that we had on our hands to be wonderful. But that's what he exclaimed as he built up the apparent problems between these two Halachos and the Ram-Bam the great Rav. Discussing a topic about listening to Brachos and Shoma'a Ka'ona, he yelled out loud ah, what a Geshmachistirah, what a wonderful contradiction. I thought it was odd. Who likes contradictions? What a fabulous incongruity. What an enjoyable disperance. It doesn't make any sense. Why would the rabbi like such a thing Now? Maybe since this rabbi continued on his quest for truth to explain the contradiction as the beautiful Shir came together. Maybe that's why he found it to be wonderful, because he knew how all the pieces were going to come together. But we were still far before that point. We still had a big problem on our hands. So did it make sense that it should be wonderful now? And all the other members of the show when they were listening to it, they also found it to be wonderful. Maybe they knew the end or were just excited do we get fired up in Judaism see what was going to happen. But why about two conflicting teachings? Doesn't seem all that fun. It certainly doesn't seem wonderful, or Geshmach. So at the beginning of Parashashmish Shpottim, I welcome you into this weekly Parashapandar. Believe we have the answer that will teach us something about how to learn, how to learn Torah. That is maybe a point of controversy, something that bothered me, and I wondered what you will say about it. Perhaps you will argue and hopefully we will understand why problems. Stirras in learning are indeed Geshmach. They're wonderful. And our Parasha begins and these are the laws that you shall arrange before them. We are about to get a halachic manifesto, a big book of rules, a code of conduct. We're actually going to get the Torah about what we are to do, how we are to act in our daily lives as servants of Hashem, but instead of the Torah, beginning the Parasha with aila, these are the Mishpottim, these are the laws. It says vih aila and these are the laws. Ashi picks up on it. Of course, nothing goes underneath the very keen eye of our teacher. Vih says Rashi is coming to add Because A'la, if it would say it without the Vov, would say that these and nothing else. But V'A'la says and these is including something else. What is V'A'la coming to include? She tells us Mahārishonem misinai af A'lumisinai. Just like the original, the OG 10 commandments are directly from Sinai. The following book of laws and all the Halachos are also from Sinai. So V'A'la and these are also from Sinai. Okay, but we are not crazy to ask. Well, why would anyone think not like that? Why, all of a sudden, right when I was preparing for this week's partial, I didn't assume these following Halachos to be not from Sinai. Of course it's from Hashem. So why does the Torah feel a need to come and tell us? And Rashi pointed out right here make sure that you remember that these Halachos are also divine, also sacred. V'a'la, they're also misinai, also from outside. But Rabbi Yeruchim points out that the answer is because if you continue to go through this partial and pick up all the different mitzvahs and understand what they are, it's possible that you may say well, you know, don't take a loan and charge interest. One could say, okay, I could have thought of that, it doesn't seem divine. Eventually, maybe one of the great sages would come up with that rule or all the different practical Halachos about helping out your friends and helping them load up their cars and if you see them with a flat tire pulling over to help them out, perica to Ina, taking care of people in the right way, dealing with money in the right way, dealing with converts in the right way. It isn't out of the question to say that eventually, a mortal man, some peace-loving politician, could have come up with similar ideas, similar laws. So we're reminded before no, these aren't made up inside of the breast of man, whereas heartbeats, but rather ve'elah ha-meshpatim, no matter how basic it may seem, no matter how self-understood it may seem, it is a strict and sacred Halacha. So ve'elahamish batim af elu misinai, to pull over and help your friend out. These halachos are not just social justice, knowledge that has been acquired and a book of laws that has been set up, but these halachos divine and therefore they do not change. You cannot add to them, you cannot subtract to them, and no matter how the social norms ebb and flow, no matter how barbaric one may say that circumcision is, before the next generation says that it isn't, before one generation will say that same gender marriage is absolutely inappropriate, before the next generation says that you are hindering a person's ability to express himself, none of it matters, because these halachos are divine, untouchable, irrefutable laws. Misinai, they came straight from Sinai, just like all of the other halachos. It also shot to my mind that the same thing happens with an introduction to remember that a book of laws is divine. In the Torah, at the beginning of Masachta Avos which, as you hopefully know, is a safer about muser, about ethics, about teachings about how to live life with the Torah's mahalich and before any of the teachings about living with a smile, not giving up hope, making for yourself a Rebbe, making for yourself a friend, judging people favorably. The Mishnah first teaches us that Moshe kibel Torah misinai, that Moshe accepted the Torah from heaven and he gave it to Joshua. And they gave it to the Zikanim and the Zikanim gave it to the Neviim, to the prophets, they give it to Anchiknesakadola. And then we get right into it and the great Rebbe, vajami Bartonura, the great author, the great Talmud, the great Halege Rebbe, who was the turnover from the Reshonym to Adahachronim and his epic Pyrrhus of Mishnah. It says right here Imer ani, I say Lephi shem asechesu. This Masachta distracted enam yused esal Pyrrhus mitzvah me, mitzvah haitayre kishar masachlusha be hishnah. It is not going to explain and make clear all the different psochem of the Torah, as does the rest of Shaz alakula musura umidos. Sachta Avos is going to talk about musur, ethics, umidos and proper character traits and character personalities envachach me. Umasa olam gamkein, hibrus avarim. There are smart people in the world psychologists, great thinkers that have also written books about ethics ke moishabal du milibon, bidarch ha musur, ke have Aristotle. And you have great thinkers, benjamin Franklin, smart people that have come up with rules that help to guide their lives, to make them as fruitful as possible, as kaita adi esnayga oedem enchave, or how one should act with his friend le fika ched is, for exactly that reason, hiskh al hatana. That mesechta avos begins with the tana's first mishnah, the mesechta zu that moshek kibel tayram misinay, to tell you, do not make this mistake that the meidos and the musur is about to follow in this mesechta, it is not from the hearts of the sages, it is not thought from the mind of the rambam or from the wisdom of rabbi akiva el afilu nem rumisinay. They are laws, the same way that it is prohibited to steal and one should say kriashima twice a day. They are mishpatim, strict, binding laws. They just happen to be in the world of ethics but halakhos and from seen eye they are. It's this difference between Jewish laws and other religions laws that is our vart this week, that ours are divine, they're irrefutable and they're from Sinai Partis. Mispotum is ve'elahamis potum, and these are the laws from Sinai, all of it, even the ones that are self-understood perhaps. Not to steal, not to charge interest and so to misch the ofos, even if it does make sense, of course you've got to have a teacher, you've got to have a master, you've got to be an apprentice of some great innovator to learn the ropes, but we do it because it is divine. That's what governs our lives. You mentioned mispotum a great amount. During Psuket de Zimra, during a lot of the Piotim, we said in Halleluca mispotum b'alu duum Halleluca I believe it's capitol or chapter 147, towards the end of Psuket de Zimra as well that the mispotum were only made known to us, the laws only. We know, but to them, to non-Jews, to Gentiles, they don't know. It would seem that there are some halachos, some basic understandings of how to better one's life that non-Jews still engage in, but it isn't because of. They are mispotum, they aren't divine. And all of this leads us to the answer to our original question. That's why stereo is our gishmak, because when a law is from the mouth of Hashem kaviyachol, so the answer is going to be something that sheds light on what the real Rutzon Hashem is, because it cannot be that Hashem would say to do this and then do this, which is the opposite. We must not be understanding it properly. We must be our heads that need to rethink it, dig deeper. It's why you find the Talmud constantly asking contradictions. There are men who I'll ask you a question Vehotania. What about the following teaching? It seems to be a fight. They seem to contradict. The Gomorrah will answer Vehuchabemayaskina. No, in this situation it's different, because X, y and Z, one of the most famous halachos ever taught, one of the most famous, hidushetairah, given over at the very beginning. I believe it's the second or third teaching by the great Rabbi Chaim Briskar, rabbi Chaim Salavachek, who made his money, quite literally, who wrote his safer that changed the entire Torah world with his new analytical way of thinking and expounding the Ram Bams halachos. It all starts with a contradiction, as do most of Rabbi Chaim's teachings, that this Ram Bams seems to imply one thing and another halacha seems to contradict, but no, because that's referring to this and the other halachos referring to that. And that little area, that patch between the two halachos, is where we see Ratzon Hashem and what the truth of the matter is the third shtickle we're talking about from Rabbi Chaim. It seems that one Ram Bams seems to imply that if one doesn't have the right concentration in his prayers, he may not fulfill his obligation. Another Ram Bams seems to imply that if he doesn't have concentration, it seems to be the opposite. Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. It seems a bit ambiguous. Rabbi Chaim points out to us that no, this Ram Bams is referring to where it's the first blessing. It seems to have concentration there, and the other Ram Bams are referring to the rest of Shimonah Esrae. That technically, even if you don't have concentration, it may be adequate or not adequate. But you get my point, you wouldn't have to repeat. There's a stear, a contradiction, but when you trust and you know that it's divine, you're forced to look deeper. And exactly as Rabbi Chaim continues to do, he shows you how to look deeper and then proves his thesis, his hypothesis, unequivocally and shows you why we need to have concentration in the first bracha. And the rest is history. It's halacha Mishpatim, ba'al yadu'um halaluka. It's what makes us Jewish Mishpatim, the fact that chesed is divine. It's also why it leads us to our next possible rant, that the new hobby. The new approach to Torah study is to make things practical, tangible, understandable, which is also understandable because it's our job to clarify Torah and to know what to do. But it isn't to be forgotten or lost that Torah is divine and hecher it's higher. And often, in a quest for clarity, we can fall into the trap of oversimplification, where we may take the Mishkan and try to understand it, which is good, but we may leave the topic thinking of it to be nothing more than a pretty shul, with some nice vessels forgetting that miracles would go on and spiritual, divine forces and miraculous revelations cannot exactly be oversimplified. To be made clear, sometimes we're forced to acknowledge that we have a lack of understanding. Sometimes our brains only take us so far and instead of oversimplifying, dumbing down, if you will, certain hecher higher concepts, to do our best job, to understand what we can, but never to wreck the material in a quest to make things practical. I wouldn't think so. The Elhameshpaten, it's from Sinai Tashem's house. It also makes sense that if we can't understand something, that's good, because if we were able to understand something, then it would not be very telling that we are Brei Secha Anachnu, that we are God's creations. After all, we have been created by Hashem. So now it would make a lot of sense that we can't always understand our Creator's objectives and wills. Sometimes things are above us and it takes a lifetime to learn them. So would it in the same way, shakyu, if an iPhone didn't know Steve Jobs' life and wants it's above him? Brei Secha Anachnu, were creations, would it shock you if prime music didn't know Bezos' ins and outs of his personal life? I mean the muscle, the parable is terrible, but Brei Secha Anachnu. The fact I'm trying to put forth is that our loneliness and comparison to our Creator is exactly part of Tyra and the quest of keeping the laws high and divine and sacred, while climbing up as opposed to dumbing down and pulling lower. To oversimplify, god forbid. That's never the approach and that's why steros are wonderful. It's why contradictions are gishmak and so much of the fun, exciting, revealing. Torah begins with a. How can it be that Hashem would say this and then that oh, how ch'bama'i eskinan must be this? This would be impossible. One would be looked at as a fool to ask a contradiction between the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights. How could it be that this amendment stayed azoi and the Magna Carta stayed azoi. How could it be that the Gettysburg Address began with this but the Emancipation Proclamation says this nonsense? The laws of man, they ebb, they flow, they change based on what people want and what the leaders of the society are interested in on that given day. You can't ask contradictions because you'll be a fool. Not so by Tyra Brei, secha Anachnu. We are Hashem's creations and it's our job to keep the Torah high and lofty and climb, to do the best job we can of understanding it. And sometimes the Mishkan is a Mishkan. The miracles happen that you can't exactly explain. It's all divine and while the minds of man and modern laws may change, one day marijuana use may be inappropriate, illegal, and the next is tolerated. Now it's taxable, it's good for the government, you know, let the people have free will. So now it's allowed, and that changes from day to day. Same gender marriages depends on who's in charge. On the current day, certain amendments could come and prohibit alcohol and that can be repealed. Rescinded women's voting yeah, not this way, the other way. But none of that can ever have a shmacka contradiction, because it's man made laws, sychlias, but our laws are ve'e'elahamishpatim, and these are the laws that should be placed before you, for they are divine, for they are sacred and they govern our lives and it's our job to cheerfully obey them. And if you'll allow me just to make one more short rant and something that I'm guilty of and I'm thinking about maybe eradicating or trying to attempting to take out of my vocabulary, as I found a great rabbi, someone I respect, but it rubbed me the wrong way and I wonder what you think about this point of controversy when he attempted to explain, did this rabbi the knowledge of a certain halacha with a poem by a rabbi Frost Robert Frost, I should say, and miles to go before we go and miles to go before we go. It's a nice poem. I'm familiar with it, perhaps you are too, but it was odd to me, even though the poem did help, clarity, but it felt odd to prove, clarify and give over a truth that is untouchable, that is hot with spirituality and sacred with something that is from mortal man and maybe a smart man, but certainly not a Jewish man, at least not to my knowledge would seem not so cool. So I'm thinking about the times that maybe I use references from the non-divine to prove divine things. Maybe it isn't horrible, but it seemed different, not so appealing to me I'm interested in your opinion on that but we conclude that our job is ve'elahamishbhatim. It gives us peace to know that laws don't change. We have structure in our lives, we do what we're told and this guides us to the promised land. You can't admit to us, you can't take away and that's all part of the fun and the playground of Talmud Taira. When you get to find it, you can smack a contradiction, because now you get to dig deeper and you find that. Oh, rashi asked the question and explains to you and proves to you exactly the answer. And every shmakasira leads us to a wonderful, beautiful answer that only unearths another layer of the Ratzon Hashem. So, ve'elahamishbhatim, let us all live by the holy, divine and sacred laws that have been given from Sinai.