Ziv: Parashat Mishpatim

A priestly kingdom and a holy nation

The parashas Jethro and Mishpatim are connected in the Hebrew with a “waw consecutive” indicating that they are intimately related both on the grammatical level and on the temporal level. In fact, on a temporal level they are so related as to make one unit. This unit is so strong that it is here (Exodus 19:11) that Rashi famously affirms, citing tradition: “there is no before and after in the Torah”. But to understand the complexities of the events here, we need to return to the source - to the covenant that God made with Abram in Gn 15. We have often returned to this fundamental covenant in our studies of the previous parachas because it is a tremendous help in our efforts to understand the actions of the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There is also the important realization that the people of Israel has never stopped studying the divine word, even in its oral transmission - the covenant and all the history that accompanies it were always transmitted from generation to generation. This covenant is now at the point of fulfillment. The people is again “here” - at Mount Sinai - 430 years after the covenant, 400 years after the birth of Isaac and in the fourth generation after Jacob’s descent into Egypt, precisely as was said to Abram, with “great possessions” (Genesis 15:14). The story of the burning bush teaches us also that the people will come to Mount Sinai to “[serve] God on this mountain” and “[offer] sacrifices to the Lord our God” (Exodus 3:12.18). In both cases, there is not a word on the giving of the law that will happen.

The covenant will be struck at the end of our paracha, but on a temporal level, it has already taken place in the 19th chapter - before the giving of the law and the Ten Commandments, as Rashi reminds us. The events of the 24th chapter serve as a “zoom-in” to the events of the 19th. Let’s compare a few details: “Then Moses went up to God” (19:3); “Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship at a distance” (24:1); “Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine” (19:5); “Moses took the blood and dashed it on the people, and said, “See the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” (24:8). The people accepts the covenant and responds: “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do” (19:8) or “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient” (24:7).

The renewing of the covenant and the sacrifices frame the giving of the law because they are necessary in order to make the children of Israel “a priestly kingdom and a holy nation” (19:6), so that they can receive the divine law. This is why the parachas are connected not only by grammar and time, but also by the altar. Jethro ends with the laws of the altar, with these words: “You shall not go up by steps to my altar, so that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.” (Exodus 20:26). But we know that this cannot be physical nakedness since the priests are commanded to wear “linen undergarments to cover their naked flesh; they shall reach from the hips to the thighs” (Exodus 28:42). The nakedness here is the shame - the nakedness of conscience before the altar of God. All the laws that follow deal with the dignity of man and his freedom, and the conscience of a people where each person is priest and each person needs to climb slowly to the altar of God having worked no injustice towards his fellow man or towards God’s creation. Shabbat Shalom.