Mishpatim MiSinai: Torah Justice, Kavod HaBriyos, Honest Dealings, and Making Shalom

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. ...אלה המשפטים אשר תשים לפניהם. These are the mishpatim, the laws, the rules that you should put in front of them. And the Torah begins with the parsha of eved Ivri. If a person attains an eved Ivri, buys an eved Ivri, so he works for seven years, ובשביעית יצא לחפשי חינם. It's interesting, when you want to say laws, there's so many more basic rules and laws, which should have been the beginning of the sefer of Mishpatim, the rules. Why does it talk about the parsha of eved Ivri first? The Ramban already asks this for a question. The Ramban says, it's an interesting thing to observe. Why does it begin with the parsha of eved Ivri? Says the Ramban, התחיל המשפט הראשון בעבד עברי. It begins the mishpat rishon. Rule one. The book of laws and rules, chapter one, rule one is Eved Ivri. Why? Says the Ramban, mipnei sheyesh bishiluach ha'eved b'shanah hashvi'is zecher l'yetzias Mitzrayim, ha-nizkar b'dibur rishon. Says the Ramban, because it's deeper than just, it's deeper than just the parsha of Eved Ivri, the Ivri and his law, the Eved Ivri and his laws. But it goes to the heart, to the yesod of emunah in Yetzias Mitzrayim. Like the pasuk says, Vezacharta ki eved hayisa b'eretz Mitzrayim, vayifdecha Hashem Elokecha; al kein anochi metzavcha es hadavar hazeh hayom. And then the Ramban continues that it's not only a symbolic reference. Eved Ivri is not only bringing out zecher l'yetzias Mitzrayim, but it's also zecher l'brias ha'olam, zecher l'brias ha'olam. V'yesh bo od zecher l'maaseh bereishis k'Shabbos. It also has a commemoration, a remembrance of Shabbos. Ki hashanah hashvi'is l'eved Shabbosayin. Also, it's resting. It reminds us, rest of Shabbos. V'yesh bo od shevi'i b'shanim shehu ha'yovel. It also echoes. Yoivel, ki hashvii nivcheh b'yamim uv'shanim uv'shmittah, yisvakel inyan echad. V'hu sod yemais ha'olam miBereishis ad vayechulu. V'lachein hamitzvah hazos re'uyah l'hakdim osa, shehi nichbedes me'od, remezes devarim gedolim b'maaseh Bereishis. So, Eved Ivri seems like laws of the eved. It's not. It's a lot deeper. It encompasses Shabbos, and zech l'yetzias Mitzrayim, yoivel, yemais ha'olam, the beginning of time and throughout till the end of time. Meileh, that's why it begins with this mitzvah, unbelievable. And the Ramban continues, v'lkach hichbirah haTorah me'od. That's why the punishment for Eved Ivri not sending away the Eved Ivri is very strict. It's very severe. V'amar, anochi karisi bris es avoseichem mikeitz sheva shanim tishlchu ish es achiv. V'gazah ba'avur hagalus, we go to galus because of this as well.

So the Ramban is learning that the mitzvah—see, I was going to say it's just a mishpat, but it's more than a mishpat. It's a mitzvah. Shiluach avadim has in it—almost, let us use the word religious. It's not only medini. Medini means laws of land, the rights of the eved Ivri. It has a lot of religious. It has a lot of about emunah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu creating the world, that we left Mitzrayim, is all symbolically woven into the fabric of the mitzvah and the din of eved Ivri, to the point that one who does not keep this law gets a strict, strict punishment, and that we go to galus over it, because it reflects on our emunah. I think with this Ramban, we can understand the whole introduction of mishpatim that is given to us in the Rashi: Ve'eila hamishpatim, ve, ve, ve'eileh. Ve'eileh—kol makom shene'emar eileh, pasal es harishonim. Ve'eileh mosif al harishonim. Whenever it says eileh, it's disconnecting from the previous. Ve'eileh is to, and also. Ma harishonim miSinai, ve'eilu miSinai. That just like Parshas Yisro... Kabbolas haTorah, Aseres HaDibros, is miSinai. So too this parsha, the mishpatim, the rules, the medini rules. Medini means what's needed for every country, the basic day-to-day life rules. Those too are miSinai. Now what's the chidush? Why would I think they're not miSinai? And why do I need to be taught the emphasis that it is miSinai? Why would I think it's not miSinai? I would say, very simple: laws are made up by a constitution, which is made up by a bunch of smart lawyers and wise men in politics. Kamashmalan, the pasuk, Ve'eileh hamishpatim, the Chazal, the Rashi are teaching us, Ve'eileh hamishpatim, that even these rules, even these laws, were miSinai, given to us from Har Sinai, b'kedushah u'v'taharah, with a ma'amad ruchni, with a ma'amad of spiritual, holy ruchniyusdike matzav. So too these laws, which seem to be mundane, they're not mundane. Mishpatim is not mundane. It's not just a car hit another car, and what is the rule in court? No, it's miSinai. We find another Chazal. Chazal say, Asher ta'asim lifneihem. What's asher ta'asim lifneihem? Says Rashi, למה נסמכה פרשת דינים לפרשת מזבח? Previous parsha Yisro ends about—talks about the laws of the mizbeach, and here it begins, ואלה המשפטים, לומר לך שתשים סנהדרין אצל המזבח. Why? Why does the Sanhedrin that are paskening the halachos, basically between an ox and another ox, ki yigach shor ish shor re'eihu, an ox, a car hits a car. So where is the court, the appellate court that's going to listen to this? שתשים סנהדרין אצל המזבח. The big court needs to be next to the mizbeach. Why? So I understand that Sanhedrin is not just involved with mundane halachos. The Sanhedrin had to pasken many halachos which refer to even the Beis Hamikdash.

When have you had a shaila halacha, you have to go to a beis din, a posek. But it's not taught to us. Where the Sanhedrin is paskening extreme religious issues. It's taught to us where the Sanhedrin is paskening mundane things. And still, the Sanhedrin has to be eitzel hamizbeach. Why? Why does the Sanhedrin have to be next to the mizbeach? Let's go one step more. It says in the pasuk, asher ta'asin lifneihem, says Rashi, quoting a Tanchuma, v'lo lifnei ovdei kochavim u'mazalos. Afilu yadata b'din echad sheheim donin oso k'din Yisrael. And even if you know that the goyishe courts pasken exactly the way the Yiddishe courts pasken, the rules are the same, still you're not allowed to bring it to the goyishe courts, arka'os, sheha'meivi din Yisrael lifnei ovdei kochavim u'mazalos mechalel Hashem, meiker shem v'lilim l'hashbicham, shene'emar, ki lo k'tzureinu tzuram, v'oyeveinu plilim, k'she'oyeveinu plilim zeh eidus l'eil yirasam. So if you go to the goyishe courts, you don't go to the beis din, you don't go to the Sanhedrin. You're bringing out honor, honor to the false gods that these courts represent. I'm trying to bring honor to the false gods that represent the... I went to court, big deal. What am I saying? If you're going to come and say, listen, the rules are different, so I choose to follow the secular over the religious law. Okay, maybe. I don't see how that's meyaker. I'm making a tremendous respect for the secular gods, false gods, over our God, over the Rabbeinu Shalom. But I hear it a little bit. But if the laws are the same, the laws are the same, how did it become a religious matter? Going to the goyishe courts becomes, eh, he doesn't have a belief in the Rabbeinu Shalom. It's כאילו... גם פנים צו רבונו של עולם. How is it a disrespect to the Eibishter if I go to the goyishe court? I come three times a day to shul, and I daven and I thank the Eibishter, and I decide I'm going to go to the goyishe court. Now I understand, yes, it's not the right thing to do. I understand that maybe it's a slight to Jewish court over goyishe court. But how is it meyaker a little, and how did it go to the heart of religious, a religious issue? That's the question. How does which court I go to, a change, a disrespect in a religious aspect against the repentance? Now, if you say, again, like I said, the laws are different, okay, I hear, the laws are different. But if the laws are the same, what's the big deal? If the laws are the same, if the laws are the same, so where is the disrespect? You're right. Let's say a person has—you like the question—let's say a person has two stores, right? Two stores, this owner and that owner. The product is the same, same price. So you're right, the owner feels a little insulted, you know, why did you go next door if you could have came to me, right? So what are you going to come and say? Well, whatever it was, it was more comfortable for me to go here, for whatever reason it is. It was more comfortable, I don't know. The product is the same. I live closer. I don't know, whatever it is, it's—don't take it personal. But I meant to personally...

Light this, this owner? No, I did what was more better for me, what was more comfortable for me. You see some yesod here in the Chazal, that it goes to the heart of religion. Which court you go to. That a Jew who respects the Ribono Shel Olam, meyaker — meyaker is a lashon of respect. If you respect the Eibishter, you go to the Sanhedrin. You disrespect the Eibishter, you respect the false gods, then you go to the Goyishe courts. Where is the respect issue? How is it the respect issue? The Gemara also tells us, harotzeh lihyos chasid — if someone wants to be a chassid, he should be osek b'mila d'Nezikin. It's a Chazal. You should be involved, should dwell into the laws of nezek, of damages, which is Parshas Mishpatim. How is that a chassid? Chassid? The jump between hitting a car and the laws that you become a chassid because of that. I would always understand the word chassid: someone who's ultra-religious, a person who's learning all day. That's the picture we understand when we say a chassid, the holy man of Hashem, holy man of God. Here we're learning an interesting thing, someone... Who wants to be a chassid should sit and study about shoresh v'nogach es haparah, when one ox. Just for, what do they say, today's, a mashal of today: a car hits a car, yeah, a car hits a car. Study those laws. You know, there's a whole group of people, and I don't mean the slight lawyers. In English, they always, the politicians always say when they want to knock somebody, they say, Oh, I have my best friends are from this group, you know. I'll say the same thing. I have all my best friends who are lawyers, okay? So I don't mean the lawyers, huh? A lot of my talmidim are lawyers. They became lawyers afterwards. Obviously I don't mean much, okay? There's one of the lawyers here in the crowd is smiling, okay? Okay, I don't mean the lawyers, okay? So I put out a disclaimer in advance: I don't mean the lawyer. But tell me, if you want to have a dmut, if you want to have a symbol of a chassid, would you say it's the lawyer that's killing the other lawyer in court? The guy who's sitting there learning how to fight a good case for you, he's a chassid? A guy who's busy learning legal law. Legal law is getting down into the arena to fight, right, wrong, you owe the money, you don't owe the money, I could sue you, I can't sue you. That's not what we would picture what a chassid is. And again, yes, whoever it is, you're a chassid, okay, I don't mean you. All right, good, got it. How do we balance and how do we view law matters? What matters with chassid? Maybe we don't know what a chassid is. Could be. Maybe we're misunderstanding what a chassid is. Reb Yisrael Salanter, zicher tzaddik livrachah, if I'm not mistaken, on a historic note, I think Reb Yisrael Salanter, his levayah, his funeral, was erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Mishpatim. And the talmidim—this week, that's why I'm saying it—the talmidim who got up to eulogize Reb Yisrael Salanter brought out that it's not a coincidence, so to speak, that he passed away before Parshas Mishpatim, because to him, his avodah, his righteousness, his heiligkeit, his holiness was in this area, that he was zahir, he was careful in inyanei mamonos. When it came to money, he was extremely, extremely, extremely zahir, careful not to take somebody else's money. So maybe that is a chassid. Maybe we have the wrong picture and impression what a chassid is. And it's probably true, and many sefarim write about this, that what a chassid might mean is this.

Harei liyos chassid, he should be oisek b'ma'aseh nezikin, he'll know where to go lifnim. Lifnim mishuras hadin. With this Ramban, we could say that actually there's a bridge between emunah and religious reality — I think that's the right word — and mishpatim. Religion, emunah, and mishpatim are connected. Are connected. Yes, these mishpatim will bring us emunah. It will make us a more religious, connected Yid with the Ribbono Shel Olam. The Ramban is telling us, because in every law which seems to be basic human, it seems to be basic country law, medini, is really full with undertones of emunah in the Ribbono Shel Olam. It's to teach us ma'aseh Bereishis. It's to teach us zecher l'yetzias Mitzrayim. So it's not just what we think, oh, a car hits another car. The laws themselves are there to teach us not only how to act between bein adam l'chaveiro, but it's also a lesson. It also will emphasize and will also strengthen our bein adam laMakom. So you see from this Ramban. And so I understand the connection to Sinai, that just like by Sinai we learned Anochi Hashem Elokecha, all the mishpatim also are teaching us, miSinai, Anochi Hashem Elokecha. It also gives us the understanding that Anochi Hashem Elokecha. And then I understand why it's Eitz LaMizbeach, because it is kodesh, it is kedusha, it isn't mundane. I also understand why if I go to the goyishe courts, it's me'aker shem Elilim, because even if, let's say, the final analysis, they agree in the same points of the law, but how they get to it, the Gemara, the halacha behind the Gemara, the halacha behind all these rules, has in it what? Emunah in HaKadosh Baruch Hu, has bitachon in HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So the man d'bein adam l'chaveiro, in essence, is really bein adam laMakom. That's how I would have explained it, and in the past I have explained it that way, that the connection between Parshas Mishpatim and Yisro, Kabbalas HaTorah, Misinai, yes, that is holy religious. Mishpatim also will teach a person. Yes, it's bein adam l'chaveiro. Between man and man, but between the man and man halachas, you'll also grow. You'll also become stronger in bein adam laMakom. And so, it's a lamas beyach. And so, if I go to the Goyish courts, I might have the final halacha that if a car hits a car, you got to pay. Got it. But the way the Gemara builds to this final conclusion has so much emunah and yiras Shamayim and bitachon that if you bypass that and go straight to the arkaos, you will lose this emunah in HaKadosh Baruch Hu. I would like to introduce another pshat, another understanding, how the bein adam l'chaveiro of mishpatim actually makes a person a chassid for a different reason. Not only it has emunah, all these halachas. Not only does it have Matan Sinai, that you connect to the Eibishter, but it goes to the heart of what Jewish law is. There's law.

And there's Jewish law. Rabbi Yerucham mashgiach of the Tzal, Rabbi Yerucham mashgiach of the Mir, tzaddik levrachah, points out something so interesting. He says, let's analyze, let's analyze some of the undertones and some of the nuance of the halacha in the Mishpatim that are really different, strange, something that needs to be understood. For one example, he says, let's take the halacha of daled v'hei. A person robs. A person robs. A person robs. So if he robbed an ox, how much does he pay? He pays, right, meshalem hei. He pays five times the amount. If he robbed a sheep, he pays four. Why? It's because he had to pick it up. The cow he carries by the string. He can't pick it up, so he walks in the street with it. The seh, shenosei al kseifo, meshalem daled, hayol v'nisbazeh bo, because he got embarrassed. Tell me, you're talking about a thief, no? Could you imagine someone is robbing and we say, wait a minute, he got embarrassed. Who cares if he got embarrassed? It's my problem that he got embarrassed. Too bad on him. He pay less? He pay less because he got embarrassed? Tell me something, yeah. What would be the first thing the court would say? You deserve it. You deserve to be. Who cares? And because of that, you should get paid less. You should pay less money? Says Rabbi Yerucham, we see from here two things. First of all, we see how the Torah is careful even the embarrassment of a sinner. Tell me, if you had to come and make a rule, would you say, Oh, the poor guy, the poor guy, when he went into the store, he was caught on video camera. We have to give him a half. Of course, he did it. Who cares if he was caught on video camera? Who cares if he got an embarrassment from it? So the first thing is we have to identify how the Torah takes into consideration, the Torah takes into consideration in his punishment, to give him less of a punishment. And to who is he giving less of a punishment? In the payment that he has to pay, he gets less of a punishment. Second point, how much already is he embarrassed? You know, a lot of people walk in the street and they carry things. A lot of people walk in the street and carry things. People don't carry, they carry things. But in his mind, they're looking at me. They see me carrying it. That's also considered an embarrassment. See, see him running. Okay, see him running. Tell me, you never ran with a bag of things on your shoulder? You never did. Wow. Wow. Interesting. No, it's just ... I didn't know. Your wife never sent you to the store two minutes before Shabbos, huh? The point is, chaveisai, the point is, it's extremely subjective. It's a subjective thing, that what? That the guy is standing there and he's looking, and who said anybody saw him? And that also counts as a bizayon. So there's two chidushim, says the Daas Tevah, Rebbi Ruchem. One, what's bizayon, how the Torah looks at a bizayon as a real thing. It's something. It's something that we consider. And the second thing is that we take into account not to punish the person, and we consider that already part of his punishment. No person would have came up with such an idea. If they had to make up a rule in the Constitution based on the knowledge of...

of human intellect. No one ever thought of this. One, how much importance it is. Oh, he's embarrassed. That's such a big thing. And two, that should give him a lenient, a lenient punishment. So what do we see? That even in the mishpatim, there is chassidus. There's an angle and a view of chassidus in every punishment and in every mishpat. And where does this come from? Ki lo kitzureinu tzuram. The beginning of the pasuk, ki lo kitzureinu tzuram. We are created, tzur, in the image of the Rabbeinu Shloilam. And in the image of the Rabbeinu Shloilam, we have attributes: mahu rachum, af atah rachum; mahu chanun, af atah chanun. We see things differently. That's the pshat. Our laws are based on a tzureinu tzuram, that we are Yidden created in the image of the Rabbeinu Shloilam. Erech apayim. The Rabbeinu Shloilam has tremendous erech to get angry, doesn't get angry quickly. Rabbi Yerucham brings an interesting thing. Rabbi Yerucham says that he once saw a ganef. I got an onesh that he should get beaten. They beat him mercilessly. So when he asked what the reason that you're beating, and the answer was, He deserves it. He deserves it. The rule is the rule. The law is the law. Mazel chop off the hand, right? So Rabbi Yerucham said, What did he see from over here? He said that they don't see past the rule. The law, it is what it is. The law is the law. The undertones of rachmanus are not there. When you went into court, right, and you would say, I plead mercy. Now, in American courts, I don't know if it works, maybe it does work, I don't know. Today, who knows what does work, what doesn't work. I think if you plead that you did it, you get off quicker than if you plead you didn't do it. Oh, he did it? Okay, so let's not, let's not, let's not. So I don't know, I can't figure out the American courts. Can't figure it out. I once told you a story that my father told me, which brings out this point beautifully. He said he was once driving my grandfather in the mountains. My father doesn't hear fully, completely. People know my father, he is a little bit hard of hearing. And as he was driving, so there was something in the road, a construction or an accident, I don't know. So the cops were directing traffic right, left, to everyone, you know, they didn't want people to go straight, let's say. So my father is driving, and the cop told him to go right, and he didn't hear, he went left. Cops started banging on the windshield and the door. It was— so my father rolled up the window, and he said, I'm sorry, sir, but like, what happened? He said, You know that the rule is you got to follow what the cop said. He says, I should take you in and put you, lock you up, and he was mecharef, megadef him. He cursed the— the law is the law, the rule. He was screaming, he was yelling like an animal. My father said, I know the rule is the rule, but where's the adam? I'm a person, you're a person. Why'd you act like a human being? Rules sometimes take a person and change him that he shouldn't be a person. You lose the adam. You lose the adam. The laws, it's just rules. Laws are laws, rules are rules. They treat you like a piece of cattle. But that's the law, that's the rule. It is what it is. You know, the parsha of Eved Ivri is a pella also. What is an Eved Ivri? An Eved Ivri is, he stole. He stole. How does society view? A thief. A dirty thief.

Yet he goes into a Jewish home, and how does the master have to treat him? With the ultimate derech eretz, with the ultimate respect. If he has one pillow, the pillow goes to the eved. And what's the pshat? Ki loy kitzureinu tzuram, you see. There could be the basic rules. The basic rules, they might have the same, what you're supposed to do with a ganef and what you're supposed to do with a rotzeach. But the question is the nuance on how to treat him. How do you treat them? That has to do with kitzureinu tzuram, parshas mishpatim. And that's chassid. Why? I asked you a question: how you relate in parshas mishpatim, if you want to be a chassid, yaasok b'middos nezikin, because you know what that teaches you? Parshas nezikin teaches you how to be a chassid. It means how to be a baal middos. How does a Jew execute law? How does a Jew execute law? And the answer is because he's connected to the Ribono Shel Olam. Yes, of course there's an inyan of lifnim mishuras hadin. Yes, and that's also chassid. But there's a part of chassid which is really bein adam laMakom. In every bein adam l'chaveiro. There's so much bein adam laMakom because the Jew who's connected to the Eibishter behaves differently than someone who's not connected to the Ribono Shel Olam. Miyaker. I asked you a question: why does he use the word miyaker? Jews in their hanhaga are mekadei shem Shamayim. That's the pshat. Mishpatim is kiddush shem Shamayim. It's miyaker. How is it miyaker? Because ki tzureinu tzuram. We are creating the image of the Ribono Shel Olam. So how we behave bein adam l'chaveiro, how we execute, laws goes to the heart of the Ribono Shel Olam said, Anochi Hashem Elokecha. Yes, there's a religious aspect. That's true. Yes, there's also a concept of, in money, a person needs to be a chassid lifnim mishuras hadin. But it's a lot deeper. The way a Jew behaves in business speaks to what a Jew really is. It speaks to what Torah really is. Who is the most honest businessman in the whole world? Yaakov Avinu. The Gemara speaks, Yaakov Avinu was a chani cherev, a cherev balayla. Day and night he was oved his boss. Didn't take breaks. Today he asked for a break, right? What's the break? You ask for a break? A half an hour break. He wants a half an hour break, right? So what's a half an hour break? A half an hour break means when he feels that it's time to go back to work, then he takes his half-hour break. First he deserves a break, right? And then on top of that, he takes a half-hour break. That's not a half-hour break, Rabbi Yisrael. Every moment has to be oisek cheshbon. Do I have the right to do it? We don't even realize that in the times of the Gemara, there was halacha that a person who was working for somebody should not take a break even for benching, even for davening. Gezel. Concept of gezel. Let me tell you something interesting. The Rambam, in the end of Hilchos Sechiras Po'alim, in the Rambam, in the end of Hilchos Sechiras Po'alim, writes that where do we learn all these halachos from? Yaakov HaTzadik. Yaakov HaTzadik. No place does the Rambam call somebody a tzaddik. Yaakov HaTzadik. Why is Yaakov called a tzaddik? And the answer is because, yes, of course, he was honest.

But it goes deeper. Tzadik b'emunaso yichyeh. The way you deal with money, it echoes what's really going on inside your heart. It's an interesting thing. Money, money, commerce, goes to the heart of where your emunah is, like the Ramban is explaining to us, and it goes to the heart of where you're holding bein adam l'chaveiro in middos. It's an interesting... We think there's a yashrus in business because the laws mechayev yashrus in business. What does the word yashrus mean even? What does yashrus mean, to be straight in business? And the answer is, yashrus means lifnim mishuras hadin. It's not going to be yashrus. I don't understand. Tzedakah u'mishpat. Is it tzedakah? Is it mishpat? Is it mishpat? Is it tzedakah? And the answer is, a Yid has a different measure. A Yid has a different, what do you call it, ruler, how to measure yashrus. It's based on middos tovos. It's based on emunah. And that's the v'eila hamishpatim asher tasim lifneihem. I want to tell you something interesting, how Torah teaches a person sensitivity in halacha. There's a beautiful story that's said over from Reb Yisrael Salanter. That he was once testing, testing the boys in the class from the yeshiva, from the little children. And the kid did not know. The kid didn't know. So Reb Yisrael Salanter got up, and he left the room. He left the room. So people thought he left the room in protest. He left the room in protest. They see him pacing back and forth, and they try to listen to what he was mumbling. He was mumbling to himself. What was he mumbling to himself? A child is also a person, and he deserves respect just like everybody else. You hear the story? It's a beautiful story. And he went back into the room afterwards, and he treated the boy with respect, and he taught, and he was helping him to understand and give the answer. What did he mean, a child deserves respect? A child is eicha bench; he's also a person, and he deserves respect. What does that mean? The word deserves is the key. There's mishpat. There's rules. Respect to another person isn't just a courtesy, but it's a rule. He deserves it. He deserves to be respected. Almost in din, he could come and say, You owe it to me. You have to give it to me. We think that a person is nice, he's courteous. The word is courteous, because we think that being a baal middot is a courtesy. It's not a courtesy, Rabbi says. It's a mishpat. This is the law. Im chuyav. He has rights. And one of his rights is to be treated properly, to be treated with respect. This is mishpetei haTorah. When someone learns Torah, he starts to understand that the rights of others is a mishpat. It's a halacha. There's a mechayev. And it's not just being a nice person, not just being a sweet person. This is, Ve'ela hamishpatim asher tasim lifneihem. And to not understand all this means we don't understand ki kitzureinu tzuram, that a Yid represents something completely different. And as responsibility of a Yid, we need to behave in such a way. The opportunities for people that are in the workplace are very big. The nisyonos are very big. The tests are very big, to the point because people think almost you take it for granted that this is the way it's supposed to be. I remember years ago.

So someone came to ask me a question. If everyone in business, you know, bends a little bit, right? So is there a problem if I also, for example, let's say I had a carat of diamonds, right? And they want to say that something is two carats, so it doesn't have to be exactly two; it can be a little bit off. It's also called two carats. That's how they talk. Am I right? He says, Yeah, huh? A point. So someone came to ask me the shaila. Now, he deserves a lot of credit for asking the shaila. Don't get me wrong. Don't get me wrong. But me, as a person who sat and learned, I was horrified from the question. I was literally horrified from the question. What does that mean? What are you saying? What are you talking about, right? I mean, if it's not this, then it's not this. How come no one ever asked me the other way around? If it's two point something, and I give it to him, I can tell him that it's two point and charge him as it's two point. Did that ever happen? One man's yashrus is another man's akum. If I would go in business and sell you a diamond, 2.1 or whatever, give me, give me, I'm not sure I know what I'm talking about. Carats, carats, right? And I come and I say, You know what? It's two, and I'll sell it to you. You would say, What? Something wrong with him. And when I hear that the guy asks me if it's one point, he's allowed to say 299 too, I look at him like he's crazy. Someone's crazy over here. Actually, you like the mashal, you like it? You hear it. That bothers me that you hear it. I'm afraid. It has multiple points of measures, right? Yeah. So I'm asking you, it's minut, and the whole world does it. That is what everyone's saying. Everyone does it. Everyone. Is there a problem? I'll tell you the very— you know what the difference is? If you mean your toiva, if you mean you, that you know how you say 1.9, it's two. If you mean the other guy, you mean to make him, then 2.1 becomes two. Who's right and who's wrong? Probably both are right. They're probably both right. The only difference is, harotze lihyos chasid. Do you have emunah in Hashem? Do you have middos? The middos is an underlying, underlying, of all the halachos in the Mishpatim. The first thing is what? Chasid, chasid, chasid. Emunah. We spoke about this. You know, I just want to end with the following ha'arah, okay? And I want you to think about this a little bit. Ki hikach shar ish es shor rei'eihu. Shor ish es shor rei'eihu. I thought a lot about these words. You know, every confrontation, you have sometimes two cars that collide. You have two neighbors that collide. In life, we collide with each other a lot. So you have the actual kiygach shor ish es shor re'eihu, and then you have the symbolic kiygach shor ish es shor re'eihu. Why does it have to say shor ish? V'loy shor re'eihu. Who is the ish, and who is the re'eihu? It's a funny lashon. Just say kiygach shor, shor. Tell me, when you have to write the rules about a car, would you write, The car of one guy smashes the car of his friend? What do you need that for? It should say, when one car smashes another car, no? Huh? V'shteit zich. It's a good ish, v'loy katan. There's many drashos in Chazal about this. The Even Ezra brings down from Ben Buta, that was bothered by this question. That's where it was me'oirer me. Ben Buta says, shor ish es shor re'eihu, the friend is going back...

On the shor. Shor ish will gore shor, the ox who's his friend. That the friend is really the ox's friend. Means, Betsy the cow gored Jim the ox, okay? His best friend. Comes along the Even Ezra and he says, that's the most bizarre pshat anyone could say. V'ein l'rea shor ela ben buta. The only one that can have a friend as an ox is ben Buta himself, the guy who said this pshat. He was delivering him a line, you hear? The only one who has a friend, an ox, is ben Buta. The question is good, though. Why does it have to say shor ish? Shor re'eihu. You like the question. This little heart, or maybe the big heart, I don't know what I have these days. The simple, let's put it, the simple heart. That's a simple pshat. It's right, it's wrong, I don't know, but I feel that that's the pshat. You ready, rabosai? Every time you get involved, a confrontation of two parties, my car, your car, my house, your house, my lawn, your lawn, first thing is shor ish. Remember you're a person. And remember shor re'eihu, that the other guy is your friend. Then legal law changes a lot. Most of legal, I think it's a beautiful pshat, rabosai, that I'm sharing with you today. Most of— Confrontation is based on winning. Winning. Mine and yours. I win, you lose. The Beis Halevi used to talk all the time how if a person would go to a rav and he would ask a question about something, is it kosher, is it not kosher, the rav would say, It's not not kosher, but it's a question. It's questionable. He would never eat it. He would take the whole thing and throw it out, even if it's a lot of money. If, let's say, a person went and cooked a whole roast, fifty, sixty-dollar roast, yeah, and he went to the rav and the rav said, Not a hundred percent. Throw it out, right? Sixty dollars. He would feel bad, right? He would come home and his wife would give him over the head for it. Fine, whatever it is, but he would do it. Go to a din Torah, two parties, yeah, mishpatim, two parties, two, two parties over twenty dollars. They'll kill each other, kill each other over twenty bucks. Fifty dollars? Are you kidding me? Unless the guy is not interested in fighting because he has a heart condition. But other than that, he would fight till the end, right? Says the Beis Halevi, what's the difference? Because by the meat, you didn't lose. Okay, so you had to go throw out the meat, but between two people, he wins and I lose. No, no, even for twenty bucks, I'll fight till the end. That's what Beis Halevi said. When you didn't understand what mishpatim is really meant to do. Mishpatim is not about winning. Mishpatim is about being ish, to do what's right, and more, it's about bringing people together. And reminds me, Yigach shor ish es shor re'eihu. Ish re'eihu. Okay, it's about putting people together. So that you don't have barkois. Arkois is about a winner and a loser. That's not Misinai. You know what mizbeach? I was thinking to myself this morning on the way in. You see, people don't realize that years ago I had much time to prepare this shiur. I'm sorry, rabosai, I don't have any more time. I say so much and I'm busy so much, so you get raw material. Whatever I thought of on the way in, that's what you're gonna get. Okay? Maybe it's better. Some people say it's even better. It's fresh. Okay, could be, could be. Everyone's smiling. I don't know, is that they're smiling because they think that I used to say better then, or they're smiling because they think I say better now? I don't know. Okay, I cashed in nice. Okay, either way, chaveisai, either way, either way, yeah? What's mizbeach? Shetasim sanhedrin אצל המזבח. One of the...

Idolists of the Mizbeach, of course, it's Hashem. We know it's religious, it's holy, it's spiritual. I get it. But I was thinking, the Gemara tells us the Mizbeach has a tremendous ma'ilah, and that is that it brings shalom, it brings peace. Between what? Between factions. A person is disconnected from the Ribono Shel Olam. He is meruchak from the Ribono Shel Olam because he sinned, so the Mizbeach makes shalom. The Gemara tells us that whoever divorces his first wife, mishtei rishonim, mizbeach morid alav d'ma'os. The mizbeach will cry. Any sibah? We're not discussing shalom bayis now. I just want to bring out, what is the mizbeach crying? Why the mizbeach has to cry? So my zeide zecherono livrachah, the Beis Aharon, zecher tzaddik livrachah, the great posek, the great Torah giant, said a pshat: the mizbeach saw so much tzaros. People had a lot of difficulties and problems and issues, and the Jew would come to the mizbeach and bring a korban and pour out his heart. So it saw so much, so it should have been, what do you call that, immune, immune. When it hears someone has another problem, or such this problem, yet when it hears that someone divorces his first wife, even the mizbeach of wood that hurt so much and knows so much. My mys moved to tears from pain, from pain of the situation. This isn't my pshat that my great-grandfather said, but I wanted to say a different pshat, my baisai. You know, the mizbeach is shalom; it's about peace. Megareish ishah rishonah, it's conflict. If you want to go into a deeper sense, I know there's a lot of people here that like a lot of nice ish v'ishah, Shechinah shruyah beineihem, right? Husband and wife, Shechinah, it's harmony. The word harmony is peace. So the mizbeach is moirid dma'os when it sees that someone's megareish ishah rishonah, because Sanhedrin is eitzel hamizbeach, because even the mishpatim is there to make peace. The mishpatim is there to make harmony. The mishpatim is there to make peace between man and man. And ultimately, when it makes peace between man and man, it's making peace between man and the Ribono Shel Olam. The Ribono Shel Olam wants that there should be peace amongst His people. There should be peace in the world. You know, on the mizbeach we bring korbanos even for umos ha'olam, even for the nations of the world, for what? For their shalom, for their peace. The mizbeach represents peace, unity. Mishpatim is also about ishes re'eihu; it's about unity, and therefore it's shitasim eitzel hamizbeach. And that goes to the heart of— Ki loi kitzureinu tzuram. Religious deities is about separatism. It's all about separatism. Religion is about my religion, with my God. So many wars were fought over religion, because religion, in its heart, in its core, is about separatism. Judaism, Yiddishkeit, is about inclusivism. Okay, the whole world we accept, umos ha'olam. Everybody go. The Gemara tells us that umos ha'olam, they go to Gan Eden if they're tzaddikim, if they're righteous. Remember the word tzaddik, key word, tzaddik. Umos ha'olam, when they're righteous, they go to Gan Eden. So, for the last hour, I've been trying to, as tired as I was, I'm trying to get this point across, that righteous means emunah. And emunah doesn't just mean faith. Okay, we're gonna have to discuss this later. I know, but I can't go through it right now. It's a long topic. It's a long time, you know, but it's a long topic. We can talk about it a different time. The point being, the point being, shetasim etzel hamizbeach.

What is shitasam etzelamizbeach, Sanhedrin, mishpatim, eila mishpatim, is kitzureinu tzurah. It's about uniting and not dividing. The Rabbeinu Shloilam. The Rabbeinu Shloilam is. And if you go to court, court is about winning. Court is about winning. You know, I don't know how to explain it, you know, in historic terms. You know, in historic terms, Jews never went to war against peoples of the world over religious beliefs. There's no such thing. It doesn't. While the whole world has fought Judaism over the religious beliefs, ki lo kitzureinu tzurah, mishpatim is about uniting and not dividing. It's not about uniting. It's not about dividing. It's about uniting. And this is ve'eila mishpatim miSinai. MiSinai. This is the, ultimately, the religiousity of the religious aspect in the mishpatim. Okay, we'll stop. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.