Mishpatim: Why Torah Justice Begins with Kavod HaBriyos and Respect for Every Person

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. אלה המשפטים אשר תשים לפניהם. These are the mishpatim that you're supposed to put in front of Klal Yisrael, and, v'farshteyt zach, the parsha, kiduah, is most of nezikin, a bisel nashim. All the halachos, more or less, mamnis bein adam l'chaveiro. Chazal tell us that there's a smichus to this parsha, to the parsha of Sinai. Ma rishonim miSinai, af eilu miSinai, that this is also miSinai. The Midrashim begin the parsha with an introduction, a pasuk, a pasuk in Tehillim kuf-mem-zayin: Magid devarav l'Yaakov, chukav u'mishpatav l'Yisrael. Lo asa chen l'chol goy, u'mishpatim bal yeda'um. It's a pasuk, famous pasuk, that it's unique for Klal Yisrael, not Klal Yisrael hat mishpatim. Eila hamishpatim asher tasim lifneihem, lifneihem v'lo lifnei goyim. Klal Yisrael, miyuchad, it's separate. The goyisha halachos, the goyisha courts, and v'cheinah v'cheinah, a lot of Rashis and Chazalim. Klal Yisrael has its own system of halacha, mishpat. And this is, Le'asa chein l'chol goy, mishpatim bal yeda'um. Hatneshki shayches mit goyim. And this is what, Misinai, and the Torah is madgish right after Kabbalas HaTorah, Ve'eila hamishpatim asher tasim lifneihem. We run right away into the mishpatim. From Sinai, directly to Ve'eila hamishpatim asher tasim lifneihem. So bishleima I understand, magid dvarav l'Yaakov, chukav u'mishpatav l'Yisrael, good. Lo asa chein l'chol goyim, u'mishpatim bal yeda'um. You didn't give them to understand the mishpatim. Even though, l'choira, from Chazal is mashma that even if you know that the same halachos get paskened in the courts, still you're not allowed to go to arkaos. Rashi brings up a note. So you see that there's some halachos that do have a connection. If the pshat is that we have a complete different system, if the pshat is our mishpatim have no shayches, l'mashal, mitzvah of tzdakah, Torah versus, let's say, the Arabishen sharia law. It's a good shayches. What's the— there's no— einahat mishpatim and einahat horeg nefashos. One has nothing to do, lo karov zeh el zeh. We have no shayches to that. So I wouldn't need a Chazal. That you shouldn't go to the dinim of akum, of arka'os. By the way, it has no shaychus to what the Torah says. You see from the Chazal that it's possible that in geviste dinim, they do have the same halachos, as they state. V'afilu yadata b'din echad sheheim danin oso k'dinei Yisrael, unless maybe din echad v'lo shnayim, maybe it's a diyuk. Maybe what Rashi means is this cannot מול פסירין one halacha that's just like— It's not the pashut pshat in Rashi. He meant to say was, in this particular case, you know that it's the danim, right? It's not din echad. It's not— you know, Raveisai, diyuk. Yeah? Learn in Rashi. Chad techlif learn in Rashi. Zeidek me'oiske learned— my grandfather told me that the Chofetz Chaim was makpid: pashut, first you got to know pashut pshat before you say anything. And it was based on a maaseh. I told you the story that when he was a little boy, he got a pe'er from an adam gadol. An adam gadol asked him by Rashi, and he knew very well the inyan, but he didn't know exactly how the words, the taiched them. He was a little boy at the time.

And he got a patch. He got a patch for them. And he said, he was so embarrassed. Shetelz a phone when I come to Shamayim, they'll ask me, and I won't know how to translate the pashte, the Rashi. So he was mekabel from then on, al limud פירוש דף מפרש פשט. First we got to know the words. That was the Chofetz Chaim, פירוש דף מפרש פשט, clearly. So if you taich the Rashi with your children on Shabbos, אפילו ידעת בדין אחד שאין דנין אותו כדיני ישראל, does it mean that it's because there's one out there that you could compare to mishpat? That's not the pashut pshat. The pshat is even if you know in a particular case, which they have the same halachos. It's possible there are many halachos which are very much the same. I thought the mishpat by Yedum, it's mashma לא עשה כן לכל גוי. What ratio? What ratio? By Yidden we have this, and by goyim they have this, and they don't compare. I don't think that's the pshat out there. Be'emes, we're going to learn that it's very possible that it seems like the halachos are the same. And the general rules might be the same. In English they call it the Judeo-Christian laws. V'al seals come from the Torah, b'meinish. Pashut, chaveirim, pashut pshat, chaveisai. Judeo-Christian means it comes from the Torah. Let me show you how this can shayches the same. Teirah. The same pesukim, the same laws, lo asa chein l'chol goy, u'mishpatim... And that's today's shiur, beisai, and the lesson that's supposed to be learned from this yesod. So, Nachman... iberchazn vos me vil do. What do we want? We're trying to understand eilu hamishpatim. Mishpatim is a hafla vefela, it's me'ever... Sinai, it's from Sinai. Me'ever... You would think it's not from Sinai. Why? Laws are laws, no? No, it's from Sinai. And now that Rashi brings down, shetasim lifneihem, it's to the mizbeach, it's such a tamid, the Beis Hamikdash. Hafla vefela, mishpatim is hafla vefela. Un der pasuk zogt, lo asa chein l'chol goy u'mishpatim... They have no shaychus, lo yadum, they cannot. They can't understand our mishpatim. What's so hard to understand our mishpatim? It's so difficult to read and see what... Mishpatim, bali yadum. It's not the pshat they don't have it; they don't understand it bichlal. Good. Yefashteizt, yefashteizt... I'm maskim. I agree with you on that. Nor a Yid can farshtein... I agree with you on that. But you can't say that all the mishpatim, they lo yadum, they don't have any connection, any shaychus, any understanding in it. What are the mishpatim, rabosai? So the truth is, there's a me'irdike rav from the Brisker Rav, a me'irdike vort. He doesn't ask a shayla, but l'choira this could be a ta'ich. What's unique about our mishpatim? That the goyim have nothing to do with our mishpat. Even like I said, it's the same text. It comes from the same ikar. Ah, but they have no shaykhes to it. What's the pshat? Isa b'Gemara Bava Kamma, ayin tes amud beis, there's a Gemara. Sha'alu talmidav es רבי יוחנן בן זכאי: מפני מה החמירה תורה בגנב יותר מגזלן? A ganef is a person who steals, hiddenly. He's b'machteres; he has a ganze plan, a secret, un-eganvet. A gazlan, he's a highway robber. He steals out in public; he comes up with a gun and you give. Haemes, a criminal, right? A criminal she'ein kamohu, not white collar, but haemes a gazlan. Ah, but still, החמירה תורה בגנב יותר מגזלן, right? חמישה בקר ישלם תחת השור, וארבע צאן תחת השה. Why? Why is it that way? אמר להם. So he answered back to them: השווה כבוד עבד לכבוד קונו. The ganef, he was meshaveh the eved and the adon; they're the same.

Meaning, the gazlan was hishvik, the same. Ma she'ein kein, the ganef, zeh lo hishvik kavod eved l'kavod koneh. Vavos? For now, mench, he's afraid. He's afraid. People are going to see that. The Ribono Shel Olam's there. You're not afraid. Based on the maiseh from the Chofetz Chaim. Chofetz Chaim was once traveling, a carriage, and the carriage driver wanted to take an apple off a tree as he was driving, you know, soafel, he was passing by. So he told the Chofetz Chaim to keep an eye out, make sure nobody's looking. Based on the halacha in the maiseh, he went to grab the apple before he had a chance to—someone's looking! The guy got terrified and he ran off. He looks around, there's nobody in sight, bichlal. So he turns to the Chofetz Chaim, at the time his rabbi, What are you talking about? He says, Hashem, the Eibishter is looking. That's the pshat in this Chazal, l'choira, yeah? Havyochol asa ayin shel matah k'ilu eina ro'ah, v'ozen shel matah k'ilu eina shoma'as. Man is looking, the Eibishter is not looking, so you're much worse, ganef, than gazlan. Zogt Brisker Rav, vos iz der taich? What is the hesber in that? He says as follows: The ganef—I'm sorry, the gazlan—he's not afraid from the Eibishter, but he's not afraid from people either. He's out in the open. Pshat, eh, ta yetzer. He wants to rob. He can't control himself. Why does a guy rob in front of broad daylight that he might get caught? And the teretz is, he's not thinking. If he would put two seconds of thought, he would say, Chamishugen, they're gonna catch me. So he's not thinking. Yitzchak, takfei, he has a yetzer hara, all his ma'asim is without thinking, without making a cheshbon. Mimeila, even though he's with chutzpah, it's out with brazen gneivah, you know, he's a real gangster, but there was no thought that he put into it at all. The ganef is a little different. He already thought it through, so he is already thinking. Tracht, says Brisker Rav, tracht, darf shain, mishta kukt. A guy on impulse, so he's not thinking. The ganef is not on impulse. The ganef is premeditated. Premeditated. You're thinking, you're making a cheshbon. It's machav shein a cheshbon. Oymrim, we tell him, a yisumesugel lizboinen v'lachshov. The frame of mind to already think a minute. Keitzad zeh, zacharta, yirahs basar v'dam, shachachta meyiras borei shamayim va'aretz. Zogt Brisker Rav, ha'adam dan kol davar l'fi ma'aseh chitzoniyah pashut. A person, when we look at it, we look at the ma'aseh of gazlan much worse. He's brazen, a chotzef, he's a highway robber. The Torah doesn't look at it that way, you see? We look at it, gazlan genuvah from the ganef. But the daas haTorah is eino kein. It's not like that. Because zeh hashveh kavod koneh lichvod shel basar v'dam. And it continues and he explains, because loi hatzurah hitzonis shel hadavar kevaas, ki im pnimiyus hadvarim. The Torah is able to go into the das ha'adam. A mishpat, it's the rule. You did the maaseh, you did the crime, you do the time, right? That's the way it is. It's not more than that. The das haTorah, bris kav, takes it to cheshbon deeper than what the actual maaseh is. So l'choira we could come and say that that's pshat mishpatim by yeduim. Mishpatim by yeduim is because they look at the act, and the Torah looks what's behind the act and takes that into account. Good? Yerav beisai, see, good? Pashut? Nachon. The shaila is, what the question is, what's mishpatim unique, and it's only mishpatim by yeduim, only Klal Yisrael goyim havein das nish. And we could say this vort, because by the goyim they can only judge according to the act on the outside. Whatever you did, you did. But what exactly is the person and why he did it, and the Torah, the Torah is different.

The Torah goes in l'saiv daasi shel adam to the middos of the man, and the Torah understands who really is more of a criminal. That's the brisker Rav's havanah. When you look at the person, it's gonna be a whole different story: who the real criminal, who's the worse between the two of the criminals. This, l'chaira, k'mezagen is the pshat, u'mishpatim baal yedu. But I would like to say it different, if you don't mind, al pi daaskeit from the Baal HaMussar, the Gedolei Olam. Baal HaMussar ask, why is Mishpatim the beginning? This is the first, right after Sinai, Gleich zetzt men avek, and Nashim Nizikin. Why? What happened to Brachos? What happened to Brachos? Hasei shein, Hakaras hatov, mit Rabbeinu shebaleilah. Hasei shein, vigaldah. And you want to know the emes? The emes is, this is really the first Rashi in Bereishis. Rashi in Bereishis says we should have started with Hachodesh hazeh lachem, which is the first mitzvah. Why does it start with Bereishis? Koach ma'asav higid l'amo, emunah, middos, many terutzim. So here too, we should begin with what? We should begin with the inyanim of bein adam laMakom, Anochi Hashem Elokecha, avodah zarah, right? Ikrei hadaas. Mit gedaft anfangen mit ikrei hadaas, alei Baal HaMussar fregen der she'eilah. Why? You know, it's yedua, Rav Moshe used to say, first Gemara we learn with a child, Elu metzios. Why eileh metzius? Because he has to learn money, what's yours is yours, what's not yours is not yours. That's the most important thing that we learn with a child. Vas meint es? What does it mean? Shouldn't you start talking to a child? Azoi daven vi a mensch. Braches, braches, braches. I know. Let's start. You know what? The first thing we teach a child, when a child starts to speak, vashteit in Chazal, aviv, right? He's able to talk, aviv melamdo. What does he teach him? Torah, tzivah lanu Moshe. Oh, maybe we should start teaching eileh metzius. That should be the first thing, no? Leiter cheshbin, we should teach mamnus. I think the first Gemara we learn with a child, first Mishnah we learn with a child, mamnus. I never understood this. And I'm just a— I am a product of the gedolim I listened to all my life. That's who really I am. You come to hear a shiur, you're not really listening to me. That's the truth. You're listening to things I heard and I worked on listening to Gedolei Yisrael b'hizbatlus. I didn't understand this. I didn't understand this. Okay. I was by Rav Shach. Now, I think Rav Shach told this to me. Again, it was a little bit mumbling, but I think be'erech this is what he told me. I asked him this question: what does it mean? He told me over Reb Yisrael Salanter. Az rebi sol solanted gezogt. Brachos is a d'rabbanan. Only d'rabbanan at the end of the day. These you can be over d'oraises. This is what he says. People don't realize, a bracha, sof kol sof, brachos is d'rabbanan. It's a din d'rabbanan. Mimeila, there is a mamish, a person can be over the greatest of d'oraises. And he said over a halach, he said, you ever notice that a person, a shtikel chasid, yeah? It's a safek shemisfekes, chas v'shalom, right? L'maaseh, when it comes to inyanei emunah, people don't have that regesh, they don't have that feeling. Efsher, ken zayn, what's the ... safek, and that. Und dos ken zayn mehr d'oraisa vi dos. That's what Rav Shach told me. And he said, dos meint, es muz af oislernen az gelt is shaylech in d'oraisa. It took me a long time to take in what...

He was saying, you know, I still... And I saw the hesped of the Alter from Kelm on Rabbi Yisrael Salanter. The Alter from Kelm was maspid; it was Chof Hey Shvat, Taf Reish Mem Gimel, Erev Shabbos Kodesh, Parshas Mishpatim. That's when the Rabbi Yisrael Salanter was niftar. So the Alter from Kelm got up and he said, Loi lechinam, that the Rabbi Yisrael Salanter was niftar Parshas Mishpatim, because Rabbi Yisrael Salanter dedicated his life to teach, Mishpatim, kum faratz. Dinei mamonos is more important than anything else. Zehirus in mamonos is more important than anything else. Azoi hot der Alter from Kelm maspid geven; that was the hesped that he said on Rabbi Yisrael Salanter. You hear? Chof Hey Shvat, Taf Reish Mem Gimel. This was the Erev Shabbos Kodesh, Parshas Mishpatim. That the reason he said—and then he said a whole shtikel Torah—why he was buried in Parshas Terumah; he was niftar Erev Shabbos, l'vaia, I guess the kevurah wasn't. And he said Terumah is the aron, that the luchos, the Rabbi Yisrael Salanter gave the luchos. Okay, next week maybe we'll talk about that chelek of the drasha. Al kol panim, der chelek, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter was mechadesh, Mishpatim. Mishpatim is the ikker. Mishpatim kumt faran. Yeah? Zehirus b'mamon chaveiro. Vos meint dos? Pshat is not a pshatdike zach. Nu, gei arach, you hear what we're saying over here, a meiredige zach. Eila hamishpatim, right from Sinai. Could you imagine Sinai, mitgeven, Vayaves Elokim, mitgezendere Beinish le'olam? Could you imagine the seriousness? Right away, we're sitting down and we're talking about kisui nezek, ivri, and we're going to talk about eved Ivri. Why, even in mamonos, why taka eved Ivri? Fun ale parshiyos, fun mamon, dafn klaiben, you had to pick eved Ivri, where the guy did something wrong, I mean, dafn matzeia, we have to pierce his ear. Of course, tzar. We're going to talk in a few minutes about kol padin, you see this yesod, that it's so important, eila hamishpatim. Who does? Rabbi Yisroel Salanter gave a mamish ikrim sheb'ikrim sheb'ikrim sheb'ikrim, mamish, this is it. Teirah is eila hamishpatim asher tasim lifneihem. Azoi zogt der Alter fun Kelm in Reb Yisroel Salanter's hesped, yeah? Is there a mekor for this? Yes, there is, chaveirim. I want to read for you a meiredige Rosh, a davar shel peleh, the Rosh in the Mishnah in Peah, perek aleph, zogt the Rosh, os gimmel. He brings the inyan of chesed, eilu dvarim she'ein lahem shiur, and he brings a pasuk, you hear? Tzadik, imru tzadik ki tov, ki pri ma'alaleihem yochlu. Der tzadik, zogt, der tzadik is gut. Zogt mir, is der tzadik vos is gut, der tzadik vos nisht gut? Tcha pasuk, imru tzadik ki tov. Fragt der Rosh, vechi yesh tzadik tov, yesh tzadik she'eino tov? Tcha tzadik, no? Could you imagine? Zogt a gevisser tzadik, ah, yeder tzadik קען זיין a Rosh echad, aber az a Rosh vi der tzadik hob ich kein mol נישט געזען, un er darf es a shprach. Vos meint der pasuk, no? Zogt pashut, rabosai, vos tut er? Der is a guter tzadik, der is a shlechter tzadik. You know this Rosh? Okay, so let me read it to you inside, because the Rosh says two nekudos, one what you said, and er zogt a yeshareit. Yadus, rabosai, yadus. Zogt der Rosh, v'yesh tzadik she'eino tov ella tov laShamayim v'tov labriyos, zehu tzadik tov. Ma al zeh ne'emar ki pri ma'alaleihem yochlu.

Why? So he's right, azoy pachut. But listen to the end of the Rosh. כי הקדוש ברוך הוא חפץ יותר במצוות שיעשהם גם רצון הבריאות, מבמצוות שבין אדם לקונו. It's more important. The Rabbeinu Shlolem willing more — it's a Rosh, Rabbeinu. I'm a mefurash Rosh. There's no diyukim. It's clear in the Rosh. As the Rabbeinu Shlolem wills, does, more than does. He'd rather you have mitzvahs, what's good la'briyos, than mitzvahs what's not good la'Makom. That's a maaseh. רבי ישראל סלנטר understood this. ואלה המשפטים אשר תשים לפניהם. These are the mishpatim that you do. What are the mishpatim? The mishpatim are Misinai, and it's the first thing and the most important thing, because it's bein adam l'chaveiro. This is the yesod. Aber the kasha is, Rabbeisai, good, bein adam l'chaveiro. Aber farvos the parshah of eved Ivri? There's so many other parshiyos, davka bein adam l'chaveiro. Farvos klait men — why do we pick eved Ivri to begin the sugya of hilchos bein adam l'chaveiro? Vos is der taich? You hear the question? Tami, would you, if you had to write the halachos, would you be the first thing that would come to mind is eved Ivri, sold a maid, he sold as an eved? Vos tut zich? Okay. Rabosai, let me tell you how the Torah wants us to treat an eved Ivri. Is an eved Ivri a sinner? A ganef. He's a thief. He's a real thief. He's a ganef, huh? ... The chaganef. Where would he sit in shul, this ganef? I want to know, where does this guy—l'mashal, he becomes an eved. In the back. In the back? Not true. I'll tell you where he sits. Well, not—sorry if you're sitting in the back, I didn't mean it that. I'll tell you where he sits. If his adon sits in the mizrach, guess where he's going to sit? That's right. Whatever it is, it's not in the back. All right? Okay. Let me show you the Gemara, rabosai. Let me show you the Rishonim. Peladik. In pasuk states, Ki tov lo imach. The eved has to be treated tov lo imach. Imach b'maachal, imach b'mishteh, shelo tei ath ochel pas נקי, v'hu ochel pas kibar. You got to give him the same menu as you. Same menu. I'll tell you a nice maaseh. Tazelta maaseh, rabosai. You deserve a good veitel. You had a good veitel. Good. Amol, there were people who used to have delicious food. But then, for the people, the work, the help, shvach, okay. Then they would invite bachim lacheiches v'yamol, and also give them shvach, okay. U'le'erat lehem d'baal habos, ... baal habos, yeah, okay. Kitza, the workers, the helpers, the yeshiva, they said they're gonna get this baal habos. Why? For the baal habos, a flektach geben, you know, a gutte fatted chicken, a whole big beautiful piece of chicken. And for them, he would put down one piece of chicken; they'd have to share it between, you know, the whole chevra. So they said they're gonna get the baal habos. How are they gonna get him? All of a sudden, middle of lunch, Mincha! Rav davening Mincha. The baal habos looks at his watch and he says, A fertel far eins. It's a quarter to one. He says, By you it's a quarter to one, the chicken. By us it's a fertel far fir. It's a quarter for four. Here, this is not what the Torah wants here. The Torah wants that if you give him exactly what you're taking, exactly here. Shoisei yayin yashan, v'hu shoisei yayin chadash. You have to give him the best wine, whatever.

You have to give him. Atiyosha gabi muchim v'yosha gabi hateven, the same type of a bed. מכאן אמרו, כל הקונה עבד עברי כקונה אדון לעצמו. Teisis brings down from the Yerushalmi, the pe'amim—what's the pshat? It's k'koneh adon l'atzmo. So he brings the Yerushalmi that if you have only one pillow, so what are you supposed to do, says Teisis, from the Yerushalmi? You got to give him the pillow, right? Im sheyichol ba'atzmo, eino mekayem ki tov lo imach, because if he uses that pillow and you don't give it to the eved, it's not tov lo imach. V'im eino sheyichol... if he doesn't give it to—nobody gets it, that's stam, right? Nobody should have it. That's mamash ma'aseh zdon. Nimtza shehakarcha tzarich limtzo l'avdo, v'hainu adon l'atzmo. How do you work with your eved? Shteit in pasuk, it's a pasuk in Vayikra, shteit doch klal. Pasuk says, Lo savod bo avodas eved. You're not allowed to—yeah, but he is your eved. So what are you supposed to do? What do you mean, lo savod bo avodas eved? It reminds me, I heard recently—I knew this, but I didn't hear the line of it. One of my cousins once said he wishes he could be the bubbe's maid. She has it better than everybody else in shtub, you know. She wishes he could be the maid in the house; it would be very good. This is behemes what the Torah wants. Shteit, Esh shloft on a kitchen, you're sleeping on the floor and he's sleeping in the bed. Loy savei b'avodas eved. You're not allowed to work with him, but he's an eved, so what should you do with him? Should we sit down and what, play chess with him? What is he supposed to do? So let's see Chazal. Chazal say clearly, shelo yaavid bo avodas shel gnai. You're not allowed to make any avodah on him that's gnai, that he's makir that he's an eved. He's not allowed to feel like an eved. It's a Sifra. Sifra says, shelo yolech kelev acharav l'merchatz, v'lo yina lo min alav. He's not allowed to put you on your shoes. He's not allowed to service you. Why? Lo saveid bo avodas eved. He's not allowed to have the avodah of an eved. Could you tell me why? What's the reason for this? So the Alter from Kelm has a whole mahalach, a very interesting mahalach. And he says something called rehabilitation. It's interesting, they talk about it today too. When someone sits in jail, what's the tachlis of the jail? Is it to punish him, or is it to rehabilitate him? The Alter from Kelm says that the parshah of eved ivri teaches me this. Eved ivri teaches me that the point is, you got to rehabilitate him. Do geisten shul, do geisten bismedrash, so gei mit dir. To treat him like an eved, you're destroying him. You're not making him rehabilitate. And he says a peledike zach. He says, l'mashal, az a tateh takind, yeah, but it's a problem case, right? So what, he was trying to punish the... He goes out of his way to do extra for the child. Because he needs it. Zogt out derfun Kelem, the din of eved Ivri is he needs help. So they put him into, so to speak, a foster home, where meharbit mitem, ... shevigo. Azoi zogt Alter from Kelem. Rabosai, I want to tell you over another mahalach, and it's geboyten from Reb Yerucham. Why by bakar, if you steal bakar, you pay how much? You pay five. You steal tzon, right? You pay four. So Rashi says, the Gemara, Amar Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, chas hamakom al kavodan shel briyos. The reason is because the Ribono Shel Olam was chas on the kavod habriyos. Why? Sherochel b'raglav lo nisbazeh ba'ganav. The ganav wasn't embarrassed, right? Because it was going on his own. He didn't have to schlep it. Meshalem hei. Seh shenosei al kseifo daled, but the seh, adafka schlepped? Ho'il v'nisbazeh boi, because he was what? Nisbazeh. A schleper, he carries it on his shoulder. Zogt Reb Yerucham, ... na'arah u'mafil...

L'misbaynen b'dvarim. It's unbelievable. He says, look at his pella. We're talking about mishpat. We're talking about a person who's a thief, and we have to judge him, law. Asukim kan l'hanishganef. We're trying to punish a ganef for his geneivah. U'mi hu zeh shehaya omer? Who in his right mind would say, you know what, we have to take it to cheshbon kavod habriyos? We're worried about his—who's kavod? Them it's kavod? Who are you? The guy was stealing, so we have to—ah, l'maaseh, he had a bizayon. It's such a pella. And he speaks out so beautiful. U'ma gan cheshbonis dakos ka'eilu. What's the cheshbon? That he was nisbazeh? If he's nisbazeh, why did he do it? Obviously he doesn't care. I don't understand. He himself does—obviously he's not embarrassed to do what he did, right? Is he embarrassed to do it? He bichlal not embarrassed. He bichlal—Rabbi Yochum even says in a different shmues, he says, I don't see why people don't walk around with 'sound their back.' I don't see why. Maybe he just came from the makolet. I mean, what are we talking about already? Do you understand the dakus shebedakus shebedakos? What are you talking about? U'ma hu zeh omer lo? Who talks about what? That he himself—he himself doesn't—it didn't bother him to do it. V'imru mevi'im b'cheshbon. And this is—maybe we have to start making cheshbon. Ah, rachmanus. He needed a ladder to get up to the second floor. Ah, zah rachmanus. Let's take off a little bit more because he had to carry the ladder. ... He had to go carry the ladder. V'hu oyev, ... Hakazos nikra mishpat. That meshugah zach. Halo zeh ... chesed v'racham, tachas chemlah v'chaninah. This is something beyond normal comprehension. And the teretz is, that's mishpat haTorah. Mishpat haTorah means you must take it to cheshbon, kavod habriyos. And he says a peledike thing. He says, b'einai ra'isi, with my own eyes I saw, he says, a guy was a ganef, ... they beat him up, the courts beat him up, and they mamash didn't—kimat like they almost killed him. B'einai ra'isi, didn't ganef echad. I saw it. What's the pshat? They thought, listen, he deserves, he deserves an onesh. Besides the onesh, nothing came into cheshbon. I want to tell you something interesting, a maaseh. My father told me that he was once in the mountains traveling, taking my zeide. There was some kind of a, what do you call that, you know, an accident or something, so they were rerouting the detour. Okay, so there was a cop. My father didn't chap the, you know, right, left. He didn't chap it. He was supposed to go left, he went right. The cop went and started banging on the car, banging. My father didn't chap what happened. He stopped, he opened up the window, and the cop ... he started mamash chirufim v'gidufim. So my father looked at him and said, I went right instead of left. The law is you got to listen to the cop, and I can give you a ticket, mamish, chirufim u'gedufim. So my zeide used this pasuk, right, on the spot. He says, Yeah, the law is, Mishpatim baal yadon. Das meint, there's no kavod habriyos. There's a whole different mishpat. Avadeh, yeah, the law. You can't ... you can't ... The law is the law. Eved Ivri is teaching us a me'irdike yesod. What's Eved Ivri teaching us? Zehirus in mamon. There's two dinim in zehirus in mamon. Avadeh, there's a geneivah; it's not yours. Tznius dayna. But there's also an inyan of yenim. There's a kavod habriyos. There's balain tzi yenim, nemst avek fun yenim. It goes into the whole understanding of what mishpat means. Mishpat isn't just because it's an issur. Mishpat also means tzi yenim. The understanding, and that's ki sikneh eved Ivri. You know what the—

The limit of every ivri is, the limit of every ivri is what it means to be. You stole from somebody. Dos gegangen fun yenem. You know what you're learning now? What it means, yenem. What it means to be machshiv. What it means to appreciate what's not yours. By the od, look how he treats you. Look how the oden is treating you. Ki sikneh eved Ivri is at the heir. Im bein adam l'chaveiro mamonus, it's yenem's mamon. It belongs to other people, and that's the yichus. Im bein adam l'chaveiro is the shoresh of kol haTorah kula. Everything is nichlal in this. I want to tell you over two nekudos quickly. It's a long shmues, rabosai. There's a peledike loshon from the Chazon Ish. Peledik, mamash a davar shel פלא. The Chazon Ish, Emunah u'Bitachon says, I'm going to read you a word for word because it's peledik. It's ידוע that the Chazon Ish, in his letters, he was talking mostly about himself. The Chazon Ish lived alone in his own daled amos, and all the mussar and zachen that he speaks about, he was talking about things that he himself reached. Zogt the Chazon Ish, what does it mean to be oisek arbet in middos? And he says the following. Chazon Ish, Emunah u'Bitachon, os yud yud alef: יש איש מסוגל להיטיב לזולתו. There's a person who wants to do good to others. Hapogeshim re'eihu hu loi lechedvas leiv. When he meets another person, he's mamash b'simcha, he's happy. He's happy to meet another person. Mekablo b'sever panim yafos, he greets him friendly. Chared, and he's afraid, אולי לא קיים המטרה לפי רוח רעיו. Maybe he didn't greet him properly the way the other person wants to be greeted. Ulay diber davar shelo k'hogen. Maybe he said a word that wasn't proper. And then he says, Ki ein ke'ev etzlo. There's nothing that hurts more to him, k'ke'ev shel pegiah b'kavod chaveiro, and not being mechabed the other person, hurting another person. That is his pain. Ki ein ke'ev — you hear the lashon of the Chazon Ish — ki ein ke'ev etzlo k'ke'ev shel pegiah b'kavod chaveiro, o shechaser meire'eihu chesed. If he missed maybe a chesed. And then he concludes the following. This is unbelievable. How about him? Does he get insulted? He's always worried about insulting others. How about him? Does he get insulted? He says, Me'olam lo nifga. This same person — I don't know how to explain it to you, rabosai, to understand the עומק, what it means, the hashkafah, the understanding of what it means, adam and kavod habriyos. Kavod habriyos, like he says, is to mechabed and to feel bad in case. But that same kavod habriyos is mechayev that you don't get insulted in return in case that person does something to you or somebody does something to you. And listen to what he says: Me'olam lo nifga hu meire'eihu. He doesn't get insulted in return. Ki libo malei ahavah techas al klopshayim. He loves so much the other person that he doesn't see his chesronos, v'hu muchan meirosh l'kabel b'ahavah ne'emanah p'tza'im v'nezifah sheyachlik lo. And he's ready to accept all the embarrassments and slights and taines that the other guy did to him. Sheyadu — first of all because he knows — she'ein ro'ei bnei adam matzuyim b'midos. Unfortunately, people don't have midos. U'mah efshar litfo'em mehem. So what could you really expect? But then he says more: U'v'chol zos, roychesh libo lahem, Yaakov v'kavod. In return, he gives Yaakov v'kavod, v'ein b'libo hirhurim ra'im, ein zilzul. The kavod habriyos, the kavod habriyos is so strong that even if the other person was pogea in him, in return he has to what? Be mechabed that person. Who did the ganef steal from? Who did the ganef steal from? Question. If the ganef would steal from the person himself that's buying him, kisikna eved Ivri, pashut he's being sold to somebody else. What happens if you rob the person and that person buys you? And how are you treating that ganef now? That's the omek mishpat. The omek of mishpat is the kavod is so strong that I have to treat him. I'll end with two quick beautiful stories, rabosai. I want you to think about this. There's a Yidden queen, his name is Rachl.

He says, I got to show you my wedding album. Okay. Came to his house, he showed me his wedding album. He says, Show me on the rabbanim's table where your zeide is. I'm looking, I'm saying, I taka don't see. He's not on that table. He says, Good, let me show you what table he was sitting. He pushes a few pages later. He was sitting on a table where in those days, today we don't even see it anymore, every single person was wearing one of those white yarmulkes, you know, like that they give out, that they give out at the door. All right. So he says, You're going to ask me why your zeide was sitting at that table. So let me tell you. These people were from Lukatch. The town where the zeide came from, they were Lukatch. By mistake, the person who was writing out the seatings, he knew that the zeide was from Lukatch. He put them with all the Lukatch yidalach, you know, which most of them were not frum, okay? Zeide saw the thing, so he sat there. He says, When I realized that he was sitting there, and I realized that it's because the place card, me and my kallah, we ran over and we started to apologize, It's the wrong seat. It's the wrong— your seat is over here on the— My zeide refused to get up. Why? If I get up, what am I showing these people? They're not— hamoynam, they're not so chashuv. Yeah. It doesn't take chashuv. So he sat the entire seudah, and I have this picture today. What am I trying to bring out? If you don't have kavod habriyos, rabosai, you would never come to understand a story like this. This is something, it wouldn't even dawn on you, a story like this. U'mishpatim ba'u yaduan, there's no shayches. So even if in the halachos, theoretically it sounds the same, it sounds like it's the same law, the laws sound equal, but it's an entire different cook. It's an entire different way of looking. Learn this Chazon Ish, rabosai. You want to know what the Chazon Ish al hashas is? It's this Chazon Ish. It's the same Chazon Ish. It's the understanding of mishpetei haTorah. It's the understanding of mishpetei haTorah. When he learned mishpatim, he understood, what does it mean? I'm dichtu apyadim. Where is the kavod habriyos? Where is the feel for another person? And this Chazon Ish was oimed on mishpatim, and that's the Chazon Ish al hashas. It's the same Chazon Ish, rabosai. Mishpatim ba'u yaduan. They have no pshat. They could read the same pasuk. It's the same exact pasuk. They could read begapo yalvei, begapo yeitzei. They could read ganef, gazlan. They could mamash the same Bible. But this Chazon Ish can shayches, has no shayches to them. They can't see, because it's not Misinai. It's not the same Torah. It's not learned with the same havanah. You understand what the Chazon Ish is saying? The other person is mezalzel in me, but I'm not hurt. You know why? I don't even have hirhurim. Why? Because my kavod habriyos is mechayev. It's mayvedik. It's such a whole different way of seeing, living, and understanding. HaKadosh says, Magid dvarav l'Yaakov, chukav u'mishpatav l'Yisrael. It's the ma'alah of Klal Yisrael. Lo asa chein l'chol goy, u'mishpatim bal yed'um. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.