Musar su Esodo 21:44

This portion commences with the 42nd of the 613 commandments, the law governing the master's relations with the Jewish servant who has been sold into his service.

On Exodus 21,7, כי ימכור איש את בתו לאמה, the Zohar, Sullam edition page 17, explains the entire paragraph as referring to the soul. The איש in the paragraph represents G–d, since G–d is also known as איש מלחמה, as we know from Exodus 15,3. The words "his daughter," refer to the soul. The exhortation תצא כצאת העבדים, means that she must not leave the body sullied, i.e. full of debts (sins) like the male slaves, but as a free (sinless) being. ואם לא יעדה, if the body (her master) that she inhabited did not "wed” her, i.e. has not matched her in sanctity and holiness, that body will be lost, i.e. והפדה, has to release her. Only when the body does penitence, תשובה, can the soul act as a release for it from purgatory. The body is not at liberty to consign the soul to purgatory, since אם אחרת יקח לו, the sinner may have to undergo transmigration, have to live another life on earth in order to rehabilitate itself. This process may repeat itself up to three times, i.e. שלוש אלה. The basis for the approach that we are talking about גלגול נשמות, may be the use of the word אחרת in our paragraph which is similar to Leviticus 14,42, ועפר אחר יקח.

And among the weighty [positive] commandments is not to have a trial in the courts of the idolaters (gentiles), as it is stated (Exodus 21:1), “And these are the judgments that you shall place in front of them” - “in front of them,” and not in front of the Canaanites. But rebels stumble in them. And we have already spoken about this transgression before.

“You shall not curse powers, nor revile a chieftain among your people” (Exodus 22:27); “You shall not curse a deaf man” (Leviticus 19:14). And we were warned with this not to curse [any] man of Israel with [God’s] name or one of all of [His] appellations. And [the reason] the Torah mentions not to curse powers; a chieftain; and a deaf man, is to come to warn one not to curse a judge (the power mentioned here) when he finds him guilty in the trial, nor a chieftain when he punishes him, to dispatch him for his transgression. And it was necessary to mention a deaf man, lest you say, “There is no punishment for cursing him - since he does not hear, no pain will reach him from his curse.” And “You shall not curse powers” is written at the end of Parshat Mishpatim (Statutes) to say that you should not curse a judge that judges with these statutes. But you may curse a judge that is not proper. And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said (Shevuot 36a), “One who curses his fellow or himself with [God’s] name is lashed.” And his punishment at the hand of the Heavens is very great, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 28:58-59), “If you fail to observe all the words of this Torah in the book, etc., to reverence this honored and awesome name, the Lord, your God; The Lord will inflict extraordinary plagues upon you, etc.” And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, explained (Temurah 3:2) the topic of this verse as one who curses his fellow or himself with [God’s] name.

However, it would be doing Moses a grave injustice to believe that he erred in the language he used vis-a-vis G–d, especially to have made the same mistake on four separate occasions! I therefore believe that what Moses wanted to know on those four occasions did not concern something in the future, but he wanted to make sure that G–d would explain something to him which He had told him previously but which Moses was not sure he had properly understood. When Pharaoh had decreed that the workload of the Jewish people be increased (Exodus 5,9) Moses suddenly entertained doubts whether he had properly understood G–d previously when He had told him to take the people out of Egypt. He thought that possibly G–d had not referred to a process that would take place immediately but only after some considerable time. He therefore wanted to know from G–d when this redemption would occur. G–d reassured him that he had understood quite correctly, i.e. that the redemption would occur עתה, now. When G–d suddenly afflicted Miriam without even telling Moses anything about the cause of it all, i.e. "G–d suddenly told Moses Aaron and Miriam: go to the Tent of Meeting," Moses was not sure why he had become involved in all this. There could have been two reasons for this: 1) They (Aaron and Miriam) were not considered fit to receive prophetic communications due to their ritual impurity, as suggested by Rashi on Numbers 12,4, and that on account of this they could hear a communication from G–d only through the mouth of Moses. 2) G–d meant to put down Aaron and Miriam, and by having Moses present at that time their embarassment would be commensurably greater. If that had been G–d's purpose their very embarassment would constitute part of their atonement. We have an example of such a consideration in Exodus 32,14 when the very fact that G–d had said that He would wipe out the Jewish people and replace them with a new nation based on Moses was part of the Israelites' atonement. The shame of having been found so unworthy compared to Moses was part of their punishment. As soon as Moses saw that Miriam had become afflicted with לפניהם he asked G–d to explain why he had been called out also, seeing that G–d was not satisfied with merely shaming Miriam in his presence. Once G–d told Moses that Miriam had to remain quarantined for seven days Moses realized that he had erred in his earlier assumption that maybe his presence was Miriam's atonement, but that the first possibility, Miriam's ritual impurity at the time, was the reason Moses had to be called out to be the intermediary for a communication from G–d to her and Aaron. Something of a similar nature took place when Moses appealed to G–d regarding his successor. In Exodus 21,1 G–d had told Moses to place the various laws before the Jewish people. The word לפניהם used by the Torah there is understood to refer to legal experts, Torah scholars, as opposed to laymen. If the process was initiated by G–d giving Moses סמיכה, ordination, then it could be presumed that from that time on this ordination would be conferred by one scholar on his disciple, etc. On the other hand it was possible that just as G–d had chosen Moses to be ordained for this task in his generation, so G–d would ordain other leaders each in their respective generations. Now that the time had come for Moses to pass from the scene he wanted to know from G–d how this process of ordination of a future leader would be handled. G–d therefore told him in Numbers 27,18 that he, Moses, was to confer this ordination on Joshua by placing his hand on him. In our פרשה, too, Moses had thought that there were indications that G–d had rescinded His decree that Moses would not lead the Jewish people into the Holy Land. Moses therefore asked G–d for clear guidance as to the true state of affairs. We note that in all the instances when Moses used the word לאמור when addressing G–d there was a perfectly legitimate reason.

In other words: דינים and משפטים, contribute to the respective perfection of the נשמה-גוף-ממון elements in our lives. משפטים are the mainstay of it all. Our sages say (Shemot Rabbah 30,3) that Torah (i.e. the Ten Commandments) is surrounded by דינים. The Torah begins with דינים, as we read in Exodus 15,25: שם שם לו חוק ומשפט, and it ends with דינים in Exodus chapter 21,1, (The letter ו in the words ואלההמשפטים, is regarded as a continuation of the Ten Commandments). You should know that there are two categories of דין. One category reflects only the attribute of Justice. The other category is a combination of the attribute of Justice and the attribute of Mercy. Our Rabbis have already said that originally G–d had planned to create a universe based on justice. However, G–d saw that such a universe would not endure, hence He co-opted the attribute of Mercy (Bereshit Rabbah 12,15). Just as the attribute of Mercy was invoked when creating man, so Torah itself reflects on occasion strict justice, and on other occasions justice tempered with mercy. As an example, consider the four possible ways of administering the death penalty to people guilty thereof, as opposed to the owner of an ox that has fatally gored a free human being repeatedly, so that the owner's negligence was the cause of what is described by the Torah as deserving the death penalty (Exodus 21,29), וגם בעליו יומת. Rashi explains that this death penalty is administered by Heaven, not by a human tribunal, i.e. the attribute of Mercy is invoked. A similar instance is the statement in the Torah: "An eye for an eye" (Exodus 21,24). This is understood by the Rabbis as referring to financial compensation to be paid to the person who has lost his eye (Baba Kama 84). The reason the Torah employs such severe sounding language, i.e. עין תחת עין, is to tell us that spoiling someone's eye deserves to be paid for by loss of one's own eye. Only because the attribute of Mercy has been co-opted, is restitution made in money, i.e. in terms of the monetary value of the eye one has destroyed.

In other words: דינים and משפטים, contribute to the respective perfection of the נשמה-גוף-ממון elements in our lives. משפטים are the mainstay of it all. Our sages say (Shemot Rabbah 30,3) that Torah (i.e. the Ten Commandments) is surrounded by דינים. The Torah begins with דינים, as we read in Exodus 15,25: שם שם לו חוק ומשפט, and it ends with דינים in Exodus chapter 21,1, (The letter ו in the words ואלההמשפטים, is regarded as a continuation of the Ten Commandments). You should know that there are two categories of דין. One category reflects only the attribute of Justice. The other category is a combination of the attribute of Justice and the attribute of Mercy. Our Rabbis have already said that originally G–d had planned to create a universe based on justice. However, G–d saw that such a universe would not endure, hence He co-opted the attribute of Mercy (Bereshit Rabbah 12,15). Just as the attribute of Mercy was invoked when creating man, so Torah itself reflects on occasion strict justice, and on other occasions justice tempered with mercy. As an example, consider the four possible ways of administering the death penalty to people guilty thereof, as opposed to the owner of an ox that has fatally gored a free human being repeatedly, so that the owner's negligence was the cause of what is described by the Torah as deserving the death penalty (Exodus 21,29), וגם בעליו יומת. Rashi explains that this death penalty is administered by Heaven, not by a human tribunal, i.e. the attribute of Mercy is invoked. A similar instance is the statement in the Torah: "An eye for an eye" (Exodus 21,24). This is understood by the Rabbis as referring to financial compensation to be paid to the person who has lost his eye (Baba Kama 84). The reason the Torah employs such severe sounding language, i.e. עין תחת עין, is to tell us that spoiling someone's eye deserves to be paid for by loss of one's own eye. Only because the attribute of Mercy has been co-opted, is restitution made in money, i.e. in terms of the monetary value of the eye one has destroyed.

In other words: דינים and משפטים, contribute to the respective perfection of the נשמה-גוף-ממון elements in our lives. משפטים are the mainstay of it all. Our sages say (Shemot Rabbah 30,3) that Torah (i.e. the Ten Commandments) is surrounded by דינים. The Torah begins with דינים, as we read in Exodus 15,25: שם שם לו חוק ומשפט, and it ends with דינים in Exodus chapter 21,1, (The letter ו in the words ואלההמשפטים, is regarded as a continuation of the Ten Commandments). You should know that there are two categories of דין. One category reflects only the attribute of Justice. The other category is a combination of the attribute of Justice and the attribute of Mercy. Our Rabbis have already said that originally G–d had planned to create a universe based on justice. However, G–d saw that such a universe would not endure, hence He co-opted the attribute of Mercy (Bereshit Rabbah 12,15). Just as the attribute of Mercy was invoked when creating man, so Torah itself reflects on occasion strict justice, and on other occasions justice tempered with mercy. As an example, consider the four possible ways of administering the death penalty to people guilty thereof, as opposed to the owner of an ox that has fatally gored a free human being repeatedly, so that the owner's negligence was the cause of what is described by the Torah as deserving the death penalty (Exodus 21,29), וגם בעליו יומת. Rashi explains that this death penalty is administered by Heaven, not by a human tribunal, i.e. the attribute of Mercy is invoked. A similar instance is the statement in the Torah: "An eye for an eye" (Exodus 21,24). This is understood by the Rabbis as referring to financial compensation to be paid to the person who has lost his eye (Baba Kama 84). The reason the Torah employs such severe sounding language, i.e. עין תחת עין, is to tell us that spoiling someone's eye deserves to be paid for by loss of one's own eye. Only because the attribute of Mercy has been co-opted, is restitution made in money, i.e. in terms of the monetary value of the eye one has destroyed.

This is what Rashi has in mind when he explains that the word ואלה as in Exodus 21,1, introduces matters related to what had been discussed previously. Thus in our case the Torah tells us that just as Sinaitic legislation is binding on us, so the judgments pronounced by properly constituted judges are equally binding; hence the details pertaining to each and every commandment are just as essential as the overall nature of the מצוה. The author quotes an unnamed source as stating that the expression אלוהים, by its very definition is in the genitive (i.e. סמוכים). [I have found in the introduction of the כתב והקבלה of Rabbi Mecklenburg that G–d is always in some relationship to His creation, does not dwell in solitary isolation. This may well be what the author has in mind when quoting the line אין אלוקים בכל מקום אלא סמוכים. Ed.] When we said that G–d decided to co-opt the מדת הרחמים, this must not be construed as G–d having abandoned the idea of a world based on the מדת הדין, attribute of Justice. If that were so, it would pose the problem of G–ds omniscience. Rather, G–d decided to apply the attribute of Justice only to those who are equipped with "superior" souls, whose souls originate in the region souls come from. This is why G–d is so strict with people of the calibre of Moses, etc Anyone who has attained the level of being a שותף של הקדוש ברוך הוא, a "partner" of the Almighty in construction of the universe, is judged by these more exacting standards. We have a tradition that anyone who pronounces true judgment becomes a partner of the creation (Tanchuma Shoftim 8). I have explained this elsewhere at greater length. This is also what is meant when G–d told Moses that He had not needed to reveal Himself to the patriarchs in His aspect of the מדת הרחמים, His attribute of Mercy (compare Rashi on Exodus 6,3). The exile in Egypt actually represented a punishment of Abraham for having questioned במה אדע, demanded proof of G–d's promise being fulfilled (Genesis 15,8). Since such exceptional people maintain בראשית, i.e. מעשה בראשית, these people who are the ראשית, the leading, superior people, are judged by the attribute that called the universe into existence.

Commandment 51 provides for the Court to impose the death penalty by the sword in certain situations (Hereg). If a master kills his Canaanite servant by a lethal blow, he is also guilty of execution by this method, viz: (Exodus 21,20) "he shall be avenged." (Leviticus 26,25 states "the sword will wreak vengeance for the covenant" on those breaching it).

סקול יסקל השור ולא יאכל את בשרו. The ox must be stoned, and its meat must not be eaten." Rabbi Menachem Habavli explains that the reason for this injunction is that once the verdict on the ox has been pronounced, i.e. that it is to be executed, its flesh is automatically forbidden, just as we have the rule that כל שעתיד להשרף כשרוף דמי, that anything that is to be burned, is considered for legal purposes as if it had already been burned. Anyone who has become the instrument of harm or death to a third party becomes detested and one must not derive any benefit from such person or thing. Such a person's fate is to be "consumed" by others. A שליח לדבר עברה, someone designated to perform a transgression, can no longer serve as עץ מאכל, a fruit-bearing tree.

Esau was the exact opposite. He represented קנאה, jealousy, and שנאה, hatred. Jealousy is the exact opposite of truth. The attribute of truth is defined as a preparedness to admit that something is objectively so, without one denying it or misrepresenting it (even if one puts oneself in a bad light thereby). When the prophet Ovadiah in the verse quoted describes the house of Esau as becoming straw, קש, the letters in that word are the respective first letters of קנאה and שנאה. Now that the brothers had become guilty of being jealous of Joseph and hating him, as we know from 37,4 and 37,11, they became victims of Esau in this world. Since ten of the brothers were guilty of such feelings, the Romans tortured ten outstanding Jewish scholars to death, the ones commonly known as עשרה הרוגי מלכות, whom Jewish liturgy eulogized in the poem אלה אזכרה recited on the Day of Atonement. The ten scholars involved were re-incarnations of the ten brothers of Joseph who had taken part in selling him. This is stated in the book Heychalot. Rabbi Yishmael said: "The day the instructions came to torture Jewish sages to death was on a Thursday. Originally, four sages were to be arrested, Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel, Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha the High Priest, Rabbi Yehudah ben Bava and Rabbi Yehudah ben Damah. Eight thousand scholars in Jerusalem were prepared to offer themselves in lieu of these four leaders. When Rabbi Nechunyah ben Hakanah realised that the decree would not be revoked, he "lowered me" to the מרכבה, and I interceded with the שר הפנים in the Celestial Regions. The שר הפנים told me that the Supreme Court in Heaven had decreed that ten eminent scholars were to be handed over to Samael, the Celestial representative of Rome. The reason for the decree was to carry out on the bodies of leaders of Israel the penalty imposed on kidnappers as per Exodus 21,16: "If someone kidnaps a person, sells him and is found out, he shall be executed." [According to Sanhedrin 85, the words "found out" mean that there were witnesses to the deed already before the sale. Ed.]

I have found a beautiful commentary concerning this amongst the writings of the Arizal. We must understand why Moses bothered to set aside these three cities, seeing they could not perform their function until the other three cities of refuge on the West Bank of the Jordan had been set aside also (Numbers 35,13; compare Makkot 9). When we understand the Arizal's commentary on the problem of the cities of refuge, we will also understand why the Torah interrupted the report about the gift of the Torah to the Jewish people by mentioning already at this point that Moses set aside the three cities of refuge which were to be on the East Bank of the Jordan. The Ari zal sees in Moses' action an attempt at rehabilitation for when he had committed manslaughter and had taken it upon himself to slay the Egyptian who had tortured a Jew (Exodus 2,12). He had considered this killing in the category of a murder inadvertently committed because he had felt at the time that he was performing a מצוה by doing so. The first letters of the words הירדן מזרחה שמה, which describe what Moses did, form the acronym משה. The following words, אשר ירצח את רעהו are also an allusion to Moses. We have already described that Moses was the re-incarnation of Abel. The Torah here alludes to the first murder i.e. fratricide, when Cain slew his brother Abel. This is also alluded to in Exodus 2,11, when the Torah describes Moses as observing an Egyptian man: מכה איש עברי מאחיו, "torturing a Jewish man, one of his brothers." The Torah hints that the Egyptian was a former brother of Moses, i.e. a re-incarnation of Cain. In this instance the evil which had been part of Cain's character had re-surfaced in the character of this Egyptian. We have explained on another occasion that the נפש of Cain, i.e. his lowest spiritual part, was re-incarnated in the body of this Egyptian, whereas Cain's רוח, the superior part of his soul, was re-incarnated in the body of Yitro. The highest part of Cain's soul, i.e. the נשמה, was re-incarnated in the body of Korach. Korach made the mistake of quarrelling with Moses; this resulted in his גלגול failing to achieve its ultimate purpose. Yitro was of mixed feelings. When he became aware that he was wrong, had sinned, he converted to Judaism. At the end of the paragraph dealing with the cities of refuge the Torah writes: וזאת התורה אשר שם משה. This means that Moses determined the need to set aside these three cities of refuge at this time for his own sake.

מות יומת הנואף והנואפת . The reason why both adulterer and adulteress are to be executed by suffocation (20,10), a relatively easy death penalty, may be connected to what the Torah writes elsewhere concerning the type of death penalty to be administered to a murderer. For a person who murdered another with one single stroke (or bullet causing instant death), the Torah legislated death by suffocation; he presumably did not make his victim suffer. There is no reason therefore to impose a harsher type of execution on the adulterer.

(Ibid.): "As the opening of a suit of armor shall it [its neck-opening] be for it, so that it not be torn." Why need the Torah add "as the opening of a suit of armor"? Is it not sufficient to have stated "And the mouth of its head shall be [folded over] within it. A border shall there be for its mouth"? It must intimate, then, that just as one dons armor for protection, that he not be harmed by the arrows shot at him, so, if one clamps shut his mouth, it affords him protection against his antagonist, and, in the end, it serves to silence him by giving him no answer. If he answered him, however, the quarrel would widen and he would come to blows, as it is written (Ibid. 21:18): "And if men quarrel, and a man strike his neighbor with stone or fist, etc." And the Holy One Blessed be He is also his Protector because of this, because "the earth depends upon him," as mentioned above. (Ibid. 33-34): "And you shall make on its (lower) hem pomegranates of purple … and golden bells in their midst roundabout [one bell between every two pomegranates]. A golden bell and a pomegranate [next to it], a golden bell and a pomegranate, on the hem of the me'il roundabout. The allusion here would seem to be to what Chazal have said (Chullin 89a): "What is a man's 'trade'? Let him make himself a mute. I might think, even to words of Torah. It is, therefore, written (Psalms 58:2): 'Righteousness shall you speak.'" It is found, then, according to this, that whenever one has time, he should not remain idle, but he should learn Torah. And the learning should not be silent, as we find in Eruvin 54a. And when one cannot learn Torah, whatever the reason might be, he should make himself a mute, who cannot open his mouth. And for this reason there were on the hem of the me'il, "a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate," alluding to the study of Torah, as mentioned above. And, in the midst of this, when he cannot learn, he should embrace the trait of silence [as our sages of blessed memory have said (Avoth 1:16): "R. Shimon ben Gamliel said: 'All my life, I grew up among the wise, and I found nothing better for the body than silence.'"] And this is alluded to by the pomegranate next to the bell; that is, like a pomegranate, that makes no sound. And, if one conducts himself in this manner, the Torah assures us (Ibid. 35): "and its sound will be heard when he comes to the sanctuary." That is, the sound of his prayer and his Torah will be accepted on high, which will not be the case if he does not guard his faculty of speech and mixes his speech with lashon hara, rechiluth, and the like, in which case the forbidden speech will defile his words of holiness and they will not be accepted on high, as mentioned above in Chapter I.

Grave is machloketh for it leads to death, as it is written (Exodus 21:22): "If men grapple and strike a pregnant woman…" (Ibid. 23): "And if there be death [in the woman], then you shall give a life for a life." What caused this? The quarrel.

The first of the משפטים deals with the Jewish servant, both male and female, and is hinted at already in the first of the Ten Commandments. G–d had liberated Israel from bondage to become exclusively His servants. We know from Leviticus 25,55, that כי לי בני ישראל עבדים, that "the children of Israel are My slaves." Rashi refers to this when explaining why the servant who chooses to remain in service has his ear pierced with an awl (Exodus 21,6).

Just as the six days of creation being "G–d's days," are viewed as the equivalent of one thousand years each, so the Kabbalists view this as a reference to the six thousand years this physical world will exist before a period of one thousand years of ruin, i.e. a period without creative activity, ישבות. This process is supposed to repeat itself seven times until the year fifty thousand, which is the סוד, secret of the יובל, ultimate freedom. The Exodus is to be viewed as a branch of the tree which represents universal history. This idea was hinted at already at the time of the Exodus, when Israel escaped the power (limitations imposed on all creatures) of the fifty levels of בינה, insight. This is the deeper meaning of וחמושים עלו בני ישראל in Exodus 13,18, i.e. that the target of the ascent was "fifty." The idea is that when attaining the fiftieth level, one has achieved more than merely escaping a branch of the fifty levels of בינה. [These 50 gates of בינה are perhaps identical with the 50 gates of טומאה that we are all familiar with from Midrashic literature. At any rate, they represent different levels of restraint, exposure to the pull of the material universe. Ed.] The fact that יציאת מצרים is mentioned in the Torah exactly fifty times may further reinforce the idea that after reaching level fifty freedom becomes absolute. The author suggests that the average lifespan of man of seventy years is a further reminder of this concept, allowing for the fact that man is not judged by Heaven for misdemeanours committed during the first twenty years of his life. Even the male Jewish servant who has his ear pierced, must go free not later than in the fiftieth year, יובל, which is the meaning of Exodus 21,6, "he shall serve לעולם."

I have explained the significance of the rule of a slave dying more than twenty four hours after having been struck by his master (Exodus 21,21), in my commentary on פרשת יתרו. The first of the Ten Commandments, אנכי, which is one of the positive commandments, includes the essence of all positive commandments, whereas the second of the Ten Commandments, לא יהיה, not to have other deities, contains the essence of all the other negative commandments. Our sages have said that the 365 negative commandments correspond to the 365 days in the solar year (Makkot 23). When the Torah says יום in our verse, it refers to all 365 days of this temporal year. A Gentile slave is obligated by Jewish law to observe all the negative commandments, whereas he only has to observe those positive commandments that Jewish women also have to observe. He is exempt from the performance of commandments which are linked to a specific time frame i.e. a certain part of the day. It follows that his sanctity is restricted to "a (full) day one," i.e. when he performs all the negative commandments. This is the deeper meaning of the Torah saying "if he survives a day or two." יום או יומים, means a "day that includes all days, a period of not less than twenty four consecutive hours."

To come back to the similarity between Jacob and Joseph. We mentioned the כתנות אור, the garments woven of light, worn by Adam and Eve prior to their sin. When Jacob made a כתונת פסים, "a striped coat" for Joseph (37, 3), this was the kind of luxurious garment worn by princesses, i.e. the souls in the Celestial Regions who are compared to "daughters of the King of Kings." The נשמה is frequently referred to as בת, daughter, as we know from the Zohar (Sullam edition page 17) on Exodus 21,7: "When a man sells his daughter, etc." Once the serpent had caused the letter א, the luminary quality of אדם, to be removed from אדם, rebellious man, all he was left with were the letters דם.

According to the Rekanati even the prohibition to take the garments of a widow as a pledge for a loan (24,17) contains an allusion to transmigration of souls. He sees in the prohibition a device by the Torah not to subject the widow to two painful experiences, the loss of her husband and the loss of her garments. In order to understand how this alludes to transmigration of souls we need to refer to a similarly worded verse in Exodus 22,25: אם חבול תחבול שלמת רעך עד בא השמש תשיבנו לו, "If you have occasion to take your fellow man's garment as a pledge, you must return it to him by sunset." This verse alludes to the mystical dimension called סוד העבור. Kabbalists see in it a reference to the soul which has to return to the Celestial Spheres every night, a concept we are familiar with from our nightly payer המפיל in which we consign our soul to G–d till the following morning. The widow consigning her garment (="soul") to a creditor therefore is punished every night on two counts, her soul suffers its second reincarnation. A widow is metaphor for a soul which has been consigned to a second round of life on earth already. The lender must not become the cause of her having to live a third round on earth. Transgressing the physical commandment described here results in psychic harm to the soul of the person against whom one has sinned.

According to the Rekanati even the prohibition to take the garments of a widow as a pledge for a loan (24,17) contains an allusion to transmigration of souls. He sees in the prohibition a device by the Torah not to subject the widow to two painful experiences, the loss of her husband and the loss of her garments. In order to understand how this alludes to transmigration of souls we need to refer to a similarly worded verse in Exodus 22,25: אם חבול תחבול שלמת רעך עד בא השמש תשיבנו לו, "If you have occasion to take your fellow man's garment as a pledge, you must return it to him by sunset." This verse alludes to the mystical dimension called סוד העבור. Kabbalists see in it a reference to the soul which has to return to the Celestial Spheres every night, a concept we are familiar with from our nightly payer המפיל in which we consign our soul to G–d till the following morning. The widow consigning her garment (="soul") to a creditor therefore is punished every night on two counts, her soul suffers its second reincarnation. A widow is metaphor for a soul which has been consigned to a second round of life on earth already. The lender must not become the cause of her having to live a third round on earth. Transgressing the physical commandment described here results in psychic harm to the soul of the person against whom one has sinned.

Murder committed deliberately, however, מעט מזבחי תקחנו למות, "you will execute him promptly, says G–d (21,14). Even Adam had been created from ה-אדמה, i.e. the altar (מזבח אדמה תעשה לי). Rashi explains on Genesis 2,7, that the dust referred to here is the site of the eventual altar in the Holy Temple, so that the eventual function of the altar, namely to atone for man's sins, should also be able to atone for Adam's error. Since nowadays the evil urge does not manifest itself in the guise of the serpent, murderers do not enjoy a stay of execution.

All of these ideas are alluded to in the blessing that Jacob took from Esau. Since Isaac personified the מדת הדין here on earth, he loved Esau who צד ציד, i.e. hunted people, acted as Satan does. Esau's other name אדום alludes to something red, i.e. blood. Isaac, on the other hand, represented the redness of the wine which is still preserved inside the grapes. There was an affinity between Isaac and Esau which is symbolized by wine and blood respectively. Jacob prepared delicacies for his father in Heaven at the advice of his mother who symbolized כנסת ישראל, the concept of the Jewish people. Jacob realized that all of his father's desire was concentrated on the delicacies he had prepared. He therefore prepared them with a mixture of sweet water and rooted himself in holiness in the mystical dimension of the birthright [having acquired this from Esau]. By doing this, he forced the wicked Esau out of occupying a higher spiritual plateau than that of himself, and he caused Esau to separate himself from Jacob and to go to his own country and his own people. He would forthwith not be able to act as accuser, but would be turned into a perennial slave, just as the slave in Exodus 21,6 who has his ear pierced as evidence that he belongs to his master permanently. Isaac explained all this to Esau when he said to him: הן גביר שמתיו לך, "Here I have made him senior to you." At that point, Isaac's former name קצחי was changed to יצחק.

Rabbi Yehudah son of lla-i said that Moses originally thought that the ransom for a person's life was one talent of silver since it is written in Kings I 20,39: "it will be your life for his, or you will have to pay a talent of silver." Rabbi Yossi believes that the amount of ransom appropriate is the amount of 100 pieces of silver, and that we compare this to the case of a groom who accused his bride of not having been a virgin (Deut. 22,19). The sin of the Jewish people at the time was comparable to that of the מוציא שם רע, because the people proclaimed "These are your gods O Israel, which have taken you out of Egypt," a clear defamation of G–d's reputation. Thus, every Jew should have been required to pay 100 shekels. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish felt, that the amount of the ransom payment should be compared to the person who has raped a young woman in Deut. 22,29 who is required to pay a ransom of 50 shekels to the father of the rape-victim. The sin of the Jewish people at the episode of the golden calf was akin to that of the rapist. We, who have been told "You shall not have any other G–d," have subjected G–d to the pain of our making another god for ourselves. It is therefore appropriate for each Jew to ransom himself to the tune of 50 shekels. Rabbi Yehudah bar Symon said that the appropriate ransom payment should be derived from the Torah's legislation dealing with the ox which has gored someone's slave and the owner of which has to pay 30 shekels to the owner of the slave who was killed (Exodus 21,32). The comparison is fitting because the Israelites demeaned themselves to be no better than the image of the ox which they worshipped. They had devalued themselves, so to speak, so that their lives were no longer worth more than 30 shekel.

This may be the reason why when Abraham is reported as "sitting" in 18,1 the word Yoshev sitting is spelled defective without the letter ו. [maybe the letter ו symbolizes upright posture. Ed.] This indicates that he tried to rise. At that point G–d told him that he would be a symbol for his descendants, for G–d Himself would rise as a member of a collegiate of judges. How does the subject of "judges" enter the picture here? The meaning is that at that point G–d revealed to Abraham that the attribute of Justice was extended over Sodom. The reason Abraham was informed of this, now that he was circumcised, is that justice is something that can only be administered by people who have been circumcised, as we know from Exodus 21,1: ואלה המשפטים אשר תשים לפניהם, "These are the judgments you are to place before them. "The words "before them" are to exclude Gentiles who have not been circumcised, as we learn from Gittin 88. Being uncircumcised is not only a matter of the foreskin, but the same concept also applies to one's thinking processes. This is why we have ערלי לב, people whose hearts have remained "uncircumcised" (Ezekiel 44,7). All the Gentiles fall into that category; they therefore cannot be entrusted to administer the laws of the Torah. The Torah calls the judges א-להים, the same letters as in מילה, (allowing for the addition of the letter א for G–d), and that is also the name of G–d which represents the מרכבה. This is the meaning of Genesis 17,22: ויעל א-להים מעל אברהם, "G–d "rose" from Abraham." Judges have to be סמוכים, i.e. close to G–d, a condition that cannot be attained until after circumcision. [Nowadays סמוכים means ordained. Ed.] The letter א that the word מילה falls short of being equal to the word א-להים alludes to the fact that man, even when at his spiritually highest plateau, still remains one little bit below the spiritual level of G–d, as we know from Psalms 8,6: ותחסרהו מעט מא-להים, "You have made him a little less than divine. The same is true of the 50 levels of intelligence and insight. The most any man, (Moses), was granted was 49 levels of such knowledge and insight. Our sages in Rosh Hashanah 21b have derived this from reading the word מעט in Psalms 8,6 as מט, i.e. 49.

The answer may be that all other acts of מצוה performance originate outside ourselves, such as the building of a סוכה or the purchase of a לולה, and most of the other 248 positive commandments. When it comes to the offering of an animal sacrifice, however, the person offering it is the עובד, or better עבד, servant, so that the service which an עבד, servant, performs is accurately called עבודה, service. One may view the servant as the "service." We know that such an animal sacrifice is an expression of the mystical dimension נפש תחת נפש, "One life-force in exchange for another life-force," such as in Exodus 21,23 et al, and that when the guilty party slaughters the animal he is keenly aware that his own life should have been offered to G–d in expiation of his sin. The same applies to what the guilty party feels when the blood of the animal is sprinkled on the altar. The owner confesses his sin and resolves not to repeat it. When all this, including the burning of the flesh of the animal on the altar, is the result of animal sacrifice, then the servant has truly become the "service." The first time this happened was when Abraham slaughtered the ram on the altar after G–d had told him not to slaughter Isaac in Genesis 22,12. [In the case of Isaac, he had not been personally guilty; hence how could his death expiate for a crime of his? Ed.] As a corollary, other sacrifices such as wine, bread, oil, etc., accomplish a similar function; they substitute for man offering his own body to G–d, because all the products mentioned are forms of nourishment that keep the human body alive, and therefore are able to serve as a substitute for the human body. In spite of the fact that this service involves an external object, i.e. the animal in question, the thought behind it is strictly internal. The external object enables the sinner to look inward into his own personality. עבודה is called קרבן because the person offering the animal sacrifices his own personality to G–d who in turn has entrusted him with the keeping of his body. When this service is performed according to הלכה, the person offering the sacrifice experiences an elevation of his soul; he approaches ever closer to G–d.

Rekanati comments about this in the following words: "We know that halachically our sages understand the עין תחת עין as a demand to pay appropriate financial compensation for the organ impaired or destroyed. The same principle applies to the verse Leviticus 24,19, ואיש כי יתן מום בעמיתו, where we also find that monetary compensation is called for. The words באדם כן ינתן בו (Leviticus 19,20), mean that something that is usually passed from hand to hand is to be the means of compensation."

We observe that the whole subject matter revolves around the Ineffable Name, the name representing G–d's Essence. It seems evident that Yitro knew something about the name of G–d, and this is why he said: "Now I know that י-ה-ו-ה is greater than any אלוהים (Exodus 18,11)." His statement included both idols and other aspects of G–d's names. Our sages have reported that Yitro in his search for truth had not omitted a single one of the religions practised during his time (Mechilta). He first came to the conclusion that there are several names i.e. manifestations of the true G–d, and that there was also a name that signified G–d's ability to effect changes in the laws of nature. He arrived at the conclusion that the four-lettered Ineffable Name was that Name.

In our Parshah we find that the standard value of a male Gentile slave is thirty שקלים. This is the amount that has to be paid to the owner as כופר נפש, "soul's ransom," if such a slave has been killed. All that G–d has asked from each Jew for His share in the cardinal sin of the golden calf is one 60th of that amount. This symbolises that we are to be prepared to make do with the equivalent of a half-שקל to sustain our needs during the 6 weekdays. The Mishnah in פאה 8,7, stipulates therefore that the gabba-im in charge of distribution of food to transients must not allocate less than the size of a loaf costing a pundian at the time when the price of grain is four sa-ah for a selah. Four sa-ah=24 kabbin, since a single sa-ah = 6 kabbin. The selah itself is equal to 48 pundians. This amount of bread is supposed to be sufficient for the number of weekdays in a month (1 kav=2200 ccm). Allowance is made for the cost of labour and baking, so that the amount of actual bread represents somewhat less than the gross amount of grain before grinding into flour. The baker, therefore, cannot sell a loaf the size of half a kav for only one pundian. The reason a month is considered the relevant unit for this calculation is that in Exodus 30,13, the Torah says זה יתנו וכו'. The word זה equals 12. In other words, there is a direct link between twelve and the מחצית השקל, the number twelve representing the months in the year (otherwise it could have stipulated that the contribution should be annual). Every month of the year is considered a separate unit. The first day of the month of אדר was the date on which the new contributions were called for. They fell due on the first day of ניסן. Having already in mind the contribution of the חצי שקל one month before it is actually made, sanctifies such a person and makes all the food he consumes as if he were consuming part of a sacrifice, i.e. something dedicated to G–d.

Since food consumed on the Sabbath is anyways on a higher plane, having been sanctified by the very presence of the Sabbath, it need not be part of the calculations we have just outlined. The Gentile slaves, whose entire lifestyle is based on receiving material compensation for services rendered, are valued at thirty shekel each, i.e. sixty times the amount needed for minimal subsistence for the average person for the weekdays of each month. This is why the Torah sets his כופר נפש, soul's ransom, at 30 shekel as we read in Exodus 21,32 (The concept of בטול, reduction to the point of total insignificance in reverse).

The land of Israel which is under the constant direct supervision of G–d (Deut. 11,12), is in this respect an allusion to the corresponding ארץ עליונה, "earth of the Celestial Regions" all of which belongs to Israel. This is the meaning of Isaiah 60,21: ועמך כולם צדיקים לעולם יירשו ארץ, "As for your people who are all righteous, they will inherit an earth in another world." The Hereafter (the rejuvenated planet earth), [alluded to in פרשת בהר as the seventh year, Ed] is called שבת, as opposed to the six years, i.e. the 6,000 years of mankind's physical existence on this earth as it is now.

When the Torah discusses legislation involving damages caused by an animal's horn (Exodus 21,35), it is a rule of thumb that an animal which had a blameless record, was never aggressive, is held responsible (its owner) for half the damage it has caused. If, however, the animal had a record of causing damage, its owner is assessed the full value of any damage it has caused. When a human being causes damage he is always considered as having a record of aggressiveness and is therefore always held responsible for the total damage he causes. This all dates back to original man who had caused severe damage to this world, so that all human beings who came after him must consider themselves as having been forewarned. G–d had warned him that "on the day you eat from it you will become mortal." Adam had been fully awake at the time the serpent seduced him; this is why he could not plead extenuating circumstances. He also sinned while asleep, since, during the one hundred and thirty years that he did not cohabit with his wife he emitted semen nocturnally, which in turn was converted into all kinds of destructive spirits, as we have explained elsewhere. This was all due to his having absorbed pollutants emitted by the serpent. As a result, man is held fully responsible for damage caused by him both while awake and while asleep. When we speak about man as being מועד לעולם, forewarned concerning any sin he commits, and therefore fully responsible for his actions, this means that he pays the full penalty, mortality, for his transgressions. This mortality is passed on from generation to generation.

Healing - Our sages of blessed memory said on the verse "And heal he will be healed" [shemot 21;19] - from here the Torah gave the permission to doctors to heal. [berakhot 40a] And it is also said [with respect to illnesses] - that they are bad and trustworthy [Deut / devarim 28;59] - that they are "trustworthy" as an emissary / delegate [of heaven] [rashi there] for at the time that they are appointed / delegated [to fall upon a person] - it is decreed upon them that they should only leave on a determined day by the appointed doctor using the prescribed medicine. Our sages have also said "A person should not live in a place where there is no doctor" [sanhedrin 17b]