Two Minute Torah Podcast

Mishpatim 5772 by Zoe Yellen

Shalom, my name is Zoe Yellen and I am a Junior at Franklin and Marshall College. Welcome to KOACH's Two-Minute Torah; a project of the College Department of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

The majority of parshat mishpatim consists of Hashem giving commandments to Moses and the Jewish people. While that may sound extremely boring and straightforward, it's far from that. Upon reading and investigating further into the parsha, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Hashem's commandments were not just about religious observances.

Some of the religious commandments include, but are not limited to: Taking a sabbatical year, observing Shabbat, celebrating the three holidays of Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot in the Holy Temple, and the mitzvah of kashrut. Some of the other commandments include rules about having slaves and servants, how to run a trial, laws concerning stealing, and a lot of the commandments were actually about treating people with the respect that they deserve. There were also many commandments concerning the treatment of animals, which I found both surprising and interesting. One that really stuck out to me was about what to do when an animal falls into a pit. It reads, "If a person uncovers a pit that had been properly covered, or digs an already existing pit, deepening it, and does not cover it, and this pit is located in the public domain, and an ox, or a donkey, or any other animal falls into it, the one responsible for the pit must make restitution." To be honest, when I first read it, I chuckled a bit at the image of a donkey falling into a hole, but once I regained my composure, I realized how truly meaningful this commandment is; it reminds us the importance of treating others with respect, even animals. And even more important than that, it reminds us to look out for each other because you never know when you're going to need someone to lift you up out of an uncovered pit.