Chelek 26, Mishpatim 2

This week's parasha is called Mishpatim, which means "loss" the laws of the Torah. That's exactly what it is. And it really follows last week where Hashem gave us the Torah. Last week is parasha's Yisra, the parasha of Matan, the giving of Torah, the Ten Commandments, the Seraphs, and the Abysse. And then this week's parasha goes through a great amount, a great deal of laws of Mishpatim, laws of the Torah, that Hashem teaches Masha Rabaynir to give over to the Jewish people. At the end of the parasha, at the end of this week's parasha, the Seraph says, "Vel Masha, Amar, Leil, Hashem, that Hashem tells Masha to ascend, Hashem, and Masha comes up to Hashem. And Hashem tells them to write the words of a covenant between him and the Jewish people. Masha comes down, they create sacrifices, all of the foot of the mountain." And Rashi tells us that what's really happening at the end of the parasha, at the end of this week's parasha, is that the Torah is traveling back in time and discussing something that happened before the giving of Torah. In other words, that what we have here is something that's totally out of order chronologically. And the way the parasha plays itself out, according to Rashi, is that in last week's Torah portion, we had the beginning of the preparation for Matan Torah. The Jewish people came to Mount Sinai, and it tells us that on the second day of Sivan, Hashem tells them that you're from a nation, a treasure, a nation of priests, of Kain, and Gakadish, a holy nation. And then Hashem gives them Mitzvahs, and the third and fourth of Sivan, the Mitzvah of the boundaries that they had to make between themselves on the mountain, the Mitzvah of separating husbands and wives for those days until the giving of Torah. So it goes through the first steps of the preparation for the giving of Torah, then we have the story of the giving of Torah in last week's parasha, followed by all the laws, the majority of this week's parasha. And then at the end of this week's parasha, we jump back and talk about the final two days before the giving of Torah, when the Jewish people made a covenant with Hashem, and when they said, "Nasim, Anishma, we will listen and we will hear." And that all is discussed at the end of this week's parasha. So it's not really a problem because we do have a rule in Mukhd-ul-Muh-ul-Hur-Baterra, which means that Torah is not written necessarily in chronological order, but it's still strange, and why would the Torah be written this way? And again, with this back and forth, because, and again, a last week we read about the beginning of the preparation for the mat-antura, and then the giving of Torah. So we'll take all the laws that Hashem is teaching Moshe for the next 40 days in heaven, and at the end of the parasha, we're going back to what happens the immediate two days before the giving of Torah. What would be the reason for this total going out of order? And in fact, it's because of this that other great commentators, like Dharamban and Nachmanides and the Abar-Banel, disagree with Rashi, and they explain the verses differently, and I'm not going to go into their way they understand the verses. But the focus here is on Rashi, which is of course the simple understanding where Rashi gives us his interpretation to the Torah, why then is there this out of order in the chronological events leading up to and after the giving of the Torah? There are big explains, and he says that really when you think about it, when we receive the Torah from Hashem, there's two aspects and two parts of what's going on. One is the mitzvahs that are being given to us. Hashem is giving us mitzvahs, Hashem is giving us Torah. There is the dos and don'ts. There is all the mitzvahs that were given in the Torah that were meant to learn that was all given to us on that great day of mat-antura. But in addition to that, there is something deeper happening and that's a covenant. A covenant that's happening between Hashem and his people, making them his people, where he's uniquely connected to them, and they make this brist, this covenant, and they become his nation, the amhanif-hard that shows in nation, and the one who forever is going to be his. And that's a distinctly different idea that's happening on the same day simultaneously. Both of these things are taking place. We're getting a bunch of mitzvahs, a bunch of dos and don'ts, and things to do, and a covenant is taking place. And really, when we come to our Sinai, and on that second day of Sivana Hashem tells us his opening statements to us at that time, he really says both of them. He says, "Vat-ant-sham-mua-tishm-u-bik-olee. If you will listen to my voice, you'll listen to what I'm telling you to do." And then he says, "Ushm-artem-s-bri-si, and you will also keep the covenant, and you will be for me a treasure from all the nations." So, right away, he said, "There's two things. There's listening to the mitzvahs, doing what has to be done, and then there is creating this covenant with Yunas and Hashem." Says the Rebbe, "That really what the Torah is doing here, though it's going out of order chronologically, is dividing the two steps of giving of Torah." And that's why he says, "In last week's parasha, in the lead up to the giving of Torah, what the focus is is on mitzvahs, on the commandments of Hashem." So, before we talk about the mitzvahs that were given right away, on the third day of Sivun, when Hashem said, "Again to make those boundaries, on the fourth day of Sivun, the separation of man and woman." And then it jumped to the Ten Commandments, which is all mitzvahs, and then continued with this entire parasha of Mishbati-Lawz, all of this was the mitzvahs of the Torah, the dozen don'ts, that Hashem gave us on that day of our Sini. So, we focused on the lead up, the mitzvahs that led up to the giving of Torah, the Ten Commandments himself, and then followed by the entire parasha of Mishbati. At the end of all that, and the end of this week's parasha, we go to Part 2, or Stage 2, of what was really going on. And therefore, we jump back to talk about those two days before the giving of Torah, where the covenant was made, and the Kharb-bannos that Mosheir Abaynul brought at that point at the foot of the mountain, which was part of the covenant, the brisp between us and Hashem. And the fact that we said, Nas-7-Nishmah, we totally give ourselves over to Hashem, whatever he's going to say we're going to do, that was all the covenant that was made at that point. And that's why the Torah goes out of order in time, in order to set up in an orderly fashion, the two different events that happen. And that explains why directly after the end of Mishbati-Lawz, we go right into Truma, which is the story of the Mishgun. The next couple of parasha'is are going to be devoted to the Mishgun, which is of course, the place where Hashem says, "Make for me a place, and I will dwell amongst you." And that is directly connected with the covenant. That Hashem says, "I am yours, you are mine, you are my nation, and therefore let's have this place where I will dwell amongst you, and it will be with you." And in expressing that covenant that was made by Harsi Naykh. And that becomes the two primary ideas that happen during the giving of Torah, and they're broken up in this way throughout these parasha'is, the midst of this that we accepted, and were given by Hashem, and accepted to do them forever, the midst of Hashem, and to understand as well the covenant that was made over here to become Hashem's nation, the Amanifra, that shows the nation with a special mission, to bring Hashem into this world, and for Hashem to dwell amongst us, and through us into the entire world. Have a wonderful Shambahs.