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In Parashat Mishpatim, the Torah starts out by talking about
Dinei Mamonot, or civil laws, and then shifts focus and talks
about the greatness of Eretz Yisrael. Meanwhile, last week's
Parashah, Parashat Yitro, ended with the giving of the Luchot at
Har Sinai. Why does the Torah juxtapose the civil laws with
Matan Torah and Eretz Yisroel? Why do we have laws that
break the storyline of the drama of Har Sinai and then finish off
Parashat Mishpatim with the rest of Har Sinai?
At Matan Torah Hashem showed Himself through thunder and
clouds and the whole atmosphere reflected His greatness.
After Matan Torah, we don’t get the laws of connecting us with
Hashem, or anything about our Dinim with Hashem. We
instead find the Dinei Mamonot that are Bein Adam
LeChaveiro. Why is it that at the highest spiritual moment of
our existence as a nation we talk about how to interact with
each other?
The Ramban quotes a Midrash Rabbah that says that the entire
Torah stands on justice. If the people don’t have a justice
system they will become corrupt and cannot keep the Torah.
He adds that the only way a person can judge someone is by
knowing all the Torah. The Torah was given to us to connect to
Hashem and then immediately after that we need to connect to
our Chaverim. In order for a community to live any civil life,
they need to first set up laws. We recognized Hashem and then
immediately set up laws that are between us and others to be
able to live the best life and be an example for everyone else.
Just like how in a movie right before the good guy gets to the
place he needs to be or does the certain thing he needs to do,
the movie stops and goes to a different scene, so too the Torah
makes sure that right before this great moment, we need some
background and laws before advancing to the scene.
Later in the Parashah, the Torah talks about the greatness and
beauty of Eretz Yisrael. Shouldn’t this be discussed before the
Parashah about laws, so it can be an incentive for us to keep
them? However, it’s the opposite. In return for keeping
Hashem’s mitzvot we get to inherit the land of Israel. It can be
seen as a reward or just simply as the outcome of completing
His mitzvot. Another reason for this being after the laws is to
keep the nation on the high they were on right then after
receiving the Mitzvot, the largest amount of Mitzvot they were
given at once since they left Egypt, 51. Hashem wanted them to
think about going into the land of Israel and thinking about the
Mitzvot as one big great thing-which it actually is. We need to
look at all of the Mitzvot given to us as the greatest things a Jew
can accomplish and yearn to go back to Eretz Yisrael
immediately so we can receive the greatest amount of Shechina