Mishpatim: covenant, code, commandment

It is almost a commonplace to say that the Torah was given at Mount Sinai, and to associate this specifically with last week’s Torah portion, Yitro. But the bulk of the laws that constitute the “Covenant Code,” as well as the very acceptance of the Covenant, are to be found in this week’s portion, Mishpatim.

The JPS translation that is used in the Plaut commentary and in Etz Hayim renders the name of this portion as “rules,” and frequently it is translated as “ordinances.” The term derives from the root meaning “to judge,” and although “judgments” does not work as a translation here, the legal sense is appropriate because many of the mishpatim given in this parashah deal with civil and criminal law rather than with ritual. In rabbinic thought, mishpatim are laws for which we can comprehend the reasons, in contrast to chukim, laws given by God for which we are unable to propose rational explanations.

Israel’s acceptance of the Covenant takes place in 24:3, when Moses repeats “all the commands of the Lord and all the rules,” and the people reply, “All the things that the Lord has commanded we will do!” Moses proceeds to write down the commands; whether this refers to the Ten Commandments, all the laws of the Covenant Code, or something else, perhaps all the laws of Torah, is unclear.

Then, as described in verse 12, God instructs Moses to go up the mountain and receive stone tablets on which the “teachings and commandments” (haTorah and haMitzvah, both singular) are written.

Many of the laws of the Covenant Code might be adopted by any civil society, and some of them resemble laws of neighboring nations in the ancient world. Jewish commentators have taken care to distinguish the laws of Israel from those of the neighboring societies, and to point out many aspects of the laws here that represent advances over ancient customs.

One that is particularly noteworthy is the prohibition on lending money at interest: “If you lend money to My people, to the poor who is in your power, do not act toward him as a creditor: exact no interest from him” (22:24). This comes in the general context of proper treatment of disadvantaged people of all kinds, immediately following “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (22:20) and “You shall not ill-treat any widow or orphan” (22:21).

The original function of this prohibition, in the time after settlement in the Land of Israel, may have been to prevent the dispossession of landowners who were forced to borrow. It led, in the diaspora, to a distinctive Jewish institution that still exists: the free-loan society.

Almost every Jewish community of any size has one. It’s an organization, almost always run by volunteers, that makes loans, usually small, to Jews. “Free” in its name means that no interest is charged.

The loans are often made to meet emergency needs, and free-loan boards usually decide quickly. Occasionally a loan might be made to help someone launch a business, but they’re personal, not business loans. (Jewish law places business loans in a different category.)

The free-loan societies don’t think of this as charity in the modern sense. They do it because God commands it.

Yet it is tzedakah in the traditional sense of that word: not something that we do because the thing itself feels good, but something that we do for the sake of righteousness.