YOU SHALL NOT ACCEPT A BRIBE,

FOR A BRIBE WILL BLIND THE CLEAR SIGHTED AND CORRUPT WORDS THAT ARE RIGHT.

(Shemot 23:8)

Rabbi Abahu

said: Come and see how blinded are those who receive bribes.

A man whose eyes bother him gives money to a physician – he may or may not be

cured. These take a penny's worth [of bribes] and blind their eyes, for it is

said: a bribe will blind the clear-sighted.

The Rabbis taught: For a

bribe will blind the eyes of the wise (Devarim 16); a fortiori for the stupid; and will distort the words of the righteous – a

fortiori for [the words of] the wicked.

Are the stupid and the wicked

appointed to serve as judges?

Rather, say it this way: For

a bribe will blind the eyes of the wise – even when a great wise man takes

a bribe, he will not leave the world without blindness of heart. And will

distort the words of the righteous – even when a perfectly righteous man

takes a bribe, he will not take leave of the world without madness.

(Ketuvot 105a)

Will blind – Just as eyesight is used metaphorically

to refer to the heart and the mind's judgment, so too its

opposite – blindness – is used metaphorically to refer to lack of understanding

of clear and obvious facts. The meaning is that bribery sways the heart from

the path of justice and darkens the mind's light, so much so that the sighted

becomes blind, he does not see things as they truly are, and the words of the

righteous in judgment – the upright – will appear crooked and distorted in his

eyes.

(R.

Yitzhak Shemuel Reggio Shemot 23:8)

Why Does the List of Laws Appear Next to the Passage Regarding the

Altar?

Gavriel Weil

In memory of my father and teacher Rafael ben Avraham,

a lover of peace and a

pursuer of peace,

who passed away on the 4^th

of Adar 5633.

Parashat Yitro ends with the verse: And you shall not ascend with

be exposed upon it (17:13). Our parasha begins with the verse, And these are the ordinances that you shall set

before them, and afterwards, should you buy a Hebrew slave.

Rashi (on 19:1, Judaica Press

edition) states: "Now why was the

section dealing with laws juxtaposed to the section dealing with the altar? To tell you that you shall place the Sanhedrin adjacent to the Temple."

Indeed, many

people have already noticed that following the Ten Commandments (which are also

doubled in that they juxtapose commandments between man and God to commandments

between man and man), parashat Mishpatim

sets out in great detail the laws concerning social relations, justice, and so

forth. Details of the Tabernacle's construction only come later, in parashat Terumah. It seems that

the building of a fair society that battles injustice creates the foundations

for the construction of the Lord's Tabernacle. Without this prerequisite, there

can be no Tabernacle.

Such is the plain

meaning of Scripture. And so it sometimes seems that the tremendous investment

of Torah education in promoting the value of the Temple in the public

consciousness neglects the fact that a different consciousness must be promoted

first: the consciousness relating to all of the issues treated in the parasha such as the law of the servant (foreign worker?), he

who strikes a man who dies…(rising violence?), he who steals a man and

sells him (the trade in women?), if men fight and if men quarrel

(the divisions that split Israeli society?), and on and on – the parasha is full of them.

Shemot Rabbah (1) relates to the juxtaposition of the two

sections: "And why is this matter found next to the other? Was the priests'

nakedness exposed? But it is written: and make them cloth trousers to cover

the flesh of nakedness!? Rather, R. Avina says:

Just as the Holy One blessed be He warned the priest not to walk in rude

strides on to the altar, but should rather walk toe to heel, so too the Holy

One blessed be He warned the judges not to make rude strides in judgment."

The commentary Matnot Kehuna

explains: "That is to say, that they should not be severe in judgment, but

rather they should be moderate in judgment."

The priest

ascends to the altar full of power and importance. He is in danger of trampling

the very significance of ascension to the altar under his rude strides. The

temptation of power, tremendous narcissism and feelings of self-importance are

the lot of anyone who is raised above the common folk, and they pose a threat

to every institution in general and to religious institutions in particular. So

it is with the priests; so it is with the judges. Modesty is not merely

physical – it is also internal: pleasant manners, moderation and consideration

for others are needed in those who serve the sacred, who serve justice, or who

serve the people.

Indeed, the

metaphor is interesting: the law court is apt to take "rude strides,"

i.e., to display arrogance, pride, and disconnection from the spirit of the

public it is supposed to serve. In his commentary, Diyyukim

al ha'Torah, Rabbi Pinhas

Wolf states: "The goal of legislation is not to create laws but rather to

execute them; to that end there must be people who are prepared to uphold them.

No matter how good the laws are, if they are not accepted people will

circumvent them. That is why the Torah seeks to first educate people so that

the seed of law will fall upon fertile soil; that is the connection between

these two categories of commandments that are connected by the letter vav [the prefix meaning and]."

It is essential

that there be an ethos of identification with the law and of acceptance of it

as being something that elevates both the individual and society. Without such

an ethos, judicial procedure is drained of its significance; is becomes so

mechanical and robotic that its nakedness is exposed (to use the Torah's

expression) and everyone senses that the king is unclothed.

To our sorrow,

there are not a few instances in the realities of our lives in which this seems

to be what happens (for example: the unresolved predicament of agunot).

It seems that the

two biblical passages are juxtaposed precisely in order to point out this

danger and warn us of it.

Gavriel Weil is a clinical and educational psychologist and a

member of Moshav Kfar Maimon.

Life for life – Eye for eye

He pays a life; he does not pay money for life.

Rebbi says: Life for life – money. Do you say "money" or is it "death"?

We expound: Here we read shita – "impose,"

and elsewhere we read shita – just as there

the reference is to monetary compensation, so here, too, it is monetary

compensation.

Eye for eye ­– money. Do you say "money," or is it

really an eye? Rabbi Elazar used to say: "One

who strikes the life an animal is to pay for it – but one who strikes

down a human is to be put to death" – Scripture juxtaposes

damages to a human with damages to an animal; just damage to an animal is

punished by monetary fine, so damage to a human is punished by monetary fine."

 (Mekhilta,

Mishpatim Parasha 8: 90-91)

An Eye – Rav Saadya said, we cannot interpret this passage literally. For if a

person struck his fellow's eye, causing him to lose a third of his eyesight,

how can he possibly be smitten in an identical degree, neither more nor less?

Perhaps he will lose all his sight. Even more difficult would be cases of

burns, open wounds, and bruises; if they are in a critical place he may die,

and this would be unacceptable to reason.

Said to him Ben Zuta: Is it not written

elsewhere, As he has rendered a defect in

another human, thus is to be rendered in him (Vayikra 24:20)?!

The Gaon replied to him: The Torah places [the

letter] bet instead of the word al – "on"; the meaning

is "so shall he be punished". [Saadya's

argument is that whereas al would imply punishment 'on' the

person's body, the letter bet implies 'so'].

Ben Zuta answered: "As he has done,

thus is to be done to him" (Ibid., ibid.)

The Gaon replied: Samson said – As they did

to me, so I did to them. (Judges 15:11), and Samson did not take their women and

give them to others, he extracted remuneration.

Ben Zuta replied: And if the attacker was

poor, [if punishment is monetary] what would his punishment be?

The Gaon answered: If a blind man blinds the

eye of one who has sight, what can be done to him? A poor man may, in time,

become wealthy and pay, but the blind man will never be able to pay.

The general rule is: We cannot interpret the Torah perfectly without

recourse to the Sages. For when we received Torah from our ancestors, we also

received the Oral Law, and there is no difference between them. If so, the

meaning of eye for eye is that he is deserving of losing an eye for

an eye, should he not pay compensation.

(Ibn

Ezra on Shemot [the extended version], 21:24)

The Half-Shekel as a

which is Demanded of Man

Rabbi Yehuda

bar Simon said: Moses heard three things from the Almighty, was frightened, and

recoiled. When God said And they shall make

for Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell therein, Moses said: Master of the

Universe, Behold, the heavens and the heavens of the heavens cannot

contain you! He replied: "Moses, it is not as you imagine, but

twenty boards at the north, twenty at the south, eight at the west, and eight

at the east, and I will compress My Presence and I will dwell among

you." And it is written, I will appoint-meeting with you there and

I will speak with you.

And when He said: Command

the Children of Israel and say to them: Of my near-offering, my food …Moses

said: "Master of the Universe, were I to gather all the animals of the

world and all the cattle, they would not suffice for a single offering, and all

the trees in the world would not supply a single fire, as is written: Lebanon

is not fuel enough, nor its beasts enough for sacrifice!" He

replied: "Moses, it is not as you imagine, but rather: You are to

sacrifice one lamb in the morning, and not two together, because I neither

eat nor drink [Literally, "there are neither food nor drink before

me"]. Why? If indeed there were food before me, when you spent forty days

and forty nights with, and food you did not eat, and if there were food before,

you would have eaten. But a pleasing odor [means]: be punctilious in

offering a pleasing odor." And when He said, "they are to give,

each man, a ransom for his life", Moses wondered and asked, "Who

can give full ransom for his life? For it is written The

redeem a man, or pay his ransom to God." He replied to him: "It

is not as you imagine, but rather this shall you give, as this

shall you give." Rav Huna

said in the name of Rav, "Shaddai

– we cannot attain to Him, He is great in power… (Job 37:23) The Holy One, Blessed Be He, does not inconvenience Israel. When Moses heard this, he proclaimed: Happy the

people who have it so. (Psalms

144:15) and Happy is he who has the

God of Jacob for his help (Ibid.

146:5)."

(Tanhuma, Ki Tissa,

10)

And you shall not

mistreat a stranger, nor shall you oppress him: Lack of Protest can also be Counted as Oppression

After it said do not oppress

in the plural, it said if you indeed oppress him [in the singular], for

anyone who sees someone oppressing an orphan or a widow and does not come to

their aid is also thought of as an oppressor. This is the punishment: if

someone is oppressed and the other does not come to his aid, the punishment is

inflicted on them all. That is why afterwards [it is written] My wrath will be kindled, and I will slay you

(Ibn Ezra Shemot 22:20)

This notion, i.e., that

non-action is also a kind of action, that everyone who is capable of protesting

but does not protest is judged as a collaborator, is found frequently in

Scripture, Mishnah, and the aggada.

The author of the Ha'Amek Davar, who agrees here with Ibn

Ezra, makes the paradoxical comment that the prophet makes a claim of this kind

against the Holy One blessed be He. If He sees injustice and remains silent,

even He is – so to speak – a collaborator with the wrongdoers. And Rabbi

Abraham wrote that anyone who sees someone oppressing an orphan or a widow and

does not come to their aid is also thought of as an oppressor. He is correct;

this is fully supported by a verse from Isaiah (64:11): Concerning these will You restrain

Yourself; will You remain silent and afflict us so very greatly? This

means: In that You are silent You impose affliction.

(Ha'Amek Davar Shemot 22:22)

By restraining and remaining

silent – You become – so to speak – one of our oppressors.

(Prof.

Nehama Leibowitz z"l, Iyyunim le'Sefer Shemot, pg. 285)

All of the gates are locked

except for the gates of mistreatment [ona'a]

(Bava Metzia 59b)

Except for the gates of

mistreatment: Because it is

the heart's sorrow and is wont to make tears fall.

(Rashi ad loc)

Our Rabbis taught: He who

mistreats the stranger transgresses three negative commandments and he who

oppresses the stranger transgresses two. What is the difference? Three

prohibitions are written by mistreatment: And you shall not mistreat a

stranger (Shemot 22);

When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him (Vayikra

19); you shall not mistreat

one against his fellow (Vayikra 25) – the stranger is included under [the category of] his fellow.

Three passages refer to

oppression as well: Do not oppress him (Shemot 23); do not oppress a stranger (Shemot

23); you shall not behave

toward him as a lender (Shemot 22) – does that include the stranger? Rather, each of these is included in

the three.

We learned – R. Eliezer the Great said: Why does the Torah warn us in

thirty-six places – and some say forty-six – regarding the stranger? Because it may cause him to return to his old ways. Why is

it written: Do not mistreat the stranger and do not oppress him for you were

strangers in the land of Egypt? R. Natan said:

Do not point out your own blemish in your fellow.

(Bava Metzia 59b)

Peace is Achieved through Proper

Legal Processes and the Overcoming of Acrimonious Feelings

You established

equity [meisharim] (Psalms 99:4). R. Alexandri said: You established straight ways [yesharot] in your world. Someone has a legal dispute

with his fellow. They go to court together, accept the verdict, and make peace

between them – that is what is meant by You

established equity. Someone takes to the road and sees his fellow's ass

crouching under its load, he goes and lends a hand, helping him load and unload

he hated me!" They immediately begin to converse with each other, and

peace dwells between them. What brought peace to them, making them love each

other? The fact that he observed that which is written in the Torah: When

raising it, you must nevertheless raise it with him (Shemot 23:5) as it is written: Its ways are ways of pleasantness, and

all of its paths are peace (Proverbs 3:17). You who

worked righteous judgment in Jacob (Psalms 99:4), And these are the laws that you shall place before them (Shemot 21:1).

 (Midrash

Tehillim 99)

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