This week’s Torah portion, Mishpatim (Ex. 21:1-24:18)
follows directly after the children of Israel retreat from the voice of God and
ask Moses to get the rest of the Law for them.
God gives Moses the laws of a just society. God sets forth laws of property and damages,
lending, penalties for crimes and strict prohibitions against idolatry. Moses tells the commands to the people, they
respond with a resounding, “All the things that the Lord has commanded we will
do!” and Moses writes them down as the Book of the Covenant. Animal sacrifices are made to God, and Moses
reads the laws that he has written down.
This time, the people respond, “All
that the Lord has spoken, we will do and we will hear”.
Do the people have the words backwards? Would it not make more sense to say, “we will
hear and we will do”? Most of the
classic commentators understand it as eagerness; we will do what God has
commanded, and if God has more to command, we will hear that, too! Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav, however, brings a
spiritual light on the phrase, saying,
“’We shall do” refers to the revealed—that is to the
commandments that one can fulfill, on one’s own level. ‘We shall hear’ refers to the hidden==that
is, to things that one cannot grasp. For
around each commandment, there are other things, which belong to the class of
the hidden. The commandment itself one
can fulfill; but the spiritual work that surrounds the commandment is largely
unknown, hidden. This too is the relation
between Torah and prayer: the Torah can be known and fulfilled; while prayer is
generated in that area that surrounds each commandment, which is
enigmatic. For hearing is a function of
the heart, as in Solomon’s prayer: “Give your servant a hearing heart”. And the heart expresses itself to God in
prayer.
May we fulfill God’s revealed commandments, and may we come
to know the hiddenness that surrounds them.
Shabbat Shalom.
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