Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah continues with the giving more mitzvot at Sinai, this time focusing on civil laws, including the laws of the indentured servant, the penalties for murder, kidnapping, assault and theft, compensation damages, the granting of loans, the responsibilities of the “Four Guardians” (unpaid guardian, paid guardian, renter and borrower), the rules governing the conduct of justice by courts, and laws warning against mistreatment of the ger, the stranger – “for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Also included are other ritual laws: the seasonal festivals, the agricultural offerings that are to be brought to be brought the Temple in Jerusalem; the prohibition against cooking meat with milk, and the mitzvah of prayer. The parshah also contains the special words that the Children of Israel proclaim at Sinai: נַעֲשֶׂה וְנִשְׁמָֽע na-aseh v’nishmah – “We will do and we will hear.” The parshah concludes with Moses ascending the mountain and remaining there for forty days and forty nights to receive the rest of the Torah.
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
כִּֽי־תֵצֵ֨א אֵ֜שׁ וּמָצְאָ֤ה קֹצִים֙ וְנֶאֱכַ֣ל גָּדִ֔ישׁ א֥וֹ הַקָּמָ֖ה א֣וֹ הַשָּׂדֶ֑ה שַׁלֵּ֣ם יְשַׁלֵּ֔ם הַמַּבְעִ֖ר אֶת־הַבְּעֵרָֽה׃ When a fire goes out and finds thorns, and it consumes stacked or standing (grain), or a field, the igniter of the fire shall make restitution… Sh’mot (Exodus) 22:5, Parshat Mishpatim
A disciple of Rabbi Moshe of Kobrin awoke one morning overcome with worry, so instead of going to work, he went straight to the rebbe’s house. The rebbe was just sitting down to eat breakfast, and pronounced the brakha over his bowl of porridge: “Blessed are You… בִּדְבָרוֹ שֶׁהַכֹּל נִהְיֶה – She-hakol nihyeh bidvaro – by whose Word all things exist.” The rebbe did not greet him, but just went ahead and ate his breakfast, while the man waited.
Finally, the rebbe said, “Zalman, I thought you were like your father, but I see you are not like him. Your father once came to me with a huge burden of problems. Just as he entered, he heard me say, ‘she-hakol nihyeh bidvaro,’ just as you did. When I finished, I saw he was preparing to leave. ‘Abramele,’ I called to him, ‘didn’t you have something on your mind?’ ‘No,’ he said, and left. “Do you understand? When a person hears that all things exist only because of God’s Word, what more is there to talk about? This is the answer to all questions and worries.” Rabbi Moshe gave his hand to Zalman, who held it in silence for some time, then he bade his master farewell and left. The root of all angst of the soul stems from what the Torah calls the עֵץ הַדַּעַת טוֹב וָרָע eitz hada-at tov vara – “The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad.” That is, our ability to project our imagination into the future or the past and envision different possibilities. What shall we choose? What are we afraid to lose? What if this or that happens? What if things had gone a different way? Or, it could also be our resistance the present moment, our saying “no” to what is actually present. This ability to envision and judge is not a problem in itself; that is what allows us to be creative and to make choices. But the problem comes when our ability to judge pushes us out of alignment with the present moment, which really means that we get pushed out of alignment with ourselves. While we are focused and worried about something “out there,” we have unknowingly created a split within ourselves. בִּדְבָרוֹ שֶׁהַכֹּל נִהְיֶה – She-hakol nihyeh bidvaro – “By whose Word all things exist.” The truth of a spiritual teaching is not in its factuality, but in its ability to cut to the core of the one single problem: non-alignment with the moment. The true teaching at once sheds light on the root of the problem and simultaneously burns away all impediments, bringing one back to unity. כִּֽי־תֵצֵ֨א אֵ֜שׁ וּמָצְאָ֤ה קֹצִים֙... –When a fire goes out and finds thorns… The קֹצִים֙ kotzim – “thorns” – are resistance to the present moment; the true teachings, the mishpatim, are like a fire that “goes out” and burns up resistance… וְנֶאֱכַ֣ל גָּדִ֔ישׁ א֥וֹ הַקָּמָ֖ה... – and it consumes stacked or standing (grain)… It then consumes the “stacked” and the “standing.” The “stacked” is the way we frame reality, the way we “stack” our thoughts and words together to describe what we think is going on. The “standing” means the grain that is growing from the ground, which represents our thoughts and feelings that spontaneously arise, before we “stack” them into bundles of words and judgements. א֣וֹ הַשָּׂדֶ֑ה שַׁלֵּ֣ם יְשַׁלֵּ֔ם הַמַּבְעִ֖ר אֶת־הַבְּעֵרָֽה׃ – or a field, the igniter of the fire shall make whole… Finally, the “field” is awareness itself, within which everything else arises. The true teaching is one that will ignite all these levels and return us to our state of radiance, the inner light of consciousness in which true Wholeness is found. Practicing this true teaching is meditation. The phrase for “making restitution” is שַׁלֵּם יְשַׁלֵּם shalem yishalem – literally, “Whole shall make Whole” – hinting at the quality of Wholeness inherent within the שָּׂדֶה sadeh – the “field” of awareness itself, which becomes revealed through הַמַּבְעִ֖ר אֶת־הַבְּעֵרָֽה hamavir et haberah – the “igniter of the flame” – that is, the true teaching… This שְׁלֵמוּת Shleimut, this Wholeness of the consciousness, is ever available to the one who knows how to discover It, again; this is the Meditation Path of ג Gimel.
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