In the Song of Songs (5:2) we read a romantic verse, “I was asleep, but my heart was awake.” אני ישנה ולבי ער—the plain sense of the verse is that the time of sleep is also a time of longing. The rabbis interpret this verse to mean that the people of Israel before Sinai were…
Category: Mishpatim
Mountain Man Moses: Mishpatim 5780
Orson Schofield Phelps, AKA “Old Mountain” was a famous guide to the Adirondack mountains in the mid-19th century. Based in Keene Valley, NY, he cut the first trail to the top of Mt Marcy in 1861 and gave many of the high peaks their current names. His face adorned with a bushy beard, his head…
From Mishpatim to MobileEye. Who is Responsible? 5779
Is a person liable for damage caused by their property? For example, if I direct an autonomous vehicle to drive me to the store, and the car runs over property or injures or even kills an animal or a person, is it my fault? Can it be partially my fault? How should we decide? Such…
Head Home Little Bird! Mishpatim 5777
A little gosling is all alone in a field, hopping mad. Perhaps it is cheeping at every stranger who passes, “Are you my mother?” But according to the Talmud, each stranger is asking, “Are you my gosling?” In Bavli Bava Batra 23b, the Mishnah states that if a gosling is found within fifty cubits of…
The Significance of Strange Visions: Mishpatim 5776
One my strangest experiences came during my last visit with my grandmother Belle Nevins, z”l. She was dying, and although conscious it was not clear that she was aware of us. Suddenly she looked to the empty chair in the corner of the room and addressed her husband, my Papa Sam, who had died many years before. “Wait…
Bribery in the Torah and in NYS: Mishpatim 5775
With fifty-three mitzvot, 24 positive and 29 negative, Parashat Mishpatim is aptly named. Doubly so, in fact, since the word “mishpatim” can mean both “rules,” and “sentences,” and most of the rules are issued in brief units of a sentence or two. A striking feature of these rules is their apodictic nature. That is, they are for the most…
Eating, and Seeing God: Mishpatim 5774
Fridays are ideally reserved for two of my favorite activities—studying Torah and cooking for my family. On this day I follow leads from the Torah portion through centuries of rabbinic interpretation, seeking to deepen my understanding of the scope of Jewish wisdom. And in the back of my mind, I am keeping track of time, remembering when…
Rabbi Danny Nevins 