Rav Moshe Weinberger - Parshas Mishpatim Shabbos Drasha - G-d is in the Details

Below, please find a write-up of Rav Weinberger's Shabbos morning drasha from this Shabbos, Parshas Mishpatim. He has not yet reviewed this version so any mistakes are due to me. See here for past write-ups. Also, thousands of Rav Weinberger's shiurim are available online HERE.

Rav Moshe Weinberger

Parshas Mishpatim 5772

G-d is in the Details

For a Bar Mitzva boy like Pinchas Eliyahu Adiv, I usually try to find a נקודה, a point in the parsha that connects to the essence of the boy and his family. 

It is striking how much halacha is derived from Parshas Mishpatim, The three בבות, Bava Kama, Bava Metzia, and Bava Basra, as well as much of Sanhedrin and other מםכתות, parts of the Talmud are primarily based on the psukim in parshas Mishpatim. 

This is very surprising. Immediately after we stood on הר םני, Sinai, and received the Torah, we expect that the next parsha would contain lofty, exalted concepts. Instead, the first things we encounter after receiving the Torah are the nitty gritty details of slavery and גזלות וחבלות, theft and damages. It is only at the end of the parsha that we begin to read psukim like (Shmos 24:10) “וַיִּרְאוּ אֵת אֱלֹקי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְתַחַת רַגְלָיו כְּמַעֲשֵׂה לִבְנַת הַסַּפִּיר וּכְעֶצֶם הַשָּׁמַיִם לָטֹהַר,” “and they perceived the G-d of Israel, and beneath His feet was like the forming of a sapphire brick and like the appearance of the heavens for clarity.” As we progress into parshas Teruma also, we have the pasuk of (Shmos 25:8) “וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם,” “and make a sanctuary and I will dwell among them.” These psukim are more like what we expect to find after standing on הר םני, Sinai. The civil laws of parshas Mishpatim seem out of place immediately following the Sinai experience.

The simple answer is that after receiving the Torah, we had many questions about how to keep the laws of daily life. At Sinai we became obligated to observe the entire Torah and we were required to study a lot of halacha, so the parsha following קבלת התורה, the giving of the Torah, involves the laws we would have to know to live as Jews. The truth is, however, the the laws that the Jewish people needed to know in the desert were, by and large, not the laws that arise from parshas Mishpatim. In the desert, there was no economy to speak of and our people mainly enjoyed the protection of Hashem’s miraculous care during those forty years in the desert. There were no fields, vineyards, poverty, or personal property which would have given rise to numerous questions in civil law, slavery, or damages. Those things would only become relevant when the Jewish people entered Eretz Yisroel. As long as they were in the desert, however, the דינים, the laws of parshas Mishpatim were not the most pressing.

In our lives today, we do not have a Beis Hamikdash, the ענני הכבוד, clouds of glory, or the קטורת, the incense. We live our lives in our houses, offices, and marketplaces with all of their details, problems, and conflicts. Parshas Mishpatim teaches us how to function in the world of man’s מכשלות, failings, damages, and injuries. By teaching us how to keep Hashem’s will in the midst of the nitty gritty of daily life, the Torah is telling us, “There is a time for delving into the exalted, deeper meaning of mitzvos. There will be time for analyzing the Chassidus, Kabbalah, deeper significance, meaning, and symbolism of the mitzvos. But that time is not now.” The Torah the Jewish people need to learn immediately after Sinai is not the Torah of “why,” it is the Torah of “how:” The whys and wherefores of the mitzvos are not our first concern.

None of this diminishes the importance of delving into the deeper aspects of the Torah. The Torah follows up on מעמד הר סני, the giving of the Torah, with the details of life because the חדוש התורה, the main purpose of the Torah is to reveal exaltedness and G-dliness precisely in the little details of life which are the most earthly and physical. Hashem brought us from הר סני, Mt. Sinai, the most exalted, awesome, and wondrous revelation of G-dliness, directly into the nitty gritty details of the problems of daily life in order to demonstrate to us that we should see the profound holiness of Hashem’s existence in earthly life just as we do in our spiritual pursuits. 

The rest of the world only seeks spirituality in the heavens, but we see it in the fields and marketplaces of this world. The pasuk says in Yeshayahu 57:15, “כִּי כֹה אָמַר רָם וְנִשָּׂא שֹׁכֵן עַד וְקָדוֹשׁ שְׁמוֹ מָרוֹם וְקָדוֹשׁ אֶשְׁכּוֹן וְאֶת-דַּכָּא וּשְׁפַל-רוּחַ לְהַחֲיוֹת רוּחַ שְׁפָלִים וּלְהַחֲיוֹת לֵב נִדְכָּאִים,” “For so said the High and Exalted One, Who dwells eternally, and His name is Holy, with the lofty and the holy ones I dwell, and with the crushed and humble in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the crushed.” Although Hashem is greater than anything we can imagine, He does remain high and distant from us. Instead, “וְאֶת-דַּכָּא,” He sits together with those who are crushed by the details of this world.

When the world asks where Hashem is, they look to the sky for the answers. They believe He is “out there” somewhere. But the Torah’s answer to that question is (Brachos 8a) “אין לו להקב"ה בעולמו אלא ארבע אמות של הלכה בלבד,” “All Hashem has in the world is the four amos of halacha.” Hashem is found in the little, seemingly unimportant, details of halacha in daily life. Similarly, the Gemara says (Megillah 31a) “כל מקום שאתה מוצא גבורתו של הקב"ה אתה מוצא ענוותנותו,” “wherever one finds Hashem’s greatness, one also finds His humility.” That is what the pasuk in Yeshayahu means. Precisely because Hashem is “רָם וְנִשָּׂא,” “High and Exalted,” He is also “וְאֶת-דַּכָּא וּשְׁפַל-רוּחַ,” “with the crushed and the low of spirit.” 

The Gemara in Sota 5a explains that pasuk to mean “אני את דכא,” “I am with those who are crushed.” In other words, rather than lifting up the broken person, Hashem descends down to the person, cries with him, and sits with him in the midst of his worries and pain and works together with him to build him up. 

Shlomo Hamelech asked about the Beis Hamikdash that he had just built (Melachim 1:8:27), “כִּי הַאֻמְנָם יֵשֵׁב אֱלֹהִים עַל-הָאָרֶץ הִנֵּה הַשָּׁמַיִם וּשְׁמֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם לֹא יְכַלְכְּלוּךָ אַף כִּי-הַבַּיִת הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר בָּנִיתִי,” “could it be that Hashem will dwell on the earth? The heavens and the heavens of the heavens cannot contain Him, but the house which I have build could contain him!?” Hashem chooses not to dwell in the highest heavens, but rather in the little house that we built for him here on earth in our four amos of halacha. By observing the פרטי פרטים, the tiny details of halacha, we create a life in which Hashem dwells. 

In Halel we say (Tehilim 113:4), “רָם עַל-כָּל-גּוֹיִם ה',” “Hashem is above the nations.” The nations think that Hashem is above everything, up in the heavens. Therefore, that pasuk concludes that for them, “עַל הַשָּׁמַיִם כְּבוֹדוֹ,” “His glory is above the heavens.” In contrast, we say “מִי כַּה' אֱלֹהֵינוּ הַמַּגְבִּיהִי לָשָׁבֶת,” “who is like Hashem our G-d who dwells on high.” Unlike the nations of the world, however, we say that became of Hashem’s greatness, “הַמַּשְׁפִּילִי לִרְאוֹת בַּשָּׁמַיִם וּבָאָרֶץ. מְקִימִי מֵעָפָר דָּל מֵאַשְׁפֹּת יָרִים אֶבְיוֹן,” “He lowers Himself to look at the heavens and the earth, he lifts up the destitute from the dust and raises the poor from the trash heaps.” Hashem is even greater than the nations think He is. They believe He is only in the highest heavens. But we  know that He is so great that He also sits in the trash heaps of the confusion of our lives to raise us up.

That is why parshas Mishpatim follows the lighting, thunder, and awe of the giving of the Torah. Adiv, you have grown up with parents whose greatness is manifest in their attention to every detail of life. I have perhaps never known anyone else who is like your father in that his mind is in the highest places, but he pays attention to every detail of the Shul’s life. There is probably not a chair in this Bais Medresh whose screws haven’t been tightened by Moshe’s (the Bar Mitzva boy’s father’s) hand. Every molecule in this Shul, the bookshelves, and so many things that I could never even mention, are saturated with his care and attention.

There was once a מתנגד, someone who was not a friend of the Chassidim, who lived in the town of Sasov. He wanted to find fault with Rav Moshe Leib Sasover so he started davening Rev Moshe Leib’s beis medrash. It was difficult to find fault in him because he was a גאון, a genius in learning, but this individual did not give up. He used to give the Chassidim trouble after davening and make fun of the rebbe. It was Slichos time, and the Jews in Sasov davened Slichos very early in the morning. A few days into Slichos that year, after Rav Moshe Leib did not show up for Slichos, the מתנגד, the troublemaker, started taunting the Chassidim that their rebbe was so holy, but he couldn’t even wake up on time for Slichos.

The Chassidim did not accept this and told him that it must be that their rebbe was ascending to שמים, heaven, and that was why he wasn’t at Slichos. The man laughed at this and told the Chassidim that he would follow Rav Moshe Leib and find out if he was really in “heaven,” or if, as he suspected, he was just sleeping late. 

He came very early in the morning to Rav Moshe Leib Sasover’s house to see what he would find. But instead of finding the rebbe sleeping, he saw through the window that he put on a peasant’s coat, hat, and boots, and left the house. Assuming that his discovery was even juicer than he had originally expected, he followed him to see where he would go. The rebbe went out to the edge of the forest and began chopping wood and packing it up. He carried it back into the poor part of town and went to a widow’s house. When she answered, he introduced himself as “Moshe” and asked her if she needed any wood for the fire. She answered that she did, so he went in and arranged the wood and made the fire for the widow. When she asked about payment, he said that he was in a big rush and that she could take care of it later. He went on to do this in several houses. In each of the houses, as he was building the fires, he began crying out, saying the words of Slichos, “לך ה' הצדקה, ולנו בושת הפנים,” “to you Hashem is the righteousness, and ours is the shame-facedness.”

The next time the מתנגד, this “opponent” of the Chassidim met Rav Moshe Leib’s Chassidim in Shul, they asked him eagerly, “So, what happened? Did you see our rebbe ascend to heaven?” The man shook his head and answered, “No, I saw your rebbe go somewhere much higher than heaven...”

The true mark of greatness is being so great that even the smallest thing and the most insignificant detail are important and worthy of attention. Adiv, your parents inherited their greatness and their humility from the world of גר and קוצק, Ger and Kotzk Chassidus. One day you will understand more about that world. But from your parents now, you can learn to strive for the highest understanding while always staying grounded in the minutiae of daily life. אי"ה, may you and all of us be זוכה, merit, to see Hashem’s presence return to His house in Yerushalayim עיר הקודש, במהרה בימינו אמן.

Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to subscribe in Google Reader.