Spotlight Dvar Torah

Mishpatim: The General and the Particular
by Rabbi Shlomo Aviner

The parshiot of Yitro and Mishpatim complete and complement each other.

The parshiot of Yitro and Mishpatim complete and complement each other. Parshat Yitro concentrates on our encounter with G-d, when "G-d descended on Mt. Sinai" (Exodus 29:19). G-d Himself spoke to us directly in this awesome, sublime encounter. There were "thunder and lightning and a heavy cloud upon the mountain," (ibid. 16) an exalted fog beyond that which the limitations of the human mind can grasp. On Mount Sinai there was an all-inclusive but abbreviated revelation of the Ten Commandments - which include all the mitzvot of the Torah (see Sefer HaIkarim, 3:26, and the piyut "Kel Elokim" by Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra, recited in the Shavuot prayers).

At Mount Sinai, we experience the general essence of the Torah. However, the Torah is not merely an abstract, idealized encounter with the Creator, it is a detailed, precise prescription of how to lead our lives in all possible situations - down to legal decisions involving pennies.

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