Parashat Mishpatim

This Week’s Torah Portion EXODUS 21:1-24:18 Mishpatim / פטי ם שמ

In this week’s guide…

Our OVERVIEW sheds light on serving, especially in the context of Yeshua-Jesus. Our culture tends to be negative towards the idea of “servitude,” but we’re citizens of a holy nation…a distinctly other way of thinking and being.

COMMENTARY #1 asks us why slavery or indentured servitude among the Israelites could not last indefinitely. What is expressed about “the person” in these divine prohibitions? These limits and boundaries did more than establish a certain quality of life within Israel.

COMMENTARY #2 notices the abrupt shift in Torah’s storyline. On the heels of an epic scene at the base of Mount Sinai, the text quickly moves into what feels like tedious regulations. Why take us from the “macrocosmic vision” echoed in YHWH’s thundering right into these “microcosmic details”?

The NEW TESTAMENT TIE-IN makes a connection between an obscure technicality for slaves and the one of the most well-known Apostles. The Gospel anchors this portion’s concept of indentured servitude in love, transforming how we understand ourselves and our ministry.

BY THE NUMBERS digs down deep to unpack the rich meaning of what might otherwise pass as an arbitrary numerical figure. The future destiny of humanity is revealed in a regulatory detail regarding indentured servitude (and it’s amazing!).

__________________________________________________

OVERVIEW Most people probably think of servitude in a negative light. Being a slave to a human master is clearly not good. However, servitude can be good if the One whom you are serving is the Lord, as it states later in this week’s Torah portion, “You are to serve ADONAI your God, and He will bless your food and your water. Moreover I will take sickness away from your midst.” (Exodus 23:25)

One of the highest praises that the Lord gave to Moses was to call him an eved Hashem, a “servant of the Lord.” But of course, there is more! Concerning the Messiah (who is the Greater Moses – see Deuteronomy 18:18), Isaiah writes, “See, my servant will prosper he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted” (Isaiah 52:13). What’s so amazing is that the phrase Hebrew Eved Ivri / “servant” has the same numerical value as Mashiach/Messiah in Hebrew: 358. This parallel points to the truth that our Messiah is the ultimate servant and example for us!

..............1

.........................................................................................................................2

................................................................................................................................................3

................................................5

FUSION GLOBAL WITH RABBI JASON Weekly Torah Portion – Parashat Mishpatim

Exodus 21:1-24:18

COMMENTARY #1 Moving from Six to Seven: From Slavery to Freedom by Rabbi Jason Sobel

This week’s Torah portion is named Mishpatim, which means “statutes.” In the context of this Torah reading, “mish-pat-im” refers to those social laws which were given by God to ensure that the Jewish people wouldn’t abuse others, but rather, would treat them with dignity and respect.

The “indentured servant” spoken of in this passage was a Hebrew who was forced to become a servant due to financial hardship. Either they could not provide for themselves, or they owed a debt they could not repay. But the Scripture makes it clear that they are not to remain slaves forever but only for a season: “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve for six years, and in the seventh he is to go free, without payment” (Exodus 21:2).

Mishpatim begins by discussing the laws of the indentured Hebrew servants. Why does the Torah talk about Hebrew slaves after the giving of the Ten Commandments? Because one of the underlying messages of Exodus is that God wants to continually move His people from slavery to higher levels of freedom. God wants to break His people completely out of their slave mentality. He took Israel out of Egypt, but he had to take Egypt out of Israel. Their redemption was not the end, but the start of a long spiritual journey of transformation and healing.

The Children of Israel had to allow indentured servants to be set free eventually. Why? Because God made humanity in His image. This reality means that every individual has inherent dignity and worth. Even the Declaration of Independence acknowledges this: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

1

(God created all human beings with the gift of free will and worth, regardless of any laws that may have been in favor of slavery)

and to proclaim the year of Adonai’s favor… Then He began to tell them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your ears.’” - Luke 4:18-19, 21

Yeshua paid your debt so that you could be set free! Don’t remain a slave to your past hurts, fears, and disappointments. Walk in the freedom that Messiah purchased for you.

COMMENTARY #2 by Rabbi Jason Sobel

(Mount Sinai up in flames because the Lord had descended on it Exodus 19:18)

But Torah takes a significant turn with this week’s portion known as Mishphatim (“Logical Legal Commandments”). It goes from recounting the spiritual journey of Abraham and his descendants to detailing various laws, ranging from Hebrew slaves, to property, and the Sabbath, to name a few. The shift feels anti-climactic. It seems like an odd place to suddenly insert commandments. Would it not make more sense to continue the narrative with the next major drama, the worship of the golden calf? This move seems to detract from the storyline.

So, what’s the explanation for this odd narrative choice? For starters, the people needed to actualize in their lives the remarkable vision they experienced at Sinai. It’s an all too common reality that our visions and mountain top experiences never materialize into something concrete. How many visionaries have died not seeing their dream become a reality? Why is it so difficult to take our grand vision and create a detailed plan that will bring it to pass? A person with exceptional vision and talent is like a bullet that has the potential to do considerable damage for the Kingdom. But the problem is that a bullet is only effective if it has a gun. Creative visionaries and charismatic leaders who lack the detailed step-by-step strategies needed for follow-through are like bullets without a gun.

In last week’s Torah portion, we read about the most significant revelation in history: millions of people witnessed divine fire consume Sinai. They heard the voice of God thunder forth, experiencing the lightning and thunder, and stood in awe as they felt creation tremble before the presence of the Lord. What could be more exciting and dramatic? The Torah readings up to this point have been 99% narrative. They have recounted the inspiring stories of how the Lord created the world for our good, birthed the people of Israel out of the seed of Abraham. These stories seem to reach an apex when God made a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” out of them in order bring blessing to all nations.

“The Ruach Adonai is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed,

God’s justice was not like the Egyptians who wanted to enslave Israel in perpetuity. God commanded Israel not to be like the Egyptians, the people, and places that sought to destroy destiny and potential by limiting freedom for personal profit. The mishpatim commandments in the Torah are, in part, meant to ensure that the Children of Israel would not do to others what the Egyptians had done to them. These commandments are significant because too often, the abused become abusers and perpetuate the cycle of abuse. God empowers His people to rise above and break any negative cycles in their past. Setting people free is what Messiah Yeshua-Jesus came to do. While in the synagogue in Nazareth, Yeshua stood and declared,

2

__________________________________________________

A task without a vision is drudgery, but a vision without a plan is a pipe dream. Without a vision, the people perish, but without a plan, the dream will die! While running the Disney half-marathon, I came across a sign that read, “Finish lines are dreams with both details and deadlines!” The Lord did not want to create a collective of spiritual dreamers but a “holy nation” that would embody his Word and will! He wanted a people who would model not only his loving-kindness and goodness but also practice justice and righteousness. (The Tabernacle of Moses was built with very precise

and detailed instructions from God)

3

Justice and holiness are based on principals and precepts that are clearly detailed and documented! God speaks in two primary ways, both of which are important. He speaks in generalities; this is the language of vision and principals. But He also speaks in specifics because the details matter to the Lord as well.

How can you build an intricate model without the instructions? For example, the Lord gave extremely detailed instructions for making the Tabernacle. He provided instructions because the details matter to God!

The Lord is concerned about both the what and the how. He is concerned about the ends and the means because all of life is sacred and holy to Him. And there is no holiness without atention to details. They say the devil is in the details, but this saying could not be more false. God is in the details, as well as the grand vision He has for our lives and this world! May we never choose one at the expense of the other for to do so would be to settle, not only for mediocrity but for half an inheritance.

The laws in Mishphatim are not an interruption to the flow of the story. They are, in fact, foundational to developing it. We have the beginning of the specific details necessary to bring God’s dream to pass. And what is this dream? It’s the dream of a Royal and Holy Nation of sons and daughters that will express His ideals of love, justice, holiness, family, and abundant Kingdom life!

__________________________________________________NEW TESTAMENT TIE-IN One of the most well-known figures in the New Covenant is John the Evangelist, often referred to as the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” He’s known this way because the Gospel bears his name, uses that phrase six times. Yeshua-Jesus exclusively invited John, along with his brother James and Peter, to the most powerful and intimate moments of his earthly ministry. He is also known as “John the Revelator” who received apocalyptic visions while exiled on the Island of Patmos (tradition says that he was the only Apostle not martyred).

Throughout the book of Revelation, notably at the end of each address to the seven churches, we find the phrase, “He who has an ear, let him hear.” Some variation of that phrase appears in the New Covenant fifteen times, but more than half of them appear in John’s writing alone. Why was John so uniquely tuned-in to the vital need for “an ear”? We know from other biblical writers like St. Paul that “faith comes by hearing,” and John’s Gospel begins by describing Yeshua-Jesus as “the Word.” But what if there was something unique about John that also happened to tie-in to this week’s Torah portion?

In John 13:25, we read that John was “lying on Jesus’ breast” (KJV). The Greek word for “breast” in that verse is stēthos/στῆθος, where we would get the word “stethoscope.” Maybe this could help us imagine John’s head was positioned like a stethoscope on the chest of Yeshua. In the same Gospel, the Lord said, “I am the door” (John 10:9/KJV). In this way, we can imagine that at the Last Supper, John laid his ear on the chest of the Door, Yeshua.

Now consider what Torah tells us: “But if the servant plainly states, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children, and I will not go out free,’ then his master is to bring him to God, then take him to a door or to a doorpost. His master is to pierce his ear through with an awl, and he will serve him forever” (Exodus 21:5-6 (TLV), emphasis added). The Apostle John’s life provides a profoundly compelling witness to the idea of being spiritual “bondslaves”— men and women whose love for the Master has brought them to the Door so He could pierce their spiritual ears. And like those servants in the Torah, spiritual bondslaves serve the Lord forever. We never stop being servants. We follow a Master who “did not come to be served, but to serve” (Mark 10:45). We hope to be welcomed into the Age to Come as “good and faithful servants” (Matthew 25:23).

Our deliverance from slavery to sin must be followed by a revelation of who we are as the people of God and His purposes for us. This revelation is perceived by those who “have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying.” And this ear—which has been laid upon the Door—is the fruit of being intimate with the Lord. May we walk in divine revelation as loving bondslaves of our Master, Yeshua-Jesus.

(Various depictions of this intimate moment between John the Evangelist & Jesus are expressed through art)

4

The slave can work six years, but in the seventh year must be given the opportunity for rest and freedom just like the land.

In Hebrew, “six” is written with the letter Vav. The Hebrew letter Vav occurs for the first time in the Bible in the sixth word of Genesis 1:1, where it used as the conjunction “and” as in “the heavens and earth.” Hence, the letter Vav, and the number six symbolize the connection between heaven and earth. Mankind was created on the sixth, but we were meant to live in the seventh—the place and time of completion and rest. Due to the Fall, humanity lives the majority of the week toiling to earn bread by the sweat of its collective brow and at best, only gets to experience the Sabbath one day a week.

It is for this reason that Yeshua-Jesus performed His first miracle in the New Testament with six stone pots (John 2) and died on the sixth day of the week, Friday. He came to restore the connection between heaven and earth and offer us freedom from slavery. The one whom the Son sets free is free indeed – His yoke his easy and His burden light!The allowance of “six years” for which a Hebrew servant can be indentured is symbolic of something more... The Rabbis teach that the world as we know it will only exist for six thousand years. Since a day with the Lord is like a thousand years, we can only serve and work during the six days of this world’s existence.

In this rabbinic understanding, all work will cease by the seventh millennium. The world, as we know it, will come to an end, and the Messiah will arrive to establish God’s Kingdom. God’s people will be free from the toil and hardships of this world and will enter into the seven, the seventh-day Sabbath, the time that is all Shabbat. But we must prepare, work, and serve to experience the full blessing of that seventh day, the Sabbath of the Messianic Kingdom. Our focus must be to serve the Lord with all our heart, soul, and strength in anticipation and preparation for the World to Come, not to live for this world. Even now, the Lord wants you to begin to move from the sixth to the seventh. He wants you to move from slavery to freedom, and from harsh labor to serving from a place of rest in Him.

Yeshua-Jesus invites you to join Him in an Exodus journey into greater freedom and rest so that you can know Him more intimately and serve the Lord with joy and gladness!

“For six years you may sow your field, and for six years you may prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits. But in the seventh year there is to be a Shabbat rest for the land—a Shabbat to Adonai.” (see Leviticus 25:1–7 and Exodus 23:10–11)

5

BY THE NUMBERS A person could become a slave for six years, but in the seventh year, the indentured servant had to be given the option to go free. Numbers are significant. God does not choose them arbitrarily. So why six years of servitude and the prospect of freedom in the seventh?

According to the Genesis account, man was created on the sixth day, which is a Friday. In Jewish thought, man also fell on the sixth day and lost six things as a result. Thus, six is the number associated with man, the physical world, and the Fall of man. Also, it is the number associated with toil and labor, as a person can only work six days a week but is commanded to rest on the seventh, the Shabbat (Exodus 20: 8-9). Hebrew farmers worked the land for six years but were commanded by God to give the land rest in the seventh, known in Hebrew as the Shimittah/Sabbatical Year:

NEXT WEEK’S READINGS

TORAH / Exodus 25:1-27:19

HAFTARAH

NEW COVENANT

Sunday: 25:1-16

Monday: 25:17-30

Tuesday: 25:31-26:14

Wednesday: 26:15-30

Thursday: 26:31-37

Friday: 27:1-8

Saturday: 27:9-19

1 Kings 5:26-6:13

Mark 12:35-44

6

THOUGHTS for REFLECTION

Take some time this week to prayerfully consider and discuss with friends: § As Rabbi Jason discussed, God is not just about the BIG picture (“what”) –

He’s also interested in the fine details of your life (“how”). Do you have asense of personal assignment or instructions from the Lord for 2020? Whattwo or three things are you supposed to be doing this year that you weren’tdoing last year? Now is an ideal moment to get close to Him and hear Hisheart for you.

§ Is there anyone in your life that seems overwhelmed or worn out? Who couldyou invite into an “Exodus journey” of freedom and rest? Part of being in the“yoke” with Yeshua-Jesus is sharing the Good News that His burden is light!