Mishpatim

So it begins ואלה המשפטים אשר תשים לפניהם and Rashi quotes the drasha of Chazal that one of the things that we darshan from lifneihem is לפניהם ולא לפני עובדי כוכבים ומזלות. That this pasuk is the makor for the issur arka'os for Jews to go to a goyishe court, to a secular court, to settle a dispute. ואפילו ידעת בדין אחד שהם דנים אותו כדיני ישראל, even if you know that the secular court paskens the same way that a beis din would pasken in this particular case, אל תביאהו בערכאות שלהם. You still can't go there,

שהמביא דיני ישראל לפני עובדי כוכבים ומזלות מחלל את השם

umyakker shem ha'elilim, either le'hashpicham o lehachashivam, she'ne'emar כי לא כצורנו צורם ואויבנו פלילים. Keshe'oyveinu pelilim, pelilim lashon din, venasan bi'pelilim, זהו עדות לעילוי יראתם. So to go to a goyishe court is a chilul hashem and it's myakker shem ha'elilim. The understanding, the chilul hashem is the pshat l'chora in Rashi is the chilul hashem is something independent. It's not only the dehinu. It would seem to be that Rashi, the Chazal are assuming a metzius whereby the goyishe courts are linked to some avoda zara-dik religion. So memaila if this is the official court of the church, this is the official court of the Hindu religion, so then it's myakker shem ha'elilim to go have a dispute settled in that court. In which case one wonders, is it such a terrible thing bizman hazeh? Bizman hazeh our courts are not linked to any religious system. But the emes is that the pshat in Rashi l'chora what Chazal are saying is, chilul hashem is independent. Even if you don't have the element of myakker shem ha'elilim, chilul hashem is independent. The pshat is like this. The Torah says in Sefer Devarim that לא תכירו פנים במשפט, hakaton k'gadol tishma'un, לא תגורו מפני איש, כי המשפט לאלוקים הוא. So the Torah here says a tremendous yesod. The reason hakadosh baruch hu is so makpid, is so makpid on all these mitzvos and dayanim is because באמת כי המשפט לאלוקים הוא. The dehinu, the Gemara in Shavuos, I think it's in Shavuos in the beginning of the fourth perek says that the chiyuv amida, that the Gemara darshans ועמדו שני האנשים אשר להם הריב לפני השם, that the shenei ha'anashim in the pasuk are not the ba'alei devarim but the shenei ha'anashim in the pasuk are the eidim. And the pasuk should be understood as though it were written ועמדו שני האנשים ואשר להם הריב לפני השם. So the Gemara, the Gemara darshans that the eidim are ba'amida, the eidim are supposed to stand when they give eidus and the ba'alei din also for gmar din are also supposed to be ba'amida. Also supposed to be ba'amida. The Tosafos says that the chiyuv amida is a chiyuv amida because of kvod hashchina. Kvod hashchina. Because ג' היושבים ודנים שכינה עמהם. What's the pshat? Pshat is like this. There's a tremendous yesod which underlies it and basically it's Chumash and Rashi, שנים מקרא ואחד תרגום like so many wonderful things in life. That basically the pshat is that be'emes to judge, one person can't judge another person. That's the ribono shel olam's privilege, the ribono shel olam's prerogative. One person can't sit and judge another person, that's not a human prerogative. It's the ribono shel olam's prerogative. Aye, but the ribono shel olam doesn't send a nevuah to adjudicate every din torah. So the dayanim represent hakadosh baruch hu. That's what it means, לא תכירו פנים במשפט, hakaton k'gadol tishma'un, לא תגורו מפני איש, כי המשפט לאלוקים הוא. Because dayanim are carrying out a mandate from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, mandate from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So when you dan din Torah, when you dan din Torah, so that means that again they represent Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that's what the Ritva says is the mechayev in amida in Beis Din. And that's the, that's what underlies the chomer issur of arka'os. The chomer issur of arka'os is even if the court is a secular court, not, not a court which is linked to some avodah zarah-dik religion. But the chillul Hashem is there anyway because when, when a Jew has a dispute, so כי המשפט לאלוקים הוא, כי המשפט לאלוקים הוא. So a person is supposed to go to those whom the Ribono Shel Olam authorizes to be His representatives to settle a dispute. And a person goes to, maybe it's not an avodah zarah-dik court, he goes to a secular court, so that's taka a chillul Hashem because of this underlying notion of כי המשפט לאלוקים הוא. It's a very, very chomer-dik issur. Again, one of the things which bizman hazeh we don't fully appreciate. There's no such thing as routinely going to, two business partners have some kind of disagreement, some kind of sichsuch in business, right away you run to courts. It's an issur, an issur chamur, me'od me'od chamur. The emes is this idea that judging, judging is a divine prerogative, and be'emes a person really has no right to judge another person and we do it only out of necessity. And even then, and even then, only because Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives license to the dayanim because כי המשפט לאלוקים הוא. So in this context, it's lichora very significant when the mishnah in Pirkei Avos talks about forming opinions of other people, הוי דן את כל האדם לכף זכות. The fact that the Torah uses a lashon din in this context, there's no, there's no shortage of words in, in the lexicon, but the fact that Chazal use a lashon din, so the implication is that we judge people not only in a formal setting of Beis Din, but we judge people all the time, we judge people all the time. And the same כי המשפט לאלוקים הוא applies even when a person isn't serving as a dayan, even in terms of forming impressions, we do so out of necessity. Okay, so I have to know, should I, is he going to be a good friend? Is he going to exert a good, good influence on me? Is he going to exert a negative influence on me? Okay, so there's necessity, so I have to come to some, to some, to some opinion. But just stam to be opinionated about people when it's not relevant, when there's no need, when there's no necessity, it's also an inyan of din, it's also an inyan of din and כי המשפט לאלוקים הוא. We only judge out of, out of necessity, when, when it's relevant. It's relevant for something. It's relevant to know, again, should I, what should my relationship with this person be? So then a person has to, a person has to be dan. At the end of the, end of the parsha, no, maybe we'll see, maybe we'll come to that later. The ganav of kefel, so we had the Gemara in Meruba this year. The Gemara explains why the ganav is more chamur than the gazlan. Because the ganav is more concerned with what people think than what the Ribono Shel Olam thinks. But the gazlan stam aza, he succumbs to a yetzer hara, but he's not more concerned. But the ganav is, is, is doing things with a cheshbon. This, so we sort of, we're all familiar with the Gemara, whether we get up to עין ט עמוד ב in Meruba and we don't get up to עין ט עמוד ב in Meruba, but we're all, we're all familiar with the, all familiar with the Gemara. Okay, so it's a nice, it's a nice pshat, it's a nice interpretation, ganav and gazlan. The emes is, a chiyuv kefel is ganav and gazlan. But the yesod is much, much more pervasive than simply ganav and gazlan. The yesod that the Torah, the Torah is censuring, the Torah is singling out someone for whom people and their opinions are a reality, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu isn't the reality. It is a tremendous yesod, tremendous yesod. When a person does things for kavod, for kavod. So when a person elicits the kavod medumeh, which we chase after, the Ribono Shel Olam's not according him any kavod. So what does that, why does that give him any kind of gratification? Again, it's the same midah of the ganav. The reality of what people think and people say to him, that's the ultimate reality. Ai, but the kavod medumeh which he's chasing, so the Ribono Shel Olam doesn't want us to chase kavod. No, it's the same bechinah of ganav. A person doesn't have to break into a bank vault in the middle of the night to be a ganav. A ganav means again, at least one aspect of the ganav is that the reality of what people think and say and feel is his ultimate reality in the world. When a person, which we do all too often, when a person chanfas someone, a person chanfas someone, engages in chanifah. So we chanfa, sometimes we chanfa our bosses and anyone who we think sort of has some kind of leverage over us. So we don't really mean it, and we know it's not true, we know it's not true, and we chanfa. It's the same midah of the ganav, same midah of the ganav. Ai, but the Ribono Shel Olam knows that I'm talking אחד בפה אחד בלב. Again, because the reality, the reality of what my boss thinks, or the reality of what this gvir thinks, or the reality of what this teacher thinks, or whatever the case may be, is more real for me than עין רואה ואוזן שומעת למעלה. If we look inward there are lots and lots of examples of that midah of the ganav in our lives. בעל שם טוב הקדוש says a gevaldig a gevalt. בעל שם טוב הקדוש says when Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai is dying and the talmidim ask him for a bracha, so he says מורא שמים שיהא כמורא בשר ודם. כמורא בשר ודם. And they say ad kan? That's all? And he says halevai. תדעו כשאדם עובר עבירה אומר שלא יראני אדם. So on its simple level, it's saying the same yesod as we're talking about now. Dehino, that we think that what people think and see and observe and know about us is a reality. Halevai that we should at least recognize as much of that reality כלפי הקדוש ברוך הוא. And that's also true. But בעל שם טוב הקדוש says it means something deeper also. The Baal Shem Tov says, he says when a person is about to do or is in the process of doing something wrong, whatever the aveirah may be, he says he may be bechadrei chadarim. He may be in a room where no windows, and אף על פי כן he's got the window shades drawn. I mean mamash bechadrei chadarim. It's absolutely impossible that he could be observed by anyone. And yet when the person's being over aveirah, he's always looking over his shoulder. He hears the slightest noise, he jumps. He's looking to see is he being detected, is he being observed. So the Baal Shem Tov says, so what is that irrational impulse? What is that irrational impulse? So he says the emes is that we do have an inborn sensitivity to being observed, to being watched, to being detected. Now the Ribono Shel Olam gave us that instinct because really that's an instinct to know the דע מה למעלה ממך עין רואה ואוזן שומעת, the instinct that a person has that he's being seen, that he's being watched, that what he's doing even if he's becheder bechadrei chadarim isn't escaping notice. So it's irrational because the person misinterprets and mistakes what that instinct is. He mistakes and misinterprets that that instinct for, oh, I'm going to be detected and I'm going to be exposed in society and I'm going to have that humiliation. Okay, so that's takeh irrational. It can't happen. I'm becheder bechadrei chadarim, no one knows what I'm doing. But the emes is that's what the Baal Shem Tov said, what Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai said is halevai shemora Shamayim should be kemora basar vadam means that you should recognize that the mora basar vadam you have, that impulse, that instinct for mora basar vadam be-emes is really an instinct, is really an impulse for mora Shamayim, and a person should appreciate what that instinct is. Halevai we should be zocheh.