Hashem tells Moshes to place before the Jewish People a series of laws concerning financial responsibility and social justice. Topics include: Proper treatment of Jewish servants; husband’s obligations toward his wife; penalties for striking others and for cursing parents, judges and leaders; financial responsibilities for damaging people or their property, either by oneself or by one's animate or inanimate property, or by pitfalls that one created; payments for theft and for not returning an object that one accepted responsibility to guard; the right to self-defense of a person being robbed.

Other topics include: Prohibitions against seduction; witchcraft, bestiality and sacrifices to idols; the warning to treat the convert, widow and orphan with dignity, and to avoid lying. Lending and borrowing at interest is forbidden, and the rights over collateral are limited. Payment of obligations to the Temple should not be delayed; and the Jewish People must be Holy, even concerning food. The Torah teaches the proper conduct for judges in court proceedings. The commandments of Shabbat and the Sabbatical year are outlined. Three times a year — for the festivals of Pesach, Shavuot and Succot — we are to come to the Temple. The Torah concludes this listing of laws with a kashrut law: Do not cook or mix meat and milk.

Parashas Mishpatim concludes with a ‘flashback’ to the events leading up to the giving of the Torah, including the Jewish People’s famous words of acceptance: “Na’aseh v’Nishma - we will do and we will listen.” Moshe, Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, and the seventy elders ascend and have a Divine revelation; Moshe and Yehoshua ascend further. Finally, Moshe alone ascends the mountain - covered in fire and cloud - and remains there for forty days and forty nights.

PARSHA INSIGHTS

No Feeding the Cats

“If you see the donkey of your enemy lying under its burden, you shall surely help him with it…” (23:5)

My daughters aren’t big cat fans. That is except for my youngest, who loves them. There was a marmalade tom who used to come around to get fed by my youngest, and the other girls strictly forbade her to give him anything. Early one morning my wife was going into the kitchen when she saw my daughter taking some meat scraps out of the microwave.

“For the cat?” my wife asked.
“Yes, Ima.”
“But why are you heating it up?”

Said my daughter, “Look Ima, this cat doesn’t have any Olam HaBah — so I want him to have as much Olam HaZeh as possible.”

Parshat Mishpatim is about caring when no one is looking.

The Torah commands us not to cause unnecessary suffering to animals.

Not just for the sake of the animal, but because cruelty damages the human soul.

The Torah demands kindness precisely where there is no gratitude, no recognition. Animals won’t thank you. They won’t remember.
But you will.

Parshat Mishpatim teaches us that a person becomes righteous through the quiet choices that shape who they are.

Olam HaBah is built in Olam HaZeh — standing in a kitchen, warming food for a creature that can never repay you.

Holiness is built when no one’s looking.