Parshat Mishpatim: Civil Law - Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller

[Music] the name of this week's Pasha is Mishpatim which means judgment okay so the underlying premise of this parsha begins by telling us the same way the laws that you associate with Torah at Sinai know God don't let anything stand in your way that's from him all of what we're going to have in this week's passion which is what we would call civil law money damages all of the things having to do with concrete realities are just as much as from as his word so when you ask about like the difference between Judaism Christianity one of the things that stands out is they both have the ideal of love your neighbor but Judaism is going to say how do you show this love it has to be concrete it has to be real it has to do with how you treat anyone in society has to do with money it has to do with it has to do with your life okay so we're I'm going to do my best to see that we touch all of the challah hurt and the parsha but I doubt if we'll be able to do it so I'm giving you this warning to begin with it's very full it begins with something will seem archaic to you in ancient Israel slavery was permitted but not by the definitions that we would use when discussing other cultures in which slavery exists is there still slavery in the world today by the way absolutely where where do you think their slavery what that's uh slavery they could walk away from it a slavery that may not be economically viable but they they could conceivably walk away okay you have it some degree in Southeast Asia you have it openly publicly in Saudi Arabia and in various places in Africa I just want you to be able Isis what slavery so slavery is when you can't walk off the job it's not about how difficult the job is it's about the fact that you can't quit so slavery you in ancient Jewish society worked as follows a person could sell themselves as a slave for maximum of six years why would anyone do this so there are two reasons one would be extreme poverty and the other would be and this will give you a huge insight into everything else in the parsha and about justice by Judaic definitions secular law the laws of theft our perpetrator oriented if you stole something you deserve to be punished in Halawa in jewish law their victim oriented if someone stole from you you need compensation we don't believe we could punish people justice in that sense belongs to God but the victim should be compensated so if somebody steals they have to compensate the victim someone stole a hundred dollars they have to pay back two hundred okay clear suppose they can't then they could be sold into slavery and the money will be used to give the victim what is okay clear women cannot be slaves according to Jewish law the possibility of abuse is too great okay very young girls up till puberty could be sold into slavery by a parent if they don't have food to give them but they have to be released to puberty okay or at 12 whichever comes first because again a woman cannot be under the authority of anybody else okay clear only herself for her parents okay so while with the terms of slavery the slave had to be treated like a household member if everyone has two pillows the slave has to have two pillows with no slave quarters but it makes the person the slave as their time doesn't belong to them this is a huge statement one of the blessings that are in the traditional prayer book is thanking God for not being a slave because your most precious possession is your time okay clear okay the the master is allowed to marry the young girl slave marriage means that there's consent on both sides obviously or have a get engaged to her his son okay and it's there that the Torah reveals what the marriage contract is in other words in the most vulnerable possible situation it says you have to treat this woman like you treat any wife and here's how you treat a wife so the ideas that you could see from the way the most vulnerable people in society are treated how society idealizes treating people in the broader sense so how does a man have to treat his wife what does he owe her so there were three things which have many offshoots the first thing is that he has to support her food clothing and shelter to what degree with whose money and what are her options if he doesn't so the basic contract is in accordance to what she expects given her present life situation that's the minimum and the maximum is in accordance to his income in other words if she's used to living very simply he can't have her live less than that but if he earns a lot of money she could demand more than that he could better her situation but not worsen it and the laws there are very specific if she was living in the city for instance which most people prefer she/he can't make her move to the country okay clear there has to be honesty in the contract meaning if he claims to be rich it turns out he's poor than the contract isn't binding if he has hidden illnesses the contractors and binding if she is withholding hidden in illnesses from heart from him the contract isn't binding okay in addition to food clothing shelter he has to be there for her physically the assumption in Jewish law was that women have physical desires just as men do that he can't like right right after the marriage somebody say let's just keep it platonic you know like I'll earn you'll cook No okay he has to be there okay she could release him from that responsibility but that's up to her the for instance he wants to travel for business for half year she could say okay but otherwise he has to be there okay okay next there a whole slew of other obligations that come along with it her medical expenses her burial expenses redeeming her from captivity if needed okay what are some other things supportive her children if she came to the marriage with children and that was stipulated some other things basically that's it okay any questions on what he has to do for her Yeah right so she has to agree that she would have to agree before the marriage to accept him as he is but he can't just drop it on her in other words okay clear okay no other questions okay now if its contractual that means there are two sides what's her side I thought it was just to take okay no okay no no so his side could be summed up with the word provide her role was basically to take what he provides and to turn it into something so the way this is stated in Hebrew is he is mavey he brings Mahima tech Emmett and she rectifies what he brings so to clarify this the talmud said a man can bring flour but you can excuse me grain but you can't eat grain a man could bring flax that's wended linen seed but you can't we reflects what does the woman do she'll turn the grain into food the flax into a garment stand him on his feet bring light to his eye okay gothis okay so she has to turn it into something okay she was has to be available to him physically just as he has to be available to her which is to be his self understood a woman working there are two forms of contract that a woman's work could could have one is if he is the one who's supporting her but she works additionally like he is a lawyer who who makes a quarter of a million a year but she gives ballet lessons twice a week let's say okay it's not to our interest to say fifty-fifty is that true okay if he earns a quarter of a million a year and she gives ballet lessons twice a week is it to her interest to say fifty-fifty no okay clear so if she's saying you are supporting me then her money is also part of that same package she can't say what's yours is mine and what's mine is mine this doesn't work okay clear however she does have the option of saying you don't have to support me and I want to hold on to my own money so that deal is usually not advantageous to the woman if there if it's a young marriage and she expects to be having children who wants to be a stay home mom it is advantageous to a woman in a second marriage oftentimes when they're both earning okay clear so she could go into either arrangement okay this is clear okay any questions about marriage as a contractual thing okay no so let's go back to let's go back to what the tour is really saying what the tour is really saying is that the woman is a person so when you compare this to what the way society views women the idea of women having rights the way a woman having the ability to bring a husband to court for non-support this was all very very very very very revolutionary until the modern era you realize this okay clear okay further so after the discussion of how do you treat a slave it goes into a discussion of all sorts of damages that a person may do to another person how they have to compensate them so the premise is that things happen in life and life things happen and you have to pick up the pieces you have to pick up the pieces okay so we're going to start with external damages and then we're going to go into other sorts of damages okay the first thing if you harm somebody physically it can either be on purpose or by accident or through negligence there are three possible ways to which harm could come again on purpose through negligence okay or unavoidably if something is unavoidable then the perpetrator does not have to pay the victim because it's not his fault what's the example of something unavoidable you are standing by the window okay like that I rush in I knock him out of the window accidentally you fall on her and kill her she can't sue your ears or if you survive at you okay or her ear sue you more correctly since she since you killed her because you had no choice here okay clear so there were all sorts of situations in which the person has no choice so concerning that it says Rajamani portray that Hashem who's merciful exempts this person you're only liable when you have a choice next would be doing something on purpose so if you do something that injures another person on purpose and there are witnesses there are five kinds of damages you have to pay the first is medical bills the second would be days out of work the third would be permanent inability to work the next would be a court assigned some for the pain and another court assigned some for any embarrassment for instance if a person ends up with scars so these five kinds of damages are paid to the victim the perpetrator isn't imprisoned the print because again we don't believe we could put we could really change people or punish them but they do have to pay for the harm that they've done this is clear okay yes okay so one is for pain and the court decides what that would be and the other is for embarrassment to ashame okay clear okay so now we're going to have different cases that are somewhere not inadvertent but not purposeful either and what happens then some of them will be capital cases some of them will be physical damages - people are fighting should they be fighting no but they are fighting they're having a fist fight one person punches the other person hard the other person goes flying they go into a third person okay okay let's say a pregnant woman and now she miscarries okay what's the level of accountability so I'm gonna give you a rule in halacha even if it's not your fault as long as you're aware and it's not totally outside your choice you have to pay for anything your body does if your body did it you have to pay okay clear but they would only have to pay a fine not all five all five kinds of damages because again it was very inadvertent in this point so this case carries over to this what if you were trying to kill person a and you ended up killing person B okay two examples you're in the Ford theater what what took place on the Ford theater date if you remember that's right that's where Abe Lincoln was assassinated so there it is you see John Wilkes Booth coming over to the place in the theater where Abe is sitting with who his wife and he's holding a gun and in those days this is how they held guns with two hands right okay he's holding the government aiming it so you try to get him you have your machine gun with you oh no you forgot to take lessons oh dear you knew you before you buy the gun you're supposed to take lessons so you aim it but no you kill three other people okay because have such things happened yes so are you considered a murderer what do you think so there's something less than murder but more than accident and this is where this fits okay clear it's not a pure accident you made choices you were negligent and irresponsible but it wasn't a purposeful murder so this in-between stage is dealt with differently depending very much on the circumstances each case would be judged differently sometimes where the person was really intended as in the example I gave you to prevent bloodshed from happening meaning if this person was a sharpshooter would he have been right until in killing John Wilkes Booth would he have been right or not yes then he would be exempt in other cases his negligence would be viewed as the overriding situation and he would be sent to one of 48 special cities of refuge he wouldn't be allowed to continue his life as usual with 48 cities that were levy I'd City it's not all of the wick cities of refuge actually some of them and he would have to live there between he would have to abandon his home his family could come with him if they want they don't have to and he lives in a sort of Exile until such time as the Kohen Gadol dies and then he can we begin his life okay clear okay so this um this sort of situation sometimes comes up contemporarily where for instance you'll have somebody who sees a terrorist and tries to kill the terrorist and the terrorist moves and they end up killing somebody else you understand us so this is considered not even negligence it's less than negligence you could see where this is up okay okay but it's viewed as tragic there's also a rule that bad things often happen through people who need a lesson who've done something wrong so person who even if their attentions were completely good ended up in this situation would have a lot of soul-searching to do okay clear okay next okay you're asleep at night and you hear noises okay you try to get your husband up but he's still he won't get it okay whatever so you seem to be coming from the basement okay so what's the stupidest thing for you to do now go downstairs to the basement well a lot of people do this right what should you do call the police let her go down to the basement what do you think you're going to find there okay so you find a robber in your basement he's like he has welding equipment he's disengaging your safe from the wall and pulling it out okay clear what did you do now if he sees you you have to kill him why if you were seeing what's going to happen next he's going to kill you why will he kill you because people assume that people are going to fight for their possessions so robbers come armed okay this is clear if he didn't see you what should you do out of the basement okay get help okay whatever so you're supposed to kill them because this is the source of the famous law which you're familiar with if someone kills two comes to kill you you should rise and kill them again if someone comes to kill you you should rise and kill them and the question be why should you do that why did we say your blood is redder than their blood why should you defend yourself against them you're going to have blood shed here there will be bloodshed the quest is will it be an innocent person's blood or somebody who made a choice to live a life of violence will it be their blood okay clear so the innocent person always takes precedence over the guilty person here are exceptions if when you look down right you open the basement door who's there mommy what's he doing in your basement who knows okay okay your mother-in-law checking to see whether you cleaned it recently whatever thank you so if you kill her you're considered a murderer why you considered a murderer mommy it's not going to kill you we're still say there really shouldn't be all those cobwebs you know I was just looking here I figured you know you should be careful okay she's not going to kill you okay so you can't kill her if it's clear as day that this person is no murderer you're considered a murderer if you could kill them suppose you happen to be a sharpshooter as I'm sure that most of you girls can guess you're our sharpshooters okay well like there's I forgot the name of this family the Wallendas the famous circus the circus family and there's a I'm not no the Live Well enters of the type walk work this time there's one of the circus families so like they throw knives and like they could like like between a person yeah like that sort of thing you know you could throw a knife perfectly or you're a sharpshooter do you think you should kill the person no because you will not be killed if you only injure them your purpose in killing them isn't punishment it's to keep yourself from being killed okay clear and Christian theology there was if someone slaps here instead of slapping them back you should she should know turn the other cheek like okay almost dare them to slap you because that will appeal to their conscience and they won't do it if they see that you're no threat the assumption is when they think you're no threat that they won't do anything so the reason we don't is because we don't think it's good for you to be slapped once certainly not twice and we don't think it's good to enable somebody to be violent it's not good for them it's not good for anyone to be violent so you have to physically prevent this sort of behavior this is clear we don't believe in turn the other cheek okay this is clear to you okay next okay next is not murder but situational realities that can occur involving property okay so we're going to divide all property into three groupings your place a public place somebody else's place okay clear in your home let's say you have all sorts of unsafe things rollerskates on the steps open manholes in your kitchen what else like what else could you have wild animals roaming your dan okay okay and the burglar comes he's trying to go he falls down the stairs because of the skates right into the manhole he climbs out and then the wolf gets him okay does he have a claim against you okay next one it's not your home it's public place and you dug a hole big hole and you didn't cover it you thought it'd be interesting maybe later you're like putting water and some fish or whatever and somebody fell in are you accountable yes what about if you didn't dig the hole somebody else dug the hole but you took off the cover because he wanted to fix the pipes which is the reason why they dug the hole you're a plumber and later you forgot to recover it are you accountable yes what if somebody falls into it or even an animal and they're not killed but there's some injury what do you think yeah you still pay okay what if the owner of the animal was negligent by letting their animal loose and public property basically you're still going to pay okay clear okay next okay have you so any I'm giving you the example of a hole but this would appear the anything that causes a hazard to public safety you're accountable for all of the damage that comes if you were the one who either caused it directly or you took off something that was precautionary and because of that somebody fell in either literally or figuratively okay clear so a thing to see if this it used to be cool when I was a teenager okay many moons ago it was cool for teenagers to play around with the street signs like change the speed limit turn around the arrows take away stop signs this was cool to do if you cause accidents through this you're a bad guy okay it doesn't matter that you're a teenager okay clear okay it was fun okay okay lucky elbows got it okay just like new okay next okay somebody else's property anything that happens to you on somebody else's property if you had no authority to be there it's your problem if you did have authority to be there somebody invited you to their home okay and there are rollerskates on the steps or the manhole or the wild animal okay and they invited you in it's a please come for dinner and then the wolf pounced on you like I would have okay so basically they are accountable they're going to be exceptions to that but basically they're going to be accountable okay clear okay next thing next thing would be I've tried to think we have so little time and somebody was here okay damage that's done through your body so as we said earlier basically even if you don't have intent if your body is what did it you're accountable next damage that's done through something you own like your car like your bicycle like your ox like your sheep so we're going to take the law concerning an ox and we're going to then apply it to other things you have an ox okay it's as far as you know tame is ox and are as long as you keep it properly as long as you guard it it's not going to do any harm then it's us some harm but it had no record of Dunning doing harm previously and you were guarding it properly okay what you have to pay half of the damage that's all if it does harm three times then it's as though you did it with your body you may even die you understand this because you're you're not taking care of what you know now to be a hazard this is clear and the Ox would also be killed why would the Ox be killed if you were in guarding it properly the Ox didn't do anything wrong an ox is an ox so the reason is that it's considered to be a disgrace for a human being to be lying dead well the perpetrator an animal is like roaming freely a human life is more precious than that okay that makes sense to you okay now we get to what you said a moment ago an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth and all of that will save us concerning damages that humans do each other not death but damages so none of this is literal so what is it then okay so an eye for an eye means if your ability to be sold as a slave remember that was slavery then with one eye goes down dramatically that besides all of the other five kinds of damages that I mentioned previously is a sum you would have to pay your victim okay you got it let's say a slave of course $1,000 you get someone to work for you for those six years four thousand dollars that's not bad okay but a slave with one eye is much cheaper they can't you know like they can't see distance they can't drive whatever so let's say a slave worth with one eye is only worth $700 so besides any other damages you have to pay you have to additionally pay them $300 okay clear now suppose now this is some something else the person whose eye you took out in a quarrel or through negligence or whatever already lost one eye so now you've blinded them so that would mean if they were slave their worth would be almost zero right so you would have to pay them much more compensation besides the five coins we spoke about already okay clear that's what this means it's financial and it has to do with the diminishment of a person's financial value the same thing would hold true for a tooth there's a big difference between a regular tooth and the baby tooth okay clear okay the same thing would hold even for pain like so when you're trying to when the court is trying to figure out how much to compensate someone for pain how much is pain worth so there are people who will do things that are painful like acrobats stuntmen right you'd have to find out how much somebody would take income sation for suffering this level of pain but none of this is literal do you know that in the Koran they take it literally did you know that they just had this case I'm trying to remember where it was it was in Iran in Iran it was an Iran where there was a woman who only had sight in one eye there was a man a man only had sight in one eye and he had thrown acid at someone and that person was the sight of one eye so they actually blinded him in the court in Iran yeah okay so that's quite serious but okay so next so with damages you're out you're liable for damage even if when there's no death you have to pay damage and it'll have to be proportionate to the changes you made in that person or their property okay an interesting exemption is damaged that your kids do you're basically accountable most of the time for damages that your animals do because animals are predictable kids are totally unpredictable so even if you're watching them you can't really know what they're going to do next so because of this if your kids do damage it's nice if you pay but you don't have to do so actually my brother-in-law had this case he has a rather short fuse do you know what I mean like there are some people who are very patient and he's not okay and he has it like a beautiful home like he has like a large garden that he has glass French doors that lead out to the garden okay so his house is adjacent to like a development it's the kids from the development would like to like run through the garden open the French door run around his living room and run out okay clear and he's not the type got the picture there's some people say look at that they're so funny okay he's like who are they that's something okay so one kid bought a bicycle so you would bicycle through the garden open the doors go through the living room and zoom out could you imagine how angry that made him you could picture this so he got ahold of the kid a few times yelled at him call the pair and nothing helped so finally he losted he got a hold of the kid and he hit him and the kid who was I don't remember how ten or twelve took him to the halacha Court okay got it and he had a pay could you imagine this the kid okay the the judges said you do you do now I haven't kidded me said I didn't deny it but look what he was in my property he said that you know you hit him didn't you he had to pay him so but the only thing you could have with kids and the damage they do is now that it's known that he runs through homes and trespasses the parents could be warned they have to watch against their child trespassing and next time he could sue the parents okay okay clear once it's something specific you could sue the parents the kids are extremely unpredictable we never found out when my oldest daughter was four we never found out how she did this she wasn't that verbal like most four-year-olds are but she wasn't she somehow learns how to open gas tanks so whether she did this I like mice I think she did this with playing cards because I saw kind of playing cards later but she learned how to like open it up with she learned how to open gas tanks we lived in a development we have houses around the courtyard and there was a parking area so one day she opened several gas tanks and then fed the cars okay so I gave them lunch okay what do you think she fed the cars before water and sand and plants and like you know that's what she fed them okay and that I put them back to sleep which means she put the gas tanks back on but like this is she did terrible damage they didn't have to pay which was wonderful for me but not so good for the other people okay clear I kept but nobody ever figured it out like you couldn't pull it out of her house she got them open but you know so this is this is how our next kind of damage which will be last for today okay so the last kind of damages for today the last thing we have in civil law will be okay if humiliate if you humiliate someone publicly it's considered a damage so the question be is how much you have to pay them and what and what's considered public so public is in the there's discussion it's either in the presence of three people or more or ten people or more okay there's some discussion there and the amount you pay has to do with the status of the person who you you Milly ated and who was present okay so the higher the person status is then the more money you would have to pay so if you call let's say a twelve twelve or thirteen year old idiot that's much less than if you would call Trump idiots okay clear okay so this is a so this is the law concerning shame which tells you that that emotional damage is considered damage in Jewish law which is not the case in all other systems emotional damage is real damage ya know there's a the court will assume the court will give a price to what the person would have paid not to have enjoyed that experience so first of all affair a minor it's where the whole we have to talk about things involving children and damages to them it's a separate frame but basically they would have to pay what the court of signs of what one would pay to avoid the damage which is very very subjective and the court would have to look into it very carefully okay clear zero [Music] [Applause]