By Student Rabbi Leah Julian

The universe is so mysteriously cruel and beautiful. As the world around us turns inside out, and we are confronted like Job by God out of the whirlwind who tells us nothing except that the true workings of the world are unknowable– we turn to our holy books, for there we find eternal wisdom.

On this Shabbat we read Parshat Mishpatim, from the Book of Exodus, the Torah portion right after Moses receives the 10 Commandments on Mount Sinai. Parshat Misphatim continues with the giving of some of the most famous and revered of all the mitzvot, the sacred obligations of the Jewish People– including the mitzvah around safeguarding a mother’s life, for which Repro Shabbat gets its inspiration.

There is a cruel irony in reading these verses that call on us to act towards others, in ways that they do not act towards us. And still, we turn to our holy book, and we remember the eternal truths of our Sacred Teaching:

“When [two or more] parties fight, and one of them pushes a pregnant woman and a miscarriage results, but no other damage ensues, the one responsible shall be fined according as the woman’s husband may exact, the payment to be based on reckoning. But if other damage ensues, the penalty shall be life for life, (24) eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, (25) burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

You shall not wrong or oppress a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

You [communal leaders] shall not ill-treat any widow or orphan.
If you do mistreat them, I will heed their outcry as soon as they cry out to Me, and My anger shall blaze forth and I will put you to the sword, and your own wives shall become widows and your children orphans.

If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, do not act toward them as a creditor; exact no interest from them.

If you take your neighbor’s garment in pledge, you must return it before the sun sets; it is the only available clothing—it is what covers the skin. In what else shall [your neighbor] sleep? Therefore, if that person cries out to Me, I will pay heed, for I am compassionate.

You must not carry false rumors; you shall not join hands with the guilty to act as a malicious witness:

You shall neither side with the mighty to do wrong—you shall not give perverse testimony in a dispute so as to pervert it in favor of the mighty— nor shall you show deference to a poor person in a dispute.

When you encounter your enemy’s ox or ass wandering, you must take it back.

When you see the ass of your enemy lying under its burden and would refrain from raising it, you must nevertheless help raise it.

You shall not subvert the rights of your needy in their disputes.
Keep far from a false charge; do not bring death on those who are innocent and in the right, for I will not acquit the wrongdoer.

Do not take bribes, for bribes blind the clear-sighted and upset the pleas of those who are in the right.

You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt.”

Let us remember, that these laws are the bedrock of our Tradition and who we are as Jews. Let not the hate of the world, and our own anger, despair, and cynicism harden our hearts, like that of Pharoah. Let us never lose sight of who we are as a people and what we stand for. Let us meet harshness with gentleness, let us meet hatred with compassion, let us meet darkness with light.

Let not the depravity of the world make us forget who we really are: “A Kingdom of Priests, a holy nation.”

Amen.