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Mishpatim - Trust in Hashem, Not People

 

Parashat Mishpatim begins with the law of the עבד עברי.  This refers to someone who, due to financial straits, resorted to theft, and was caught, but could not repay his victim.  In order to obtain the money he needed, he would sell himself as a servant.  After six years, his master was required to release him.  If, however, the servant preferred staying with his master, he was allowed to do so, but only after the master pierced his ear as a sign of his servitude.

 

Rashi explains that the servant's ear would be pierced as a punishment.  His ear heard Hashem proclaim at Mount Sinai, עבדי הם – that the Jewish People are Hashem's servants, and not the servants of their fellow human beings.  This servant was now betraying this pronouncement, and so his ear would be pierced.

 

Many Rabbis addressed the question of why the servant's ear would be pierced only at that point, when he chose to remain with his master, and not right when he was caught stealing.  After all, at Mount Sinai we heard the command of לא תגנוב, that it is forbidden to steal, and he violated this command.  Why, then, was the ear pierced for transgressing עבדי הם but not for transgressing לא תגנוב?

 

The answer is that ear doesn't represent simply obedience and compliance.  It symbolizes something deeper – the "listening" to understand and internalize what was being said. 

 

The עבד עברי understood that it is forbidden to steal.  He stole out of desperation, not because he thought it was moral.  But when he chose to remain in his master's service, he showed a lack of understanding of what עבדי הם means.

 

The servant decided to remain with his master because he looked to his master as the one responsible for his rehabilitation, for his recovery, for his getting back on his feet – thus losing sight of Hashem.  Of course, he owed a debt of gratitude to his master who took him in, treated him well, and helped him regain his footing.  But he made the mistake of feeling dependent entirely on the master, feeling that he needed to continue this arrangement and couldn't live without it.  He forgot that עבדי הם, that even the master was just a human, a servant of Hashem, that Hashem controls everything, that we are dependent on Him and on nobody else.

 

This is a mistake that we must ensure to avoid.  We must not become fully dependent on any human being, to the point where we feel we cannot manage without that person.  Not on an employer, not on a client, not on a customer, not on a friend, and not even on a Rabbi.  Perhaps most of all, we must not feel fully dependent on any political figure.  Every human being is just a human being, and thus is, by definition, limited and flawed.  Only Hashem is perfect, and only Hashem has complete power and control. 

 

And just as we cannot place our trust in any other human being, neither can we feel fully confident in ourselves and our own abilities.

 

Toward the end of our parashah, we read of our ancestors' famous proclamation at Mount Sinai, נעשה ונשמע – "We will do and we will hear."  This might mean that they committed to hearing the "sound" that goes forth from Mount Sinai to this very day.  The Torah (Devarim 5:18) says about the sound of Matan Torah, קול גדול ולא יסף – it was a great sound that never ended.  Rashi explains that since the day the Torah was given, Hashem is calling to us from Mount Sinai, as it were, continuing to command us to observe the Torah.  נעשה ונשמע might be understood to mean that even when נעשה, when we are acting and doing, as we go about our affairs, נשמע – we will continue to hear the sound of Sinai, we will be aware of the message of Matan Torah, that everything depends on Hashem and not on our own efforts.

 

The עבד עברי failed to hear this sound, and so he pinned all his hopes for his future and his success on his master.  We must ensure never to make this mistake, to always hear this sound, and never place too must trust in any human being, including ourselves. - Joey Haber

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https://itorah.com/weekly-inspire/trust-in-hashem-not-people/15/30955