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Parshat Mishpatim
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Discovering the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

ואלה המשפטים אשר תשים לפניהם

"Return our judges as of old and our advisors as of yore... Blessed are You HaShem King Who loves righteousness and justice."

The return of justice according to Torah, the Teaching of God, is a constant goal in our prayers. The dominance of justice in Torah law shows that God's Will is that His teaching must not only permeate through the world on mental, devotional, ethical, and spiritual levels, but also on a level that governs everyday earthly life, even stooping down to correct criminal behavior. This matter explains why we use the term 'King' in the fore-mentioned blessing. Justice entails an involvement and presence similar to that of a king. On the one hand, a king is aloof of the people in his grandeur and majesty. On the other hand, the king's responsibility is to bring about the welfare of all the citizens of his country, caring for even the 'lowliest' residents of his country. Similarly, our wish is that the King of Kings, HaShem, rule over the entire earth through the Divine justice exacted by his messengers on earth, the Torah's judges and judicial system.

Our title quote is interpreted by our Sages to mean, 'put the laws before the people so clearly that they are accessible like (food on) a set table'. Indeed, this teaching is the inspiration for such codes of law such as the Shulhan Aruch, which means 'a set table'. One of the famous figures who codified Jewish law in a novel encyclopedic way was Rabbi Haim Hizkiyahu Medini of Hebron. His monumental work, the 'Sdei Hemed' of eighteen volumes, was the first halachic-encyclopedia to include both Ashkenazic and Sephardic responsa in alphabetical order. This work focuses on the halacha pertaining to every-day life, and at the same time analyzes these topics in considerable depth and lucidity.

Rabbi Hizkiyahu once told a friend that in his youth he was not among the most brilliant minds in the kollel where he studied, however he learned with great diligence and steadily progressed in his studies. One of the students of this group became jealous and set a trap for him. He bribed the cleaning lady of the kollel to publicly accuse him of trying to seduce her. After she did so, he was accused of hypocrisy and insulted over and over again. It was a tremendous desecration of G-d's Name. Unable to tolerate such shame, he was forced to flee. The Rosh Kollel did not believe the cleaning lady, and he fired her.

After a certain time, when the cleaning lady had exhausted all the money of the bribe, she promised R. Medini that she would publicly recount the truth and state that it was all a plot, that one of the students had given her money to accuse him. She implored him to do all that he could, once she had cleared his name, to help her get her job back. On the one hand, Rabbi Medini was happy that everything could be put back in order. However, on the other hand, he thought, a terrible desecration of G-d's Name had already occurred, and if the actual story were to become known, there would be yet another desecration due to the shameful conduct of the student. Not only that, but this student who had given the bribe would himself suffer a terrible fate. Consequently, he decided, it was preferable that he continue to bear shame in silence than to provoke a new scandal. Finally, he decided to tell the cleaning lady that he would push himself to speak in her favor, but that he absolutely forbade her to tell anybody about the bribe.

"At the time that I took this difficult decision, one that risked endangering my entire future in the world of Torah," concluded the Sdei Hemed, "I felt the sources of wisdom opening before me. Instead of the damage that my choice should have caused me, I had merited great Heavenly assistance, one that has led me until my present situation."

This story illustrates how great ethical courage and greatness of spirit in times of challenge were ultimately the catalysts for Divinely inspired wisdom and the brilliance inherent in a monumental work, the 'Sdei Hemed'. This story also shows the Divine intervention/inspiration inherent in Torah law not only in yore, but also in the modern day, as the Sdei Hemed lived just about a century before us.

This message is so natural to Hebron, where the Sdei Hemed lived in the Romano complex, and was buried in the Ancient Cemetery in Hebron. This is Hebron, the City of Unity, which unites heavenly Divine inspiration with earthly law and justice, so that all shall see that 'HaShem is King upon the entire earth.'

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #209

This week we will suffice with the Sdei Hemed's story above

Sources: www.hevratpinto.com, Mechilta Nezikin 1

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