Rabbah Arlene Berger
This week’s Torah portion is Mishpatim: Exodus 21:1 — 24:18
In Parshat Mishpatim, we receive 53 of the 613 commandments. The parsha begins: “And these are the laws (mishpatim) that you shall set before them” (Exodus 21:1). We might wonder why the verse opens with “and these are the laws” rather than simply “these are the laws.”
The word “and” is usually understood as a simple conjunction, a linking word — but here it serves a precise and important purpose. Rashi teaches that “and these laws” indicates continuity. The laws presented here — all 53 of them — are a direct continuation of what came before, what we received just last week — the Ten Commandments. All of the laws, not only the Ten Commandments, are therefore understood to have been given at Sinai.
Whenever I read this parsha, the same verse always stands out to me. In Exodus 23:8, we find the injunction against taking a bribe as part of a section of laws devoted to justice. We are familiar with the expression, “A person’s word is their bond.” It assumes that a person’s worth is measured by their integrity, by their spoken word and by their reputation. If this is true of an ordinary person, how much more so must it be true of a judge — someone of impeccable character and moral strength, strong enough to recognize and withstand bribery.
There is a story told in “Maayanah Shel Torah,” a mid-20th century compendium of Divrei Torah from Eastern Europe:
An impoverished widow once came to the beit din (courthouse) of the great sage Rabbi Yehoshua Kutner. Weeping bitterly, she begged him to summon a man she accused of having wronged her.
Rabbi Yehoshua summoned the man to appear before the court, but then referred the case to another rabbi, refusing to preside over it himself. “The Torah forbids the taking of bribes,” he explained. “Do you think a bribe is only a gift of money? Tears, too, can be a bribe — tears that ‘blind the clear sighted,’ especially the tears of a poor widow.”
This story reminds us that bribery is not limited to money alone. A bribe is anything that blinds us — greed, desire, or even emotion. In this case, Rabbi Yehoshua recognized that his natural sympathy could compromise his judgment. For a judge, the mere presence of emotional bias or personal investment is considered as if it were a bribe.
Although most of us are not judges, we regularly face situations in our daily lives that require judgment and decision-making. These choices may not send someone to prison, but they can still alter the course of a person’s life — for better or for worse. We may grant or deny someone a job. With a few well-placed words, we can influence how another person is perceived. We decide whom to believe and whom to doubt.
We read Parshat Mishpatim at a time of great polarization not only in public discourse but also in public and private judgements. This parsha, with so many commandments dedicated to civil laws, calls on us to pause. It reminds us that justice begins not only in courts or institutions, but in our own hearts and choices.
In the weeks ahead, let us pay particular attention to moments when bias arises in our own lives and in the community around us. How do these biases affect us — our decisions and our actions? What steps can we take to address and repair them? The work of Mishpatim calls us, as individuals and as a community, to notice where bias may be clouding our vision and to recommit ourselves to fairness, compassion and moral clarity in the world we are helping to shape together.
Rabbah Arlene Berger is the rabbi of Shirat HaNefesh in Chevy Chase, Maryland. She is also a local community chaplain and life cycle officiant.
