Shabbat Shalom - 27 Sh’vat - Education Sabbath

This evening’s Erev Shabbat Service will be conducted by Rabbi Dreyfus and will begin at 6:15 PM.

Tomorrow morning’s Shabbat Service will begin at 10:00 AM. The students of our schools will participate in honor of Education Sabbath and our Teachers.

The parasha is Mishpatim, Exodus 21:1–24:18

The Asaret HaDebrot are important, but they present very broad guidelines. This parasha begins with rules and regulations regarding slavery, and continues with a mixed compendium of criminal law and tort law, Included, is the famous “life for a life, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” instructions of how to deal with someone who take’s another’s tooth, eye or life. Later commentaries make clear that these seeming instructions as to criminal punishment really devolve into Tort law, where, the actor is liable, not to lose his own tooth,eye or life, but to compensate the victim with the value of the loss.

The parasha ends with Moses going up to the cloud at the top of the holy mountain to receive the tables of stone that G-d had prepared for the Jewish people.