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Orchard of Delights Mishpatim 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 8 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:04 | SR:-- | Cyan

of his life so David could live. Thus, David, viewed his entire life as ££A Set TA Set T
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a gift, and, therefore, he experienced each day, as if “today I have ££
given birth to you.” This constant awareness of God’s mercy and
life-giving force helps explain how David reached such lofty heights
in praising God. The portion of Mishpatim begins with the following verse: “And
these are the ordinances (mishpatim) that you shall place before
The capacity to renew one’s self is truly one of the great secrets of them” (Exodus 21:1). The Midrash’s commentary on this verse, cited
attaining personal fulfillment and happiness. For without it life can by Rashi, exemplifies the careful attention the Rabbis paid to every
quickly wear people down, entangling them in tedious and boring word in the Torah and the illumination they gained from doing so.
habits, rote thoughts and actions. Failure to renew one’s self dooms In my estimation, one of Rashi’s most important insights on the
a person to an uninspired and frustrating life, what the famous Torah was written to explain the words, “that you shall place before
American author Henry David Thoreau poetically referred to as “a them”:
life of quiet desperation.”
God said to Moses: “Do not think that [it will be sufficient for] you
On a national level, renewal is truly one of the great secrets of to teach them the laws two or three times until they have memorized
Jewish survival. For what other people has had to begin again so them and then you will not have to bother to explain the deeper
many times due to its long and tortured history? No matter what the reasons and explanations to them. This is why it is written, ‘you
circumstances, the Jewish people has persevered and renewed itself shall place before them’ – like a set table before a person, fully ready
countless times in communities around the globe, generation after for dining.”
generation. This essential power exists in every Jewish soul and is
one of the secrets of Jewish survival. The miraculous ingathering of In other words, it is not enough to teach people what to do without
the exiles and the rebuilding of the ancient homeland in Israel today explaining the deeper reasons and ideas contained in the Torah’s laws.
clearly bears witness to this truth. This may seem obvious and self evident, but unfortunately in the
last few generations the vast majority of Jews were taught in a way
Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh notes that the verse, “This month that barely explained what the Torah teaches let alone the Torah’s
will be for you the beginning of the months, it will be for you the reasons and deeper explanations. Rashi’s insight clearly provides
first of the months of the year” is the 1820th verse in the Torah. incentive and impetus for both teaching and immersing one’s self in
This number is the product of seventy multiplied by twenty-six. The revealing the Torah’s many layers of meaning, a goal which can be
Hebrew word for “secret” (sod) has the numeric value of seventy, accomplished by adopting the PaRDeS system of learning.
while God’s four-letter name equals twenty-six. These two words
appear together in the following verse: “The secret of God is for those When young people are taught in such a superficial manner,
who are in awe of Him” (Psalms 25:14). Thus, by consecrating the they usually conclude that the Torah has nothing to say to them
month of Nisan and intercalating the Jewish calendar, the Jewish as individuals and that the Torah has nothing to contribute to
people enter into the very “secret of God.” Further substantiating contemporary society. In a technological and communications
the mystery of this endeavor, God’s four-letter name appears exactly driven world how can Torah be seen as relevant when it is presented
1820 times in the five books of Moses! one-dimensionally, devoid of its deeper meanings and wisdom? How
can it speak to every sector of modern life when its surface wisdom is
The “secret of God” alluded to in this verse relates to how we barely scratched?
connect our experience of time to its Divine source. Every day in
the Morning Prayer Service, we state the following: “He renews in

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