Summary of the Parasha

“And these are the laws” (Mishpatim): right after Sinai, the Torah comes down into daily life. It begins with the Hebrew servant, who serves six years and goes free (if he wants to stay, his ear is pierced at the door), and the Hebrew maidservant. Then the capital crimes: murder and how it differs from accidental killing (with a place of refuge), striking or cursing one’s parents, kidnapping. Then injuries (“an eye for an eye”, which the Oral Torah explains as monetary compensation), the goring ox (tam or mu’ad), the open pit, theft (double payment, four or five times for a sheep or an ox), the thief caught breaking in at night, damage done by grazing animals or by fire, and the four kinds of guardians (unpaid, paid, borrower, renter). Then seduction of a young woman, sorcery, bestiality and sacrifices to idols.

The Torah insists: “You shall not oppress the stranger, for you were strangers in Egypt”, nor the widow, nor the orphan. Loans are made without interest; a garment taken as a pledge must be returned before sunset. Do not curse judges or the prince; give the first fruits; do not eat torn meat (treifah), “throw it to the dogs”. The laws of justice: do not spread false rumors, do not follow the majority to do evil, return your enemy’s stray ox and help your enemy unload his donkey, do not accept bribes. Then Shemitah, Shabbat, the three pilgrimage festivals, and “you shall not cook a kid in its mother’s milk”, the source of the prohibition of mixing meat and milk.

God promises an angel to guide Israel and announces the gradual conquest of the land. Finally, the sealing of the covenant: Moses writes and reads the book of the covenant, and the people answer “Na’aseh venishma”, “we will do and we will understand”. The elders see a vision of the divine throne, “like a sapphire brick”, and Moses goes up the mountain for forty days. The Zohar devotes to this parasha the famous “Saba deMishpatim”, which reads the laws of the servant as the secrets of souls and their reincarnations.

Summary of the Haftara

“HaDavar Asher Hayah El Yirmeyahu” (“The word that came to Jeremiah”)
Text in Jeremiah 34:8–22 and 33:25–26

Jerusalem is besieged by Babylon. King Zedekiah makes a covenant with the people: everyone frees their Hebrew servants, as the Torah requires. But as soon as the Babylonian army withdraws for a while, they take their servants back. Jeremiah announces: since you have not proclaimed liberty for your brothers, “I proclaim liberty for you… to the sword, to pestilence and to famine”. The haftara ends with comfort: as surely as God set the laws of day and night, He will not reject the descendants of Jacob and David.

Parasha-Haftara Connection

The first law of the parasha is the release of the Hebrew servant after six years; the haftara shows what happens when it is trampled. According to the prophet, this very law had been given at the Exodus: one who has been freed cannot enslave his brother. Often this Shabbat is also Shabbat Shekalim, with the haftara of King Jehoash repairing the Temple.