Parshat Mishpatim deals with many things, one of which is Nezikim, damages. The pasuk describes what happens if someone causes another physical harm – “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot”(Shemot 21:24). The literal meaning of the pasuk is that if someone puts out another’s eye, they are punished by having their own eye put out. However, Chazal in the Gemara (Bava Kama 84a) teach us that the pasuk is not to be taken literally and the halacha is that if someone puts out another’s eye, they have to pay the monetary equivalent of the eye in damages. We learn this from a hint in the pasuk. The Hebrew word for eye, ayin, is made up of three letters – ayin, yud, nun. If you take the next letter in the alphabet following the aforementioned letters (peh, caf, samech), you get the word kesef (money).
In this shiur I would like to describe a related concept based on this pasuk, from sefer Meir Panim (chap. 14, pg. 159).
The Torah teaches us that we need to carefully guard our health (Devarim 4:15). Our physical body is a vessel for our neshama. If our physical health is not maintained, we cannot perform the mitzvot in the Torah with the required energy and diligence. If someone is lying ill in bed, they are not capable of running to perform mitzvot, as it says in Pirkei Avot (4:2) “Ben Azai says you should run to perform a ‘light’ mitzvah with the same energy as a ‘severe’ mitzvah.” That one should not try evaluate the importance of the mitzvot, but rather treat them all with equal respect. The word used is “run” to perform the mitzvah. A person can hardly run if their health does not permit.
Sefer Meir Panim is devoted to subject of the Lechem HaPanim from the Beit HaMikdash. The Malbim (Yechezkel 41:22) says that the purpose of the Lechem HaPanim on the Shulchan is to transmit the Heavenly abundance throughout the world – blessing, wealth and livelihood. Meir Panim (chap. 14) tries to define wealth. Who is a truly wealthy man, an ashir?
If you think that wealth is limited to your investment portfolio, you are very much mistaken (although money is one form of wealth). There are other forms of wealth, which many tend to regard as mundane, but which are often more valuable than all the money in the world.
One such form of wealth is children. A person who has children who follow in his footsteps, in the ways of the Torah, is truly wealthy. It is perhaps the only way we mortals can truly achieve immortality. If we truly understood how wealthy we are because of our children, we would invest more time in them than at work, making money.
Another form of wealth is – your wife. How many people struggle to find a wife, their bashert, who was intended for them from Heaven? How many wish they were not married to their wife? Matching the right husband with the right wife, is one of the things that G-d finds hardest to do. Chazal says that matchmaking is as hard for G-d as splitting the Red Sea. The wife is the source of blessing in the home, not the husband. The tent of Avraham and Sarah was blessed with three miracles. The Friday night candles remained lit from one Friday to the next. There was a blessing in the bread dough. The cloud of G-d’s presence rested on the tent. These miracles were all in the merit of Sarah, the wife – not Avraham. When Sarah died, these miracles ceased and only resumed when Yitzchak married Rivka and brought her to Sarah’s tent.
A much-overlooked form of wealth is health. Particularly when we are young, we tend to take health for granted. As we age, we begin to understand more and more how valuable our health really is, when things begin to malfunction. What value does money, children or a spouse have if you are not healthy to enjoy them? This is one of the most poignant pleas to G-d in the month of Elul and the High Holy Days – Al Tashlicheinu Le’eit Zikna, do not forsake us in our old age, or when we are disabled.
How many of us skip over or rush through the morning blessings, without even understanding what we are thanking G-d for?
Pokeiach Ivrim – thank you G-d for allowing my eyes to open this morning, thank you for allowing them to blink and continuously lubricate themselves.
Zokeif Kefufim – thank you G-d for allowing me to stand up straight without lower back pain and sciatica.
HaMeichin Mitzadei Gaver – thank you G-d for allowing me to walk, without crutches or knee braces.
The list goes on. If I were to ask you “Do you remember saying the bracha Matir Asurim this morning?” What is your reply? “Well, specifically saying that bracha, I don’t remember. But if I said all of them, I must have included that one as well!” Such little value we attach to our health. If you woke up and couldn’t move your neck, I can promise you, you would notice and place particular emphasis when you said Matir Asurim, begging G-d to allow you to be able to move your neck freely again.
Health is undoubtedly one of the most important forms of wealth. We learn it from the pasuk “An eye for an eye (ayin tachat ayin), a tooth for a tooth (shen tachat shen), a hand for a hand (yad tachat yad), a foot for a foot (regel tachat regel).” If you take the first letter of each body part – eye (ayin), tooth (shin), hand (yud), foot (reish), what does it spell? Ashir – a wealthy man. The pasuk is teaching us, if you do not value your health – that G-d gives you as a gift, He will start claiming it back from you “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot,” with pains and malfunctions that will make you realize how truly wealthy you are.
Parshat HaShavua Trivia Question: What kind of an ox is considered a Shor Muad, a habitual gorer?
Answer to Last Week’s Trivia Question: What was the clincher that caused Yitro to convert? The fact that each Egyptian was punished measure-for-measure in the Red Sea. Some were tossed about, some sank like lead etc., each according to their own sin. Yitro said “Of all the gods, only HKB”H can see into the heart and punish measure for measure”.
