Parshat Mishpatim – Parshat Sh’kalim – Shabbat Mevorchim
This coming Shabbat, the 27th of Sh’vat (February 14), we read from two Torahs. From the first, we read the Parshat haShavua, which is Mishpatim, and from the second, we read Parshat Sh’kalim. We also bentch Rosh Chodesh Adar, which will be next Tuesday and Wednesday.
Parshat Sh’kalim is read on the Shabbat of or right before Rosh Chodesh Adar (the second Adar, when there are two). It can fall on the 25th, 27th, or 29th of Sh’vat, or on those same dates in Adar Rishon, or on the first day of Adar or the first of Adar Sheini.
Maftir Sh’kalim in the second Torah is Sh’mot 30:11-16 – the first six p’sukim of Parshat Ki Tisa. It deals with the mitzvah to give a silver half-shekel to the Beit HaMikdash every year. The haftara for Sh’kalim is Melachim Bet 12:1-17. S’faradim begin with 11:17-20. (This is one of the rare times that S’faradim have a longer haftara than Ashkenazim.)
There are 14 different year-types in the Jewish Calendar. They differ from each other by the number of months (12 or 13), by the day of the week they begin on (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Shabbat), and whether Marcheshvan and Kislev have 29 and 30 days, respectively (k’seder – in “normal” order), or 29 days each (chaseir – deficient, i.e., one day short of “normal”), or 30 days each (shaleim – full, i.e., one day more than “normal”).
Seven year-types are Shana P’shuta – plain years of 12 months, with one Adar – and seven year-types are Shana M’uberet – “pregnant” years of 13 months, with two Adars.
This year, 5786, is a Shana P’shuta that began on a Tuesday, and Marcheshvan and Kislev had their “regular” number of days – 29 and 30, respectively. The year-type is coded Pei-Gimel-Kaf (for P’shuta, Tuesday, in order). This year-type occurs 6.25% of the time. The last time we had a Pei-Gimel-Kaf year was 5769 (17 years ago); the next scheduled one is 5813 (27 years from now).
Notice that I said “scheduled” rather than “will be.” With the restoration of Sanhedrin, iy”H, our calendar returns to G-d’s Plan A, which will include the testimony of witnesses to the sighting of the first visible lunar crescent, and the current calculations will not be used.
Mishpatim–Sh’kalim–M’vorchim occurs in five of the seven Shana P’shuta year-types, with a frequency of 55.53% – by far, the most common situation for Parshat Mishpatim and Parshat Sh’kalim.
In one other type of Shana P’shuta, we have Mishpatim–Sh’kalim–Rosh Chodesh (that is rare – occurring in only 4.33% of years).
And in another type of Shana P’shuta, we have Mishpatim–M’vorchim, with Sh’kalim on Shabbat Rosh Chodesh on Parshat T’ruma.
In one year-type of Shana M’uberet, Mishpatim is M’vorchim Chodesh Adar Rishon (31%), and in another, Mishpatim is on Rosh Chodesh Adar Rishon (5.8%).
Putting this all together, Mishpatim is on Shabbat M’vorchim 86.56% of all years. Mishpatim is read with Sh’kalim almost 60% of the time; sometimes Mishpatim is also Machar Chodesh (Shabbat Rosh Chodesh). Mishpatim is never just plain old Mishpatim. Sometimes one Torah, sometimes two, or even three, but always linked to something else.
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Why is there a Parshat Sh’kalim, the first of the four special parshiyot?
Basically, there are two reasons for it. The first Mishna in Masechet Sh’kalim states: “On the first of the month of Adar, a proclamation is made about the [giving of the] sh’kalim…” The silver half-shekels were collected around the country during the month of Adar, so that the Mikdash treasury would be ready for the fiscal year of communal offerings and activities by the first of Nissan. Our reading of Parshat Sh’kalim is a commemoration of the mitzvah of Machatzit HaShekel – and a hopeful prayer for its restoration with the building of the Beit HaMikdash, bimheira v’yameinu – Amein.
The other reason for Parshat Sh’kalim at the beginning of Adar – specifically, shortly before Purim – is that our mitzvah of Machatzit HaShekel is the antidote for – the vaccine against – Haman’s sh’kalim. Haman offered Achashveirosh 10,000 silver talents for permission to wipe out the Jewish population of the kingdom. It is as if our annual gift of sh’kalim to the Mikdash protects us from our enemies who would pay many sh’kalim to facilitate our destruction. There are even sources that say that a silver talent was the equivalent of 30 shekel, making 10,000 talents equal to 600,000 half-shekels, the iconic number of adult males of Bnei Yisrael at the Exodus.
We already looked at the stats from a Parshat Mishpatim perspective; now here they are from the Parshat Sh’kalim perspective:
Parshat Sh’kalim is partnered with Parshat Mishpatim 59.86% of the time. Its rarest partnership is with Parshat T’ruma (which is also Rosh Chodesh), occurring in only 3.31% of years (which happened last year, 5785). Sh’kalim is partnered with Vayakhel in 26.3% of years and with P’kudei 10.53% of the time.
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Here’s a question with which you can challenge your kids, grandkids, and/or your Shabbat guests: When is it possible that we read from three Torahs on Shabbat?
Answer: Parshat Sh’kalim that is on Rosh Chodesh; Parshat HaChodesh that is on Rosh Chodesh; Shabbat Chanuka that is on Rosh Chodesh; and the trickiest answer – on Shabbat Simchat Torah, which can happen only in Eretz Yisrael. If you pull “on Shabbat” from the question, then the answer for all of us would be Simchat Torah.
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Mishpatim is the 18th of the Torah’s 54 sedras, the sixth of 11 in Sh’mot. It is written on 185 lines in a Sefer Torah (ranking 31st, a bit below average).
But it has 33 parshiyot – six open and 27 closed, the third most in the Torah (Ki Teitzei and Pinchas have more) and the second most s’tumot in the Torah (only Ki Teitzei beats it).
Mishpatim has 118 p’sukim (the Torah’s average is 108); it ranks 22nd by this measure.
But look at this: Its 1,462 words rank it at 31st (seventh in Sh’mot), and its 5,313 letters rank it at 37th (eighth in Sh’mot). The noticeable drop in ranking from p’sukim to words and letters indicates short p’sukim; in fact, Mishpatim’s p’sukim are among the shortest in the Torah.
Mishpatim’s star status comes from the number of mitzvot in it: 53 – 23 positive and 30 prohibitions. Only three sedras have more mitzvot – Ki Teitzei (74), Emor (63), and R’ei (55).
K’doshim follows Mishpatim with 51 mitzvot. And let’s add Shoftim with 41, since the next in line is down at 28. Mishpatim has 8.65% of the Torah’s mitzvot (1.85% is average) and 48% of the mitzvot in Sefer Sh’mot. These top six mitzvah-sedras account for 337 of the 613 mitzvot – that’s 55% of the Torah’s mitzvot in only 7.5% of its sedras.
In addition to its large number of mitzvot, Mishpatim also contains the concluding part of the story of Matan Torah, the Revelation at Sinai.
Ask someone: In what sedra do we find Bnei Yisrael declaring to G-d “Naashe v’nishma,” we will do and we will hear (or understand)? Most people would probably say Yitro. The fact is, in Yitro we said “Naaseh,” we will do. In Mishpatim, that “Naaseh” is repeated, and then, the famous “Naaseh v’nishma.”
The commentaries debate exactly when the events recorded at the end of Parshat Mishpatim occurred. But let’s go with the common opinion that Matan Torah is described in both Yitro and at the end of Mishpatim. Why the split?
It seems to me that without the split, the answer to the question “What did we receive at Sinai?” would be the Aseret HaDibrot, the Ten Commandments. But the way the experience at Sinai is presented in the Torah, we see the bigger picture. The part of the story in Yitro focuses on the Big Ten. And it focuses on the day of Matan Torah. But that’s only the narrow view. The Revelation at Sinai began on the day of Matan Torah and continued for the 40 days and 40 nights that Moshe spent on Har Sinai being taught all of Torah and mitzvot by Hashem.
We might have been part of the whole picture had we not panicked and asked Moshe to tell us what G-d wants of us, rather than continuing to hear directly from Him. Thus, Sh’mot 24:12 – “And Hashem said to Moshe, ‘Come up to Me to the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets, the Law and the commandments, which I have written to instruct them.’”
It was not just the Aseret HaDibrot that were given at Sinai – it was the whole Torah, that which was to be written down and that which was to be transmitted orally. But sandwiching the 53 mitzvot of Parshat Mishpatim, which cover a wide range of mitzvah-topics, the Torah is telling us that Torah from Sinai is not just the lofty concepts of belief in G-d and the other mitzvot among the Aseret HaDibrot – it includes mundane matters of everyday Jewish life, dealings with each other in society… and much more.
Topics in Mishpatim include laws of servants – Jewish and non-Jewish, male and female; husband-wife issues; capital punishment; parent-child issues; fines; damages; theft; watchmen; justice; witchcraft; treatment of strangers; treatment of the poor; lending and borrowing; cursing; agricultural mitzvot; kashrut; kindness; Sh’mita; Shabbat; Yom Tov; Korban Pesach; Bikkurim; conquest of Eretz Yisrael. That’s a lot of topics!
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With all that said, let me conclude this week’s column with one of the mitzvot from Mishpatim. Sh’mot 23:12 includes the mitzvah of “on the seventh day you shall rest…” This is not referring to taking a nap on Shabbat afternoon (that we learn from the words of Yishayahu, that Shabbat is to be a day of oneg, enjoyment). The Torah’s command to rest on Shabbat means to abstain from forbidden melacha on Shabbat. Wait – didn’t we have the prohibition of melacha on Shabbat in Commandment #4 in last week’s sedra? Yes, we did. But this mitzvah is a separate positive command to not violate Shabbat.
Same thing? Actually, not. True, Shabbat has a lot of “Don’t do this” and “Don’t do that.” And that is the essence of the prohibition of “Lo taaseh chol melacha,” you shall perform no labor.
Prohibitions are generally motivated by yir’a – fear of Heaven, fear of punishment. But the other side of the mitzvah-coin adds a significant dimension – that of Ahavat HaShem, love of G-d, love of Torah, love of mitzvot. Ideally, I abstain from melacha on Shabbat not just because I’m afraid of sin and its punishment, but rather because I am motivated to do mitzvot – including abstaining from violating the Shabbat – because of my love of G-d, and of Torah and mitzvot. I want to do what Hashem wants me to do. This is more than just “Don’t – or else!”
Dayan Dr. I. Grunfeld in his book The Sabbath expresses the positive aspects of the abstention from melacha thusly: “We are stopped on this one day from exercising our characteristic human powers of producing and creating in the material world. By this very inactivity, we lay these powers in homage at the feet of G-d Who gave them.” This idea definitely puts a positive face on the prohibitions of Shabbat and abstention therefrom.
Another positive result of “resting from melacha on Shabbat” is avoiding taking our many G-d-given skills and abilities for granted. It is so easy and natural to look at cooking, for example, as just something that we can do. But think about it. If a snake decides to eat an egg, he slithers over to a bird’s nest, steals an egg, breaks it open, and sucks out its content. We, human beings, on the other hand, can soft-boil, poach, hard-boil, fry, or scramble the eggs we want to eat, or we can incorporate them into countless cooked and baked foods. Well, that’s natural, right? No, we can do all that because G-d gave us the intelligence and skills to do all of the above. We should never take these kinds of things for granted. And Shabbat’s positive command to abstain from melacha helps us accomplish that.
Shabbat Shalom.