Parshat Mishpatim is beis din week. It is the parsha that provides the source for the prohibition against resolving disputes in secular courts. Given the halachic dimension of this obligation, it is far from surprising that beis din is typically viewed as a legal institution. That is, most people think of beis din as the place where legal rules are applied and legal disputes are resolved. This, of course, is true.
But viewing beis din as all about law misses the important role beis din plays with respect to education. Halacha, like other legal systems, provides us with rules and values around which we are meant to organize our lives. Our ability, however, to comply with halacha requires that we learn and teach its rules. After all, you can’t comply with the rules you don’t know.
Beis din works in the same way. A community that is determined to submit disputes to beis din is also a community that will be committed to learning and teaching the Jewish laws and values of business. In this way, beis din – taken seriously – not only provides us with a way to resolve our disputes, but it also sets our educational agenda.
