“These are the rules” [21:1]. King Solomon, of blessed memory, said: “These also are by the sages: it is not right to be partial in judgment” [Proverbs, 24:23]. That is to say, it is not good that one should flatter with judgment. Whoever gives proper judgments; he causes the throne in heaven to stand properly. However, when he, heaven forbid, does not judge properly, he causes the throne of the Holy One to be moved from his city. Justice causes peace and therefore, Yitro advised Moses that he should dispense justice. Concerning him it is written, “will go home in peace” [Exodus, 18:23]. Because there is peace, there is existence in the world. Therefore, justice was given to the scholars who make peace in the world. It is not right to bring judgments before the nations of the world, but before the sages of Israel. Therefore, it is written, “These are the rules that you shall set before them” [21:1].1Bahya, Exodus, Mishpatim Introduction.
The Talmud writes in [tractate] Gittin. “Before them,” that is to say, before Israel and not before gentiles. Furthermore, “before them,” before sages and not before ignoramuses.2B. Gittin, 88b. The verse should have said, that you will give to them, and instead it writes, “before them.” This teaches us that we should not take judgments before ignoramuses, and also not before gentiles, even if the gentiles rule the same way that Jews rule. It is a very great sin to have judgments with another Jew before gentiles. It is more severe than murder, and murder is severe because he destroys a person, and this is like he destroyed the whole world. One can understand that murder is very serious, and stealing and profaning the Name of God is much more severe than murder, since repentance helps with murder, but no repentance helps with stealing. Similarly, profaning the Name of God is not helped by repentance. The two sins of stealing and profaning the Name of God are on the person who has judgments before gentiles, because when he has judgments before gentiles, one makes their foreign gods important. There is stealing among the gentiles. They rule in favor of much stealing. Therefore, the person should be warned not to have judgments before the gentiles. “Set before,” teaches us that each judge must say what his ruling was before the litigants, and should give them in writing why he ruled in this way. The Torah portion of Mishpatim is written near the portion concerning the altar. This teaches us that one should place judges near the Temple. Rabbi Eliezer said: when there is proper judgment on the earth, there is no judgment on heaven. However, if there is no judgment on the earth, there is judgment in heaven. The sages said: Israel was only destroyed because they did not properly keep the Torah and judgment. “That you shall set [21:1].” When the judge gives proper judgment, the judgment is an elixir of life for him. If he gives an unjust judgment, then the judgment is a poison.3Bahya, Exodus, 21:1.
“When you acquire a Hebrew slave” [21:2]. The Torah begins the portion of Mishpatim, when someone buys a Hebrew slave. This is compared to the first Statement of the Ten Statements, “I am the Lord your God” [20:2]. I took you out from the house of Pharaoh to be My slave. How is it that you should sell yourself as a slave? Just as the Sabbath shows that we rest and that God had created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day. So too the slave should serve for six years and go free from their master in the seventh year, as a remembrance of the seventh day, that God had rested on the seventh day. “He shall serve six years” [21:2]. The verse means, when a slave was sold through the court because he had stolen and did not have the money to repay, so he must serve for six years. However, in any event his master should not make the slave do heavy labor or disgusting work, but he should only work during the day and not at night. “Without payment” [20:2]. When the slave becomes sick at his master’s, the master should not say: give me the money that you lost me during your illness and what you ate and what the physician cost. However, when he is sick for more than three years, then the slave must pay everything.4Bahya, Exodus, 21:2.
“If he came single” [20:3]. If the slave came alone without a wife, then his master should not give him a wife because he had served him. “If he had a wife” [20:3]. If the slave previously had a wife, an Israelite woman, then the wife should go free with him. Rashi asks a question. It is obvious that his wife goes free, since she had not served the master. The explanation is that when a Jew had bought an Israelite slave, the master had to feed the slave’s wife and child the whole time that the slave served the master. When the slave previously had a wife, the master may also give him a Canaanite female slave to have children with her, because the master may keep them as slaves.5Rashi, Exodus, 21:3–4.
“I love my master” [20:5]. When the slave says, I love my master and my wife and child. I do not want to go free from my master. The master should take the slave to the court before the judges and should have a hole bored in his ear with an awl, near the door. The slave should continue to serve the master until the Jubilee year, every fifty years when all are freed. Why does he bore the ear? The explanation is that the ears of the Israelites heard on Mount Sinai that Israel are the servants of the Holy One. They should not be slaves to any other one, because He took them out from being the slaves of Pharaoh. Therefore, because he wants to remain a slave and does not want to keep what he heard with his ear, that he should not be a slave, therefore a hole should be bored in his ear. Why do they bore his ear by the door? This is because the door was a witness in Egypt that I passed over the doors of Israel on the night that the firstborn were killed and the firstborn of Israel were allowed to live. I told Israel that they should be My slaves. Therefore, they now bore by the doorpost of the door.6Bahya, Exodus, 21:6.
“His master shall pierce” [21:6]. The master must bore it himself, not his son or his representative. Therefore, the master should shame him before the judges, to bore his ear, because he committed the sin that he heard on Mount Sinai that one should not be a slave to any person, but to God alone. Therefore, it is written, “a Hebrew slave” and it is not written, an Israelite slave. This is a good name that we were called children of Israel after the giving of the Torah. Before the giving of the Torah, we were called Hebrews in Egypt, as it is written, “the God of the Hebrews” [Exodus, 3:18]. Therefore, the slave who sold himself was also called a Hebrew slave. That is, it is not just to call him an Israelite slave. Therefore, they should cause blood to come out of his ear because he did not want to remember that the blood was splattered on the doors of Israel in Egypt. The Midrash writes. The Holy One said: I opened a door for him that he should go free after six years and he does not want to go. Therefore, they should bore his ear by the door.7Bahya, Exodus, 21:6.
“His daughter as a slave” [21:7]. The Torah gave permission that the father is allowed to sell his daughter to serve a Jew, when she is still a minor. If the master has knocked out a tooth or an eye, he should not be free of obligation. He should free her, as the custom is when he knocks out a tooth or an eye of a Canaanite slave. The master must free her, but a Jewish maidservant, when he knocks out a tooth or an eye, he must pay her for the tooth or eye, and must keep her until her time is concluded.8Rashi, Exodus, 21:7.
“If she proves to be displeasing to her master” [21:8]. The law is that when one purchases a Jewish maid, he may marry her. He does not need to betroth her with silver. The money that he gave to the father when he purchased her is instead of the betrothal. If she displeases him and he does not want to take her as a wife, he must let her go free and must leave some money. If he bought her for twenty-four gulden and she goes out free after six years, her service for one year is four gulden, and if she served two years, the master gives him sixteen gulden and deducts eight gulden.9Rashi, Exodus, 21:8.
“He shall not have the right to sell her to outsiders” [21:8]. He should not sell his daughter to a gentile, even though one may sell a Hebrew [male] slave to a gentile. However, an Israelite maid may not be sold to a gentile, since they will engage in illicit sexual relations with her.10Hizkuni, Exodus, 21:8.
Toldot Yizhak asks a question. Why did the Torah say that when the slave previously had a Jewish wife, the master is allowed to give him a Canaanite female slave to have children? When he does no have a wife, the master should not give him a wife? Furthermore, he asks, how appropriate is it that he should be given a gentile woman? He is still a Jew; should he marry a gentile? He asks further, how appropriate is it that he should sell his own child, his daughter, to serve. The explanation is that a Hebrew slave engaged in theft, and was sold by the court, in the expectation that he would redeem himself from the one he had stolen from. When that slave previously had a Jewish wife and children, who will buy him? He will have to feed the wife and children even if that wife will not work for that master. Thus nobody will want to buy that slave. He will not be able to redeem himself from his theft. Therefore, the Torah said that the master may give the slave a female Canaanite slave to have children and the children will belong to the master. Then, each master will gladly buy a Hebrew slave, even though he will have to feed the Jewish wife of the slave that he previously had, and she would not work for him. Furthermore, the master thinks to himself and he will have many children from this slave. It will not damage me. However, when the Hebrew slave does not have a Jewish wife, he would not have to feed his wife. Therefore, he does not need to give a Canaanite female slave to the slave, since many others will want to purchase him. However, the master should not give him a Jewish wife, since if he will take a Jewish wife then the children will not belong to the master. He will have a loss. He would have to feed them and they would not work for him. Another explanation. When the slave previously had a Jewish wife, then he may take a Canaanite female slave. He will not love her, since he already had a wife that he certainly loves. Each person has his love for his first wife. Similarly each woman has her love for her first husband. Therefore, the slave will also not love the Canaanite female slave; he can also sleep with her, because the master desires this. Afterwards, he will drive her away from himself. However, if he had no wife and the Canaanite female slave would be his first wife. Perhaps he will love her and will keep her permanently as a wife. She will convince him to do much evil. We asked how appropriate is it that the father should sell his daughter? The explanation is that he does not sell her, but he thinks that the master will take her as a wife or his son would take her as a wife. He does not need to give her silver for the betrothal. The son says to the maiden, be betrothed to me with the silver that my father gave for you when he bought you. The man had intended all this, that his daughter should have a husband through the sale. Toldot Yizhak asks another question. When they had to bore the slave’s ear because the Holy One said to Israel that they should be My slaves and not slaves to a person. Thus it would have been just that each slave’s ear should be bored as soon as he sells himself and wants to serve longer than the six years. The explanation is another reason why the slave’s ear is bored at the door, and why does one bore it after six years. The reason is that the slave was a thief. That is why he was sold for six years by the judges. If he was a thief, how appropriate is it that the master will want to love him and desire to keep him in service after the six years, It can only be that he became pious. During the six years he did not touch anything or steal anything from his master. Therefore, he considers him trustworthy and desires to keep him and have him serve longer. Therefore, he takes him to the door. He wants to show that he is not a thief. Just like when the door is open, the thief comes in and steals from the house. However, when the door is locked, no thief comes in. So too is the slave. He has changed and is no longer a thief. So too, the ear of the person is like the door. Sometimes it should be open to hear good words and sometimes it should be closed, not to hear evil words, as our sages said. Why is the ear hard as a bone and the lobe is soft, expecting that when the person hears something evil, he should close his ear with the lobe, which is soft, expecting that he should not hear evil words. Just like the door is sometimes open and sometimes closed.11Toldot Yizhak, Exodus, 21:2–9.
“He shall deal with her as is the practice with free maidens” [21:9]. When the son takes the maiden as a wife, he should behave with her as if he had taken the daughter of another householder. The master is obligated to give her a dowry, just like to his daughter, and also when he takes her as a wife. He can also take another wife, but he should not decrease sleeping with her and also not decrease her food and clothing. If he wanted to hold the other wife to be more important and to keep her lower because she was a maid sold to his father and does not want to sleep with her, he is not allowed to do this. “Her food” [21:10]. Bahya writes that the custom in the Persian lands is that the man has sexual relations with his wife, with his clothes on. Therefore the verse writes that he should sleep with her properly, without clothes.12Bahya, Exodus, 21:9.
When one has not done all three things for the maiden, that he did not take her as a wife. Or, if his son did not take her as a wife, or if the father did not redeem her, then the maiden shall go free from her master. [Exodus, 21:11]
If a person kills someone accidentally, but the Holy One wanted it this way that the person should be killed, the person runs to the cities of refuge. One cannot harm him. One asks a question. What sin did a person do that he killed the person, even if the Holy One had wanted this to happen, and why should he run to the cities of refuge? The explanation is that when a person had killed his friend willingly and there are no witnesses present, then he is not killed. Later, a person killed his friend accidentally and he did not run to the cities of refuge. The Holy One causes the two murderers to come to an inn. The one who accidentally killed his friend goes up on a ladder and falls down on the person who killed willfully and kills the murderer. The people saw that the Holy One paid each one his reward. The one who was guilty was killed and the other one who was obligated to run to the cities of refuge, he now has to run to the cities of refuge. There were not yet cities of refuge in the wilderness. When a person killed someone, he ran to the gate of the Levites and nobody was supposed to harm him.13Rashi, Exodus, 21:13.
“When a man schemes” [21:14]. When a person deliberately kills his friend, with the exception of a physician who treats a person and kills him, or a communal official who gives a person thirty-nine lashes and he dies, or when a father hits his son, or a teacher who hits a student and they die, heaven forbid. They should be absolved of the death penalty. This is like a master who hits a slave and he dies. The master is absolved of the death penalty.14Rashi, Exodus, 21:14.
“You shall take him from My very altar” [21:14]. You shall take the murderer from the altar, even if he is a priest and wants to bring sacrifices on the altar.15Rashi, Exodus, 21:14. Similarly, take the murderer from the altar and put him to death. Also similarly, when he is not a priest and runs to the altar, as we find concerning Joab. He ran to the Tabernacle and thought that because the king was having him put to death, he would be absolved if he would hold on to the altar. However, the truth is that it does not help and he must be put to death, even when taken away from the altar.16Bahya, Exodus, 21:14.
“Strikes his father or his mother” [21:15]. He who strikes his father or mother and wounds them should be put to death.17Rashi, Exodus, 21:15.
“He who kidnaps and sells him” [21:16]. If someone kidnaps a person and sells them, he should be put to death. Bahya asks a question here. Why did the verse write, when someone sells a person, between the sections, when someone strikes his father or mother, and writes immediately afterwards, when someone sells a person? Then it writes again that when someone curses father or mother. He should have written the laws of father and mother together. The explanation is given by Rabbenu Saadia. It is because they used to kidnap small children, since one cannot easily kidnap an adult. Therefore, they kidnaped children. It sometimes happens that the same child comes again into the city where his father and mother were. He hits and curses his father and mother sometimes, when they come to battle. He does not know his father and mother. Therefore, the Torah wrote, when somebody sells a person close to the one who curses his father or mother. Ramban writes. The Torah wrote about kidnaping a person near the beating of one’s father because the death penalties are also similar. Just as one who beats his father or his mother is strangled, so too the one who kidnaps a person. However, when one curses his father or his mother, he is stoned with stones, a very severe death. With the cursing, the person has quickly transgressed. It happens immediately with his mouth. Therefore, the Torah imposed a severe death for cursing his father or mother, in the expectation that he would be fearful. Another explanation is that the sin of cursing is a severe death because the name of God is mentioned by the one who curses.18Bahya, Exodus, 21:16.
“Has to take to bed” [21:19]. When a person beats his friend with his fists or with a stone and he takes to bed, and as a result cannot do his work. The aggressor is put in prison until he is healed. However, in any event he has to pay what he would have earned during the illness. If he chopped off a hand or a foot, then they value what the hand or foot is worth to a person and he should pay for the hand or the foot. They value the work that he could have done during the illness, when he is without hand or foot. That is, he can at least guard a garden, then he must pay him what someone who guards a garden is paid.19Ramban, Exodus, 21:24.
“His idleness and his cure” [21:19]. He should hire a physician to help him to heal. However, when he is used to have much money and does not allow himself to be healed, the assailant is not obligated to give it to him. So writes Ramban.20Ramban, Exodus, 21:19.
Bahya writes. In the whole Torah we find that the word heal always has a dot [dagesh] in the letter peh. Here, when healing is mentioned in connection with the Holy One, it is without a dot in the word healer. The explanation is because healing by a person is very difficult and painful, before a physician heals him. Therefore, there is a dot [dagesh], which means difficult and painful. However, the healing from the Holy One is easy and immediate, without pain. That is why there is no dot in the peh concerning the healing from the Holy One.21Bahya, Exodus, 21:19.
Rashi writes. He should pay the physician’s fee.22Rashi, Exodus, 21:19. He should pay money and hire a physician. However, when he will bring a physician to heal for free, without paying him, he should not do this. He could say, he who heals without money does not take proper care. Also, if the one who hit him was a physician, he should not heal him. He could say: you are my enemy. I cannot stand the sight of you.
“When a man strikes his slave” [21:20]. When a master strikes his male or female slave with a stick and the male or female slave dies as a result of this beating, the master should be put to death with a sword, even if the male or female slave were Canaanite. However, if the male or female slave lives for a day or two and then dies, then he is not guilty.23Bahya, Exodus, 21:20.
“A miscarriage results” [21:22]. When two people are fighting and one of them pushes an uninvolved woman so that she miscarries, then they should value the child as the husband desires, but in any event they should go to the judges. Why is it not written, as the woman desires? The explanation is that the woman is not related to the child. It is the husband’s child, since the woman has the child within her, just like a pledge within her. It was given from her husband until its term is finished. If the husband wants a lot of money, then the judges should recognize it. If the woman would die from the blows, some sages say that the person should be put to death, and some sages say that because he did not have the intention to hurt the woman, they should take money from him as would be determined by the judges.24Bahya, Exodus, 21:22–23.
“Eye for eye” [21:24]. When someone knocks out the eye of his friend, then his eye should be knocked out.
“When a man strikes the eye of his slave” [21:26]. If a master knocks out the eye of his slave, or his female Canaanite slave, the master should let them go free. Bahya writes here that this is because Canaanites must serve because they committed a sin with their eye or tooth. Because Ham saw his father lying uncovered, he committed a sin with his eye, and did not cover his shame. Afterwards, he went and said with his mouth to his brothers how their father was uncovered. Thus, he committed a sin with his teeth. He uncovered his teeth with his talking. Therefore, when he knocks out a Canaanite’s eye or tooth, he must let the slave go free, because the slave has suffered travails in his eye or tooth. Thus, the sin that he had committed with his eye or tooth has been forgiven.25Bahya, Exodus, 21:26.
“When an ox gores a man” [21:28]. When an ox gores a person and he dies, they should stone the ox and no benefit should be derived from that ox. However, if the ox used to gore and he was warned three times and the ox killed a person, then they will put that person to death because he had not locked up the ox. Bahya asks a question. Why is it written, “if it will gore,” when it gores a person, and when an ox gores another ox it is written, “if it bumps” [21:35]? The explanation is that the person has a constellation in heaven, so that the ox cannot immediately gore him and kill him. Therefore, it is written, if he gores. That is to say, he must come with great power to gore the person, but the animal has no constellation in heaven. Therefore, the ox can kill another animal immediately. Therefore, it is written, if he will bump. That is, he kills him as soon as he encounters him. The Talmud in [tractate] Ta’anit, chapter one, said. When three people die in one day, it is not called an ether. However, when three people die in three days, one after another, this is called an ether. Also, when the ox gores three times, one after another, the ox is not yet declared dangerous, that he should be called a goring ox and the owner should be responsible for him. However, when the ox gores three days in a row, once every day, then he is called a dangerous ox, and he is responsible if her does not lock him up.26Bahya, Exodus, 21:28.
Even though we do not pass judgment now when an ox gores a person, yet we excommunicate the person who keeps an animal or vicious dog in his house who does damage to people. Each person should be warned not to throw things in the street where people go, so that they should not stumble over it or become besmeared with it. The pietists used to pick up broken glass, not to throw it in the street, and they buried this broken glass deep in the earth so that no person should stab himself with it. A story occurred to a person who was throwing stones from his field into the street where many people used to go. A pietist came and said to him: why are you throwing things from a field that is not yours? That person mocked him. Not long afterwards, that same person had to sell his field and fell over the same stones that he had thrown into the street. The person said: the pietist spoke very truthfully that I should not throw things out from a stranger’s field that is not mine into the street which I have a share in it. The street is free to the whole world; the whole world walks on it.27Bahya, Exodus, 21:29. From here we should learn to be warned not to pour or throw things into the street where many people go. There are many kinds of unclean water that harm the person who steps in it. The Holy One will punish him with great suffering, just like the person was punished and had to sell his field.
“When a person opens a pit” [21:33]. When a person opens a pit or digs a pit and does not cover it and an ox falls into it, he must pay the whole damage.
“When a man steals an ox” [21:37]. When a person steals an ox, he must repay five oxen for the one he had stolen. If he steals a sheep, he must repay four sheep. Rashi writes. Rabbi Yohanan said: an ox follows the thief when he leads it. It is an easy thing to do. Therefore, he must repay five oxen instead of one ox. However, a small animal that he steals, he must carry on his shoulders. He becomes embarrassed. He becomes ashamed that he must carry it. Therefore, he should instead repay four times for the sheep, since the Holy One always said that the person should retain his dignity and should not be shamed. Another explanation is that the ox plowed and did other work for its original owner. Now, the thief has inconvenienced the original owner’s work. Therefore, he must pay five oxen for one ox.28Rashi, Exodus, 21:37.
Bahya writes. When someone steals something out of the house, clothes or silver and gold, then he must repay double. However, animals go about freely in the field without a guard. Therefore, the Torah made the penalty two times double for one who steals an animal because the Torah punishes him for a transgression that can be done quickly. That is to say, an animal is easy to steal; it goes about in the field. Therefore, everyone will steal them. That is why he must repay two times double. This is for sheep, for one sheep that he steals. However, larger animals go even further afield, and the herder cannot keep them together. Therefore, the Torah ordered that five oxen should be repaid for one ox, because they are quickly stolen. So writes Ramban. Why does a thief repay double and a robber does not repay double? This is because the thief considers people to be more important than the Holy One. He makes sure that the person should not see that he is stealing in the dark, but he is not afraid of the Holy One who forbade him to steal. Therefore, because he shames the Holy One, he must repay double for the theft. However, the one who openly steals considers the Holy One and the people equal. He does not shame the Holy One any more than the people. That is why the robber does not pay double. The Midrash writes. Israel stole an ox. That is to say, they made the Golden Calf, which is called an ox. Therefore, they had to pay five times as much. That is to say, many Israelites died and that is why there were five kinds of death and punishments at the Golden Calf [incident]. The first was that they were killed with the sword through the hand of the children of Levi. The second was a plague through the Holy One. Many Israelites died at the Golden Calf [incident]. The third was that the faces of many turned green and yellow because of the Calf, when Moses gave them the water that is given to the suspected wife. The fourth was that the Temple was destroyed. The fifth was that the Holy One remembered the sin to repay for it in all generations.29Bahya, Exodus, 21:37.
“Four sheep for the sheep” [21:37]. Four sheep for the lamb that they stole. Joseph is called a sheep. Therefore, we, Israel, were in exile for four hundred years in exile in Egypt.
“You shall not tolerate a sorceress” [22:17]. Bahya writes. The Torah forbade the practice of magic because the Israelites were in Egypt and learned magic. Therefore, the Holy One forbade the practice of magic in Israel and that is why the Torah wrote, do not let live. You should not let them live. That is to say, whichever form of death you can inflict on them, you should do it to them. Therefore it says, sorceress. This means a woman. That is to say, a woman who practices magic. The magic of a necromancer, to bring up the dead person, can only be done when a woman is present at it. The magic is as follows. A woman stands over the grave of a dead person, at the head, and a man stands at the feet. A youth stands in the middle of the grave. The youth has a bell in his hand and rings it. Sometimes the dead person comes to life and tells what will happen. The custom has remained with Edom that they ring bells in their impure places, where the dead are buried.30Bahya, Exodus, 22:17. The term Edom is a common term for Christianity, and impure places, a term for a church.
Imre Noam writes. It is not mentioned which form of death should be done to the magician, expecting that they will not count on it. The magician would have magic for that form of death and it would not be possible to kill them. Therefore, it is written, “You shall not tolerate a sorceress” [22:17]. That is to say, you should kill them with whichever form of death you can use to kill them.31Imre Noam, Exodus, 22:17.
“You shall not ill-treat any widow or orphan” [22:21]. You should not persecute a widow and an orphan. The Torah forbids us strongly that we should not persecute a stranger, a widow or an orphan, since they do not have anyone to speak for them. Therefore, everyone should be warned not to persecute them or cause them anguish. They cry out to Me, and I will hear their outcry, and will kill that person with the sword. Your wives will be widows and your children will be orphans.
Rashi asks a question. It is obvious that his wife will be a widow and his children orphans. The explanation is that her husband will disappear and she will not know if he is alive or dead. The wives will be living widows. There will be no witnesses about what happened to her husband. Therefore, she will not be able to remarry, and the children will remain orphans forever. They will not be allowed to inherit their father’s goods or money, because they do not know if their father is alive or dead.32Rashi, Exodus, 22:22.
“Any widow” [22:22]. This teaches us that even a widow, who is very rich, should also not be tormented, just like a poor widow, since widows cry easily and their tears are not shed in vain. Therefore, one should be warned not persecute them with communal taxes, even if they are rich. Even if they have much money, if she does not have a husband, the money is insignificant, and she cries all the time. Concerning this, Jeremiah compared Jerusalem to a widow, as the verse says, “is become like a widow” [Lamentations, 1:1], and shortly afterwards is written, “bitterly she weeps in the night” [Lamentations, 1:2]. Therefore, he said, she weeps at night, since there are many rich widows who can have everything they desire with their money and can forget their husband. However, she weeps at night when she wants to lie down. That is why he says, “bitterly she weeps in the night” [Lamentations, 1:2]. So writes Baal ha-Turim.33Baal ha-Turim, Exodus, 22:21.
“If you lend money to My people” [22:24]. Bahya writes. King Solomon said. “A gift in secret subdues anger, a person in private, fierce rage” [Proverbs, 21:14]. The one who gives charity secretly, he removes the anger of the Holy One from himself. However, the one who takes bribes, thinking that he will make much money, the Holy One will become upset. He will repay him his reward in time. However, the one who goes bankrupt and loses his money, but gave charity, he has a good profit from it. God repays him many times over. Therefore, we were commanded in the Torah that we should lend to the poor. This is the meaning of the verse, “If you lend money to My people” [22:24]. You are obligated to lend to a Jew. If a gentile comes to borrow from you and a Jew also comes to borrow from you, you are obligated to lend to the Jew. If the gentile wants to give you interest and the poor Jew wants it without interest, then you are obligated to lend to the Jew without interest. When a rich person and a poor person come to borrow from you, it is just to give the poor person priority. If a poor person comes from your city, and another poor person from another city, the priority is to the poor person from your city. If a poor person from your city and one from your family, also from your city, the poor person from your family has priority. “The poor among you” [22:24]. If you will not lend to the poor person, you will also become a pauper. When you lend to the poor person, you should relate to him as if he does not owe you anything. You should not take any interest from him, since the sin of interest is very severe. We find concerning Obadiah who was very rich and was the superintendent of the household of Ahab, king of Israel. He took all of his money and gave it to feed the prophets that he had hidden a cave, since Ahab had wanted to kill all the prophets. There were one hundred prophets. A great famine came upon the land of Israel and Obadiah spent all of his money. Obadiah came to Jehoram, the son of Ahab, and borrowed money from him and promised to give him interest. However, his heart was not in it that he should give interest, since it was a very great sin for the one who pays interest and for the one who takes interest. Jehoram had intended to take interest from him. The Holy One sent Jehu who shot Jehoram and the arrow went through his heart. This was because he had intended to take interest. “My people” [22:24]. The poor are called the people of the Holy One, as the verse says: “for the Lord has comforted His people, and has taken back His afflicted ones” [Isaiah, 49:13]. It is customary that when a person is rich and has poor relatives, he denies that he has them. However, if he has rich relatives, he keeps good relations with them and honors them greatly. However, the Holy One is the opposite. He hates the rich and loves the poor.34Bahya, Exodus, 22:24.
“If you take a pledge” [22:25]. If you will take a pledge from your friend, and that pledge is a garment that one has to have during the day, you have to leave it all day with the person from whom you took the pledge, but at night you are allowed to take it back.
“I will pay heed, for I am compassionate” [22:26]. The person should not think, the pauper from whom I have taken a pledge is an evil person, and I will not return the pledge. Thus, I will not commit a sin. Therefore, it is written, “for I am compassionate.” That is to say, I act with kindness for nothing, even if the person has no merits and I am compassionate toward him when he is poor.35Ramban, Exodus, 22:26.
“You shall not revile God” [22:27]. You should not curse any judge when he judges you guilty in a judgment. You should also not curse any king because of a judgment.36Ramban, Exodus, 22:27.
“You shall be holy people to Me” [22:30]. You are holy to me. Therefore, you should not eat animals torn by beasts. You should give it to the dog to eat, since in Egypt when I killed the Egyptian firstborn at night, the dogs barked at the Egyptians when they buried their firstborn. No dog barked at the Israelites when they left at night from Egypt with their staffs in their hands. The custom is that when a person has a staff in his hand, the dogs bark at him. However, in Egypt, the dogs did not bark at the Israelites. Therefore, one should give them meat torn by beasts.37Rashi, Exodus, 22:30.
“You must not carry false rumors” [23:1]. You shall not cause a person to swear when you can understand that he might swear falsely. You should also not listen when someone comes before you and complains about his friend with whom he is having a lawsuit. It can happen that the friend is also there. Perhaps he might tell you a lie beforehand, but when his friend is there, he will deny it. The verse teaches us that one should not listen to gossip and slander.38Rashi, Exodus, 23:1.
“You shall neither side with the mighty to do wrong” [23:2]. When you see many people doing evil, you should turn aside and do not do what they do. Our sages learn from here that when an Israelite is judged guilty of the death penalty, each member of the Sanhedrin gave his opinion. If there was one judge more who said he was guilty, then they do not follow the one. That is to say, there are seventy-one in the Sanhedrin. Thirty-five said that he is not guilty and thirty-six that he is guilty, they do not follow the thirty-six. However, when a majority of thirty-six was in favor of the person in the judgment, then they do follow it, even if there is only one more who voted in his favor.39Rashi, Exodus, 23:2.
“You shall not give perverse testimony” [23:2]. The judge who will sit in judgment should not teach him arguments, how he should speak in court, to one who is a litigant. Also, when the judges are sitting in judgment, a judge should not argue on behalf of a litigant, but the litigant should argue on his own behalf, and the litigant should also answer on his own behalf.40Bahya, Exodus, 23:2.
“You must nevertheless raise it with him” [23:5]. When you see your fellow with his heavily loaded donkey, which is on the verge of falling, you should immediately help him unload, even if this fellow is your enemy. When you see a donkey or ox belonging to your fellow, who is your enemy, is wandering in the field and will become lost, you are obligated to bring the ox or the donkey back home.
“Nor shall you show deference to a poor man in his dispute” [23:3]. When a poor person comes before you in a court, you should not help the poor person. You will think that he is a poor person. I will help him expecting that he will have to eat with dignity. Do not do differently to the poor one in the judgment against the rich one.41Rashi, Exodus, 23:3.
“Do not bring death on those who are innocent and in the right” [23:7]. When a person goes out from the court, guilty of death, and a person comes and says: I will show that this person is not guilty. They take him back into the court, because he might be found not guilty. However, when a person leaves the court innocent, and a person comes and says: I will show that he is guilty, then he is not taken back to the court. He remains innocent, as the verse says, “Do not bring death on those who are innocent” [23:7]. That is to say, because he could be innocent, and the Holy One said: “for I will not acquit the wrongdoer” [23:7]. I do not make any evildoer innocent in the court. That is to say, the court should not be afraid that he would not be brought back to the court, since the Holy One will find the evildoer and pay him his reward with the death of which he is guilty.42Rashi, Exodus, 23:7.
“You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk” [23:19]. This verse is written three times in the Torah. This teaches us that one should not eat meat with milk and one should not derive enjoyment from it and we should not even cook it. Therefore, the Torah wrote that you should not boil milk with meat and does not write that you should not eat meat with milk, because we show that the eating of meat with milk is not similar to the other prohibitions of eating. Specifically, when you have enjoyment from the eating, but when you derive no enjoyment from it, then the person is not guilty. However, concerning eating meat and milk together, he is guilty even if he derives no enjoyment from the eating. It might happen that a person might swallow milk, hot from the fire, along with meat and he might burn his esophagus. He certainly has no enjoyment from this eating, yet he is still guilty of thirty-nine lashes.43Bahya, Exodus, 23:19.
Toldot Yizhak also writes thusly. It was the custom of gentiles to boil meat with milk and pour it on the roots of a tree, expecting that the tree would grow quickly. Therefore, the verse says that you should not boil meat with milk. The Holy One will give, in any event, that your grain should grow quickly. Therefore the Torah wrote, “the choice first fruits of your soil” [23:19], the first grain.44Toldot Yizhak, Exodus, 23:19.
“I am sending an angel before you” [23:20]. The Holy One said to Moses that Israel would commit sins with the Golden Calf. Therefore, an angel will go with you in the wilderness and it is not right for the Shekhinah to go among you. However, Moses prayed that no angel should go with Israel in his days, while Moses was still alive, but the Holy One Himself should be among them. Here, the Holy One did the will of Moses. However, in the days of Joshua, after Moses died, an angel went before Israel. Rabbenu Hananel writes that the name of the angel who went with Joshua was called Michael. “He will not pardon your offenses” [23:21]. You should be careful not to commit sins, since the angel does not have the power to forgive sins, since nobody else can forgive sins, only the Holy One Himself. Be warned, keep his words; all the things that the angel will say. If you will do what the angel will tell you to do, your enemies will fall before you and the angel will bring you to the land of Israel.45Bahya, Exodus, 23:20.
“I will remove sickness from your midst” [23:25]. Bahya writes. There are some diseases in the body that come from too much eating or drinking. There are also other diseases that come from the ether. Therefore, the Holy One said: whoever will study and keep the Torah for the sake of heaven, he does not need to fear the disease. The Torah is a remedy for all diseases.46Bahya, Exodus, 23:25.
“A plague” [23:28]. The Holy One sent a wasp, that is, an evil bee that would blind the eyes of the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites, three nations that have the land of Israel. Rashi writes. The wasp did not cross the Jordan, only the nations that lived in the land, Sihon and Og, which was this side of the Jordan. One was called Hittite and the other was called Canaanite. They lived this side of the Jordan and the wasp blinded them and they all died. Even though the Hivites lived on the other side of the Jordan, how could the wasp blind them when the wasp could not cross the Jordan? The explanation is that the wasp stood at the edge of the Jordan and threw its poison over the Jordan, and blinded they eyes of the nation called the Hivites and they all died.47Rashi, Exodus, 23:28.
The Holy One said: I will not expel the nations from the land of Israel quickly or chase them out at one time, so that the land should not become desolate, without people, since you Israel are not numerous and you could not fill the land with people. I will wait until you will increase and then I will expel them, since when people do not in habit the land, many wild animals are found in the land.48Exodus, 23:29–30.
“Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron” [24:1]. In this Torah portion it is said that the Torah was given on Mount Sinai on the fourth of Sivan. Moses went alone into the fog on Mount Sinai and told Israel everything that he heard from the Holy One. Israel responded: we will receive everything and obey it. Moses wrote the Torah from “in the beginning” until here, the giving of the Torah. Moses went early on the morning of the fifth of Sivan and made an altar at the foot of the mountain, and the first-born sons brought sacrifices.49Rashi, Exodus, 24:1–5.
Bahya writes. The first-born were all the youths who did not yet have wives. Therefore, they were very pure. With the offering of the sacrifices, Israel made a covenant with the Holy One that they would keep the Torah. With three things the Israelites entered into the covenant of the Torah with the Holy One. The first, with circumcision; the second was immersion. They all immersed themselves before receiving the Torah. The third was that they brought a sacrifice, as is appropriate for every convert who converts must have these three things. He must circumcise himself, must immerse and he will bring a sacrifice when the Messiah comes. Each convert must also be told about some commandments, expecting that he will not convert since converts cause Israel to commit sins. They are not serious, they are lightheaded and they are not punctilious about the commandments. The Israelites learned from them in the wilderness. The mixed multitude made the Golden Calf, through which many Israelites were killed, because of them. They converted when they ran after the Israelites when they left Egypt into the wilderness and did much evil. Some sages say that therefore the converts are told some commandments, expecting that they should not be able to say: I did not know that there are so many commandments, I would not have converted. As the Talmud said: converts are bad for Israel. This was not said because the converts are evil, but the explanation is that it is because the Holy One sees their deeds, that they have converted and left their family, father and mother, and attached themselves to the Holy One. The Holy One says: you Israel do not want to be pious and converts attach themselves to Me. Therefore the Holy One punishes Israel, heaven forbid, because of the converts.50Bahya, Exodus, 24:5.
“Moses took one half of the blood” [24:6]. An angel came and divided the blood of the sacrifices so that it was equally divided. Moses took half of the blood and put it in a basin to sprinkle it over the Israelites and the other half he poured on the altar.51Rashi, Exodus, 24:6.
“The likeness of a pavement of sapphire” [24:10]. Moses, Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, and seventy elders went up Mount Sinai and saw the Throne of Glory of the Holy One and they also saw a brick pavement that the Holy One paved to remember the troubles of Israel, that they had to work hard to make many bricks in Egypt. The Holy One said: I will redeem them from their heavy work.52Rashi, Exodus, 24:10.
Hizkuni writes. There was a woman whose name was Rachel and was helping to knead clay with her husband. A child came out of her body and fell into the clay. She could not find it and screamed to God. The angel Michael came and made a brick from the clay that had the child in it, and placed this brick under the Throne of Glory. It was called “pavement of sapphire.” This means, a brick of the membrane in which the child lay. These elders were guards. That is to say, guardians over Israel at the work of making bricks in Egypt. The guards made the work of making bricks easier, so that Pharaoh did not know about it. That is why the elders were now also worthy to see the bricks before the Holy One and were worthy that the Holy One made the elders important over Israel.53Hizkuni, Exodus, 24:10.
“They beheld God” [24:11]. The elders, Nadav, and Avihu ate and drank and they gazed at the Holy One. Because of this, they were guilty of the death penalty, but the Holy One did not want to mar His joy at the giving of the Torah that was happening at that time. He waited with Nadav and Avihu until the eighth of Nisan when he killed them for their sin. He killed the elders in the wilderness, because all of Israel spoke ill of the Holy One with the eating of meat. The Holy One killed the elders because of their sin.
“Come up to me on the mountain” [24:12]. It was after the giving of the Torah and Moses went up again on Mount Sinai and learned the whole Torah, with six hundred and thirteen commandments. Joshua accompanied his teacher, Moses, to the foot of the mountain, since he did not have permission to go up the mountain. Joshua pitched his tent at the foot of the mountain the whole forty days while Moses was on Mount Sinai. Moses had commanded the elders that they should remain with the Israelites and should judge them. Hur, the son of Miriam, should also sit in judgment. When Moses went up on Mount Sinai, a cloud came and covered the whole Mount Sinai. This lasted for six days, until the Torah was given on the sixth day. On the seventh day after the giving of the Torah, he tarried for forty days and forty nights. The verse teaches us the greatness of Moses, to compare him to an angel who did not eat or drink. Because Moses was on Mount Sinai and studied Torah for forty days, he merited having a light in his face for forty years, so that no person could look at Moses. He had to cover the light with a cloth, despite the fact that it was a great honor for him. The light lasted until Moses died. Moses lived as long as he was on Mount Sinai. We find that he was on Mount Sinai for three times forty days. This is one hundred and twenty days all together. He lived for one hundred and twenty years. Moses was covered in a cloud all the six days of the giving of the Torah. However, he was not seen in the cloud, but on the seventh day the Holy One made a pathway that Moses used to ascend into the cloud and spoke with the Holy One in the cloud.