Relationships: With Fellow-man and With God

The following Dvar Torah is taken from my father’s writings.

          Parashat Mishpatim is closely related to Parashat Yitro. Rashi comments that the conjunctive vav (“and”) teaches continuity, that just as the Commandments given at Sinai, so too were the laws presented in our Parasha.

            Although the mishpatim (“ordinances”) are essentially economic and social laws, which every society establishes to govern itself, the Torah emphasizes that these laws, too, are God-given. That Torah regulates every aspect of our lives, is evident from the fact that the first half of the Ten Commandments deal with our relationship to God, but the next five commandments pertain to relationships with our fellow man. Thus, all the rules which govern justice, economic and interpersonal relations within Jewish society come from Sinai, as did the Ten Commandments.

          Our obligations to our fellow man are ordained by the Almighty. All men are part of God’s creation, and we therefore must act properly towards our fellow man.

          If we divorce God from our relationship with our fellow man, and base it solely upon liberal humanitarian considerations, we court disaster because it can easily be perverted, and human ideals can evaporate quickly. Thus, the Torah teaches that our relationship with fellow men must be based upon our relationship with He who created us all, because His ideals are immutable and cannot be corrupted.