Is every Jew supposed to be a lawyer?
Is every Jew supposed to be a lawyer?

Everyone knows that when Parshas Mishpatim comes along, right away people begin to tune out. It’s all laws! Laws and more laws and bylaws – with details! Some people might even think, “Bring back the stories! Yetzias Mitzrayim and Kriyas Yam Suf and Ma’amad Har Sinai and the Mann! Even the stories of the Am Yisroel complaining – it’s interesting at least. But laws?! After all, are we all going to be lawyers or dayanim?

I remember years ago I met a Jewish street cleaner. This was many years ago when there were city workers whose job it was to scrub the streets clean. He was dressed in a white uniform, pushing a barrel on wheels and holding a brush, and when he saw me he stopped to talk to me. He was proud to tell me that his grandchild was learning in a yeshiva. But he was bothered: “I’m surprised,” he said. “He’s spending his mornings studying law!” He was telling me what his grandson was studying — he was explaining to me the beginning of BavaKama. “My grandson is not a law student – he’s only in the fourth grade!” he said. “Why are they training him to be a lawyer?”

It’s a good question. Here’s this little boy, and his mind is being cluttered up with a shor and a bor and a maaveh and a hev’er; all the avos nezikin and the toldos – all the different scenarios of damages. And it’s not merely that one yeshiva has this system – it’s the system of the Jewish people; actually it’s the system of the Torah.

A Torah System

That’s why you find that agadata and middos tovos is only one seventh of the gemara – the other six-sevenths are taken up by intricacies of law. Someone who learns gemara knows that it boggles the mind how much time and space is devoted to details and sub details – minutiae and technicalities. Bava Kama, Bava Metzia, Bava Basra! Three big mesichtas; pages and pages about dinei mamanos and dinei nezikin are gleaned from parshas Mishpatim! And young people spend their lives studying them. Years and years go by; they could have learned middos tovos in that time. They could have learned Mesillas Yesharim or Chovos Halevavos in that time. It would seem like we lose out on so many great things because of the time spent in the three Bavas.

But that’s how it’s supposed to be. In Bava Kama (30a), the gemara asks the following question – it’s an important question because it applies to all of us sitting here: מַאןדְּבָּעֵילְמֱהֶוֵיחֲסִידָא – If someone wants to be a hassid, a pious man, so what should he do? Now, suppose someone would ask us that question. So with our little heads, who knows what kind of a program we would think up! We would say maybe, “First on the list is fasting – a lot of fasting! And lots of Tehillim!

The Genuine Hassid

But it doesn’t say a word about that over here. Maybe a hassid fasts and says Tehillim as well, I can’t tell you, but not a word is mentioned in this gemara about that. What does the gemara say? לִיקַיֵּיםמִלֵּידִּנְזִיקִין – Let him fulfill the things of nezikin, damages (Bava Kama 30a). Studying ParshasMishpatim – learning how to be careful with other people’s money, that’s the ticket to hassidus.

Now, that doesn’t mean that just because you don’t go out with stones and smash your neighbor’s window that you’re considered a hassid already, no. Hassidus means much more than that. But מַאןדְּבָּעֵי, if you want to reach the summit of perfection, that’s the first step – to be careful with your fellow man’s property.

Now, I understand that for many people hassidus means something else altogether. הַחֲסִידוּתהָאֲמִתִּיהַנִּרְצָהוְהַנֶּחְמָדרָחוֹקמִצִּיּוּרשִׂכְלֵנוּ – The true piety that is accepted and desired by Hashem is far away from any picture we have in our minds (Mesillas Yesharim – Hakdamah).

I’ll tell you a true story. There was once a boy who wanted to come into my shul to study Torah. The door was locked, but he was a dedicated boy, full of enthusiasm, so he was trying to make his way through the window. I happened to come just as he was breaking the window. He didn’t intend to break it; he was just trying to force it open, but it broke. Now, a new window costs good money but I didn’t say anything. He was a yeshiva boy, a sixteen year old bochur with no money, so I kept quiet. He should have paid, but I didn’t say anything.

The Bekishe Hassid

A few months later, I met him on Church Avenue on Shabbos. And he’s all dressed up in a kapoteh – with silk lapels. Beautiful! It’s a beautiful thing to honor the Shabbos. But I knew this boy – he came from Canarsie and he wasn’t a hassid; he didn’t come from such a family at all! I don’t even know if his parents are shomrei Shabbos. But he wanted to wear a kapoteh. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that, but it costs a lot of money. Silk lapels! These kapotehs can cost a small fortune. And I was thinking to myself, “That’s his idea of being a hassid?” Because the gemara has other, less fanciful, ideas. מַאןדְּבָּעֵילְמֱהֶוֵיחֲסִידָא – Someone who wants to be a hassid, so the first thing is לִיקַיֵּיםמִלֵּידִּנְזִיקִין – he should fulfill all of the details of never doing any sort of damage. A hassid thinks before he pushes on somebody’s window so hard. And if he breaks it, he pays for it.

Imagine you’re a man who is going before Pesach to distribute packages, parcels to needy families. So you step into your car and you’re loaded down with various packages – matzos, bottles of wine and other things. You’re a special fellow! You must be, because you’re taking from your own time – and your own money too – to help others.

But as you load your car, you’re leaving packages on the sidewalk where people can trip. Or maybe you’re speeding through the streets because you have a lot of good deeds to accomplish. “Ohhhh!” Hakodosh Boruch Hu says. “You’re making a borb’rshus harabim! And you’re speeding too. You’re an Adam Hamazik! That’s worse than if you hadn’t delivered any packages at all.” There will be a much greater punishment for that, for being a mazik, than for not being a goimel chasodim tovim because the very first thing that’s expected of you is not to transgress any nezikin. What comes after that is certainly a good thing but nezikin is the most basic responsibility you have.

Everyone is Honest

And without the details, without studying Mishpatim, you have no idea what is right and what is wrong. Without studying Bava Kama and Bava Basra, you are a crook – only that you’re a crook who has the best opinion of yourself. Every man thinks he’s honest – he knows that others are not, but he’s honest, that he knows.

Let me tell you a little story. There was a time when I used to take a taxi every day. I had to go from one school to another to talk. And I used the same driver every day; he was an old American Jew, an eighty year old man. To all the institutions that I had to speak, he always took me there. So he became like a close associate of mine. Now this man didn’t know how to learn a thing. He didn’t even know siddur; he knew nothing. But one thing he did know. He knew that the Orthodox Jews are no good.

So while he’s driving, he’s telling me his criticism of Orthodox Jews, all of his complaints. This and that, and also how honest of a man he was – unlike the Orthodox. Finally we crossed the parkway and we came into Flatbush – there was a long way to go yet – and he closed down his meter. I said, “Why are you closing the meter?” So he tells me “Because my boss earned enough today. The rest of the fare will go to me.” This was the man who prided himself on being honest! He didn’t even dream that anything was wrong; he didn’t dream that he was a crook. And that’s how it is –. All they know is that the Orthodox are crooks. By virtue of being Orthodox, you’re already a crook.

The Ganav In The Fur Coat

I walked past a fruit store the other day, and I see a woman, not a poor woman. She’s wearing a fur coat; she’s dressed very well. So she stops by the apricots in the bin outside, and she takes an apricot and begins to eat it. And then a second apricot. She’s a ganav! I see it all the time – gentiles in the street, walking past the fruit store and picking off a few grapes. And then some peanuts and even a plum. “Oh,” they’ll say, “I’m just tasting to see if I want to make a purchase.” Just tasting?! Ah nechtige tug! I see it all the time and I tell them it’s stealing. “You can’t steal from the owner like that!” And the lady is surprised. “Me, steal?!” She would never steal!

But people who never learn, people who rely on their innate sense of right and wrong, are a thousand times worse than they could even imagine. And even the learners, the talmideichachomim, have to think about every step they make – if you’re not thinking then it doesn't even occur to you.

The Ganav In The Black Hat

Once I was in the yeshiva across the street and I was observing a young man studying Perek Merubah. It’s the seventh perek of Bava Kama and it talks there about the laws of a thief, the obligations of someone who steals. And he was learning with a real appetite. It was a pleasure to look at! He was learning out loud: מְרוּבָּהמִדַּתתַּשְׁלוּמֵיכֵּפֶלמִמִּדַּתתַּשְׁלוּמֵיאַרְבָּעָהוַחֲמִשָּׁה – He was saying it with a geshmak! He was clarifying all the details of paying keifel, paying a fine when you’re caught stealing.

And I noticed that he was studying from a gemara that he “borrowed” from my synagogue! It didn’t even occur to him that the thief that the gemara was talking about was he! Stealing a gemara is not called stealing?! He’s chayav keifel, he has to pay me two gemaras. Lucky for him, I happened to be around!

And even if you do study, that’s only the beginning – you have to keep the laws in mind always and be vigilant about applying them. All of the general rules are models for the small details of how to live every minute. You have to apply the pesukim and the halachos because they are intended as models for the situations you face all day long.

It’s not only an ox that man is responsible for. One who studies Hashem’s words as intended is not thinking only about an ox. He understands that Hashem is telling him that he is responsible, not only for his ox or dog, but for other things as well. For leaving a bag for “one minute” on the sidewalk and for a banana peel left on the ground and a dirty tissue on the table. For how he drives and for what he leaves on the steps and for sticking his foot out into the aisle. All harm caused to others by negligence is punishable by dinei Shomayim, by the laws of Heaven. And often, the guilt in the eyes of Hashem is extremely heavy.

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