MISHPOTIM2 - WHAT WE LEARN FROM IT PERSONALLY

We mentioned earlier in our article on Mishpotim that it is a parsha with many Dinim. The word Mishpotim is the word MISHPOT or judgment. Thus, the  parsha is about DIN or justice. It contains the punishments for damaging the property of another and other Dinim. The first Rashi in the Sedra tells us two very important rules that effect how we learn Torah and deal with our complaints against others. One rule is that when one studies a Torah law, he must review it, not just once or so, but intensively. The other rule is that when a Jew has a complaint against somebody and needs a Bet Din to adjudicate the dispute, one must go to a Torah Beth Din, one trained and approved by Torah leaders as people who judge others.

Rashi also tells us that the laws taught in Mishpotim are from Sinai, just like the previous teachings that are from HaShem in the Ten Commandments which include the entire Torah and were from Sinai. Another idea is that the Sanhedrin with its senior members had to be in the Azoro near the Beis HaMikdosh.

The first rule that learning Torah requires intense review is how the great rabbis achieved knowledge of the Talmud and Kabbala. The idea that the Sanhedrin was situated near the Beis HaMikdosh indicates that HaShem’s guidance was crucial when they uttered judgments.

What should we accept from this Rashi? First that learning Torah with great intent and constant review is the style that those who became great in Torah practiced. All of us should attempt, to the best of our abilities, to review what we can. If a person races through an entire gemora and then races through the next gemora, in a short while all will be lost. If he reviews it four times, some of it will probably remain. But if he reviews a hundred times, and surely more than that, a large segment of his study will not be lost. At least, when the topic has to be found, the person searching will probably know approximately where the issue it discussed. That is the reward for reviewing something slowly with concentration many times.

I know somebody who does not have a special head, but is very firm about reviewing, again and again. He has been accepted by a major expert on the entire Talmid as a special disciple for no money. Those of us who come to the other world will be asked to reveal what part of the Torah they mastered. What will we say? If we don’t review seriously at great length and with strong concentration, how can we remember?