[Avodah] MISHPATIM TRANSFORM HUMAN CONTACTS excerpted from an article by Rabbi Noson Weisz

[Richard Wolberg]

(The following is a great vort and also a great reason for Avodah:)

We human beings spend a lot of time in each other's company. Because  
we are intelligent communicators, in effect this means we spend a lot  
of time talking to each other (or emailing each other). But we often  
do not have much to talk (or write) about. Not many can begin to  
discuss deep personal issues that reach to the depth of one's soul  
with a relative stranger. First of all, revelation makes one  
vulnerable, and even more importantly, not too many people are  
particularly interested in gazing deeply into the soul of relative  
strangers.

Consequently, much light conversation concerns politics, sports or the  
weather, or tends to center around job conditions and co-workers. This  
may be boring but allows civilized contact to continue. When it is not  
boring it often borders on lashon hora. Almost inevitably, casual  
acquaintances begin playing human geography. They discuss bosses, co- 
workers, teachers or fellow students, and the discussion often  
descends to lashon hora.

We Jews share this need for human contact with the rest of humanity.  
But God gave us a better solution to solve the problem of casual  
conversation. Having had the benefit of a basic Torah education, we  
are quite familiar with the basic Talmudic tractates which focus on  
Mishpatim. The traditional wisdom of the ages (and Sages) has assured  
that it is this area of the Torah that we focus on during the basic  
education period.

Theoretically, in a properly arranged Jewish world, instead of  
discussing sports or the weather, or playing Jewish geography, we Jews  
would debate concepts in Mishpatim. Instead of having to conduct  
boring conversations, we would be in the enviable position of being  
able to engage in heated discussions about deep ideas affecting the  
human character with relative strangers (and email contacts). Instead  
of gossip, the air would be filled with the sounds of heated debate  
over basic human issues. If we are fortunate enough, perhaps someday,  
most Jews will be in a position to resurrect that much-ridiculed  
stereotype of the Talmudic scholar.

ri


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