62 | FEBRUARY 16 • 2023 

T

he Talmud (Shabbat 31a) 
teaches that the very first 
question we are asked 
when our souls leave this world, 
when we account for our lives 
before our Creator, 
is, “Did you deal 
with people faith-
fully [b’emunah]?”
Emunah — 
faith — is typically 
understood as 
faith in God, in 
an all-knowing, 
all-powerful, wholly benevolent 
Creator who is the source of all 
things. But what might it mean 
to have faith in people? To act 
faithfully with those around us at 
all times and under all circum-
stances? To foster a society based 
on trust and transparency, on 
honesty and integrity, on good-
will and mutual respect? What 
might such a world look like?
The Torah tell us exactly what 
it looks like. This week’s parsha, 
Mishpatim, details many of the 
mitzvot that govern a well-func-
tioning society, both in terms of 
commerce and other interper-
sonal relations more generally. 
In Mishpatim, you’ll find what 
the Torah has to say about own-
ership, employment, contracts, 
damage, theft and many other 
areas in which people encounter 
one another on a daily basis. 
The laws of mishpatim are 
elaborated upon in extraordinary 
detail by the Talmud — literally 
thousands of pages of pains-
taking analysis are devoted to 
them. What emerges is a vast yet 
intricate framework for a soci-
ety founded on ethics, integrity, 
decency and mutuality in every 
area of human interaction.
But this legal framework helps 
achieve something beyond the 
smooth functioning of a soci-
ety. It, in fact, lays the platform 
for the greatest task we have as 
human beings — enabling the 
tzelem elokim, the Divine image 

— the spark of pure Godliness 
within each one of us — to 
flourish. Through scrupulously 
observing the mishpatim, the 
laws that delineate the rights and 
responsibilities of us as people, 
we aren’t just able get along with 
each other. We don’t just avoid 
conflict. We set the conditions 
for real human flourishing.
Essentially, we build a world 
in which justice, peace and truth 
proliferate. As the Mishnah 
says, the world stands on three 
things “… on justice and on 
truth and on peace” (Avot 1:18). 
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch 
argues in his commentary on the 
Mishnah that a world without 
these three elements is a world of 
chaos — moral chaos and even 
physical chaos.
A world without justice is a 
world in which human beings 
have no rights, in which their 
dignity, safety and property are 
constantly under threat. In sit-
uations of conflict, if there is no 
independent, objective arbiter 
of right and wrong, it becomes 
anarchy, survival of the fittest.

Similarly, a world without 
truth is a world without trust 
— a world in which communica-
tion, which is predicated on trust 
and truth, becomes meaningless, 
and human connection, which is 
predicated on communication, 
becomes impossible.
And, by definition, a world 
without peace is a world of con-
flict and tension, a world of con-
stant pain and suffering.
On the other hand, a world 
of justice, truth and peace is a 
world in which we recognize and 
nurture the inherent worth — 
the tzelem elokim — in others. 
This is reflected in the statement 
of the Talmud: “
A judge who 
delivers a judgment of truth 
becomes a partner with God in 
creation” (Shabbat 10a). The per-
son whose entire life is dedicated 
to resolving conflict, establishing 
just rulings and sowing peaceful, 
mutually agreed-upon outcomes, 
is called “God’s partner.
”
God created a world for 
human beings to give expression 
to their tzelem elokim, drawing 
close to Him and fulfilling their 

Godly potential. The Torah laws 
create the conditions under 
which this is possible, with the 
judge applying and upholding 
these laws. A society in which 
justice, truth and peace aren’t 
in effect is therefore a society at 
odds with the very purpose of 
creation.
We see this in the fact that the 
generation of the flood, which 
stood against these ideals — 
Rashi points out that the decree 
of the flood was sealed because 
of the sin of theft — was ulti-
mately destroyed. The Maharal 
in his commentary on Rashi 
explains that commerce and 
business activity is vital for the 
development of human civiliza-
tion. And, of course, disregard 
for property rights undermines 
the very foundations of com-
merce. And without commerce 
— without the ability to trade 
and exchange goods and ser-
vices — and without the drive to 
be industrious — to create and 
innovate — human civilization 
cannot thrive, or even survive.

THE HEART OF CREATION
And so, from a Torah perspec-
tive, the civil laws, the mishpa-
tim, are at the heart of creation. 
The midrash at the beginning 
of our parshah makes the point 
that the Ten Commandments 
are bookended by sections 
of the Torah dealing with the 
laws of human interaction. 
The section just before the Ten 
Commandments deals with the 
establishment of the judiciary 
and the court system, and the 
section just after, as we have dis-
cussed, deals with the civil laws 
the judges and courts are tasked 
with upholding and applying. 
The midrash points out that 
the Torah is accompanied by 
this “entourage” of laws dealing 
with the pursuit of justice and 
peace and truth because these 
are such central Torah values. 

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

Chief Rabbi 
Warren 
Goldstein 

A Just World

