Mishpatim: An Eye for an Eye!

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Oorah’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

[Music] this week's para is mtim the paraa contains over 50 mitzvot and many laws regarding civil and criminal matters one of the most famous laws in this week's paraa is a an i for an I on its face the Torah seems to obligate the Jewish Court to gouge out the eye of a batterer who damaged another human being and take damaged another human being and take retribution our rabbis kazal teach us that this is not the case means financial payment the rabbis bring up proof to this from another context the Torah says don't take a financial penalty from a murderer who must go to a City of Refuge the rabbis deduce it is specifically a murderer that cannot make a financial payment and avoid physical punishment but another perpetrator a punishment but another perpetrator a batterer could make a financial payment and avoid a physical punishment why couldn't the Torah keep it simple if the penalty for damaging someone's eye is a financial payment why wouldn't the Torah not say it like that why write it in a way that is confusing and can cause people to make a mistake why does the Torah write to the answer this question we have to go back to the very beginning the creation of the world the Torah

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1. 0:00[Music] this week's para is mtim the paraa contains over 50 mitzvot and many laws regarding…
2. 0:32damaged another human being and take retribution our rabbis kazal teach us that this is not…
3. 1:03punishment but another perpetrator a batterer could make a financial payment and avoid a physical punishment…
4. 1:35begins in the beginning God created the Heaven and Earth the Torah uses the name Elohim…
5. 2:06psim and once again this is something which creates confusion there have been critical academics throughout…
6. 2:36in the beginning God wanted to create the world with Justice everything had to be absolutely…
7. 3:09reason why the Torah in its written form says an i for an i absolute Justice…
8. 3:40ultimate Justice will come from Hashem to the perpetrator but in our world we have to…
9. 4:10by Mercy in our own lives when we interact with our colleagues our children our spouses…

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