Shemos: Chapter 21 1. And these are the ordinances that you shall set before them.
In this first part of Parasha Mishpatim it details the many ‘ordinances’ that are given to govern the actions between a master and a slave. On another level we have to consider that we ourselves serve Hashem so that these examples of what to do or what not to do are connected to how we behave in regards to Hashem.
The Baal Shem Tov had an interesting interpretation of this parasha taking it from the Zohar reading of Mishpatim.
"These are the laws" means "these are the orders (the foundations) of Gilgulim (reincarnation)." Zohar Parshas Mishpatim
Rabbi Dov Ber later on the Mezritcher Maggid asked the Baal Shem Tov to teach him about reincarnation. He brought Rabbi Dov Ber into a darkened room and told him to close his eyes. All of a sudden a he had a vision of a prince and his friend changing clothes and going swimming. The lake was between two countries and there was a border guard at the gateway. At the end of their swimming they dressed and went on their way back to the palace. Meanwhile the prince left his wallet behind. A rider on horse came along saw the wallet and decided to keep it and not tell the border guard about wallet. The prince remembered his wallet and went back to look for it. Since it was missing he reasoned that the only other person there besides his friend was the border guard. He immediately called his palace guards arrested the border guard and gave him thirty lashes.
Rabbi Dov Ber waking up said, “What is going on? This guard did not deserve his fate.”
“I thought you wanted to know the Sod of Reincarnation,” The Baal Shem Tov said. “Close your eyes again,” He directed Rabbi Dov Ber.
A man approached another declaring. “You owe me money pay it back.”
The second man said, “No you have me wrong I never took your money.”
The second man went to the judge and bribed him saying “even if he brings written evidence against me rule in my favor.” Sure enough when the two came before the judge he ruled in the second man’s favor.
“Rabbi Dov Ber said, “This isn’t fair why did this happen.”
The Baal Shem Tov said, “Here is the sod of reincarnation. The first man who said he was owed money was the man on horseback in the other vision so he really wasn’t owed anything at all. The second man who borrowed and did not pay it back was the prince so he really didn’t owe any money at all. The crooked judge turns out to be the border guard so he really did deserve his thirty lashes.”
In this way the Zohar is telling us that the many rules we encounter in Mishpatim are the way the soul is judged as a basis for reincarnation. The specific mitzvoth that are mentioned also have symbolic levels of meaning that we will see as we turn deeper in this parasha going forward. Stay tuned…
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