Torah Bites for Your Table: Parshat Mishpatim

In this week's Torah reading, we encounter one of the most famous expressions in the entire narrative, namely "We will do and we will listen." The text states, "Then he [Moses] took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people. And they said, "All that the Eternal has spoken, we will do and we will listen" (Exodus 24:7).

At first, it may seem redundant to say "we will do and we will listen," since it would be impossible for one to do unless they have already listened. Yet the Seforno, an Italian Commentator on the Torah, writes the following about the expression:

We will do and we will hear. We will do toward the end purpose of listening to His voice, akin to servants who serve the master without a motivation to receive reward, similar to, "Who perform His bidding, hearkening to the voice of His word (Psalms 103:20).

In this commentary, the Seforno argues that the verses teaches us that the Israelites are observing the commandments so that they might develop a closer relationship to God, the ultimate reward of the relationship. When we approach our Judaism with that type of focus, the mitzvot become a means to attune ourselves to the divine in the everyday. May we all the have the merit of reaching a closer relationship to God through what we do, so that we succeed in hearing the divine voice.

Shabbat Shalom,
Josh

Bites for your Table:

1. Parents: When you give directions to your children, what do you hope that they will learn in the process? What have you found are the best ways to teach how to live lives of goodness and holiness?
2. Children: Why do parents, teachers and adults give you rules? When is it hardest to follow what they say?
3. Seekers: What is the hardest part about envisioning a God who commands us to do things? How do you balance divine command with individual autonomy?