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Mishpatim: Serving A Greater Cause

Of all the ways to begin Mishpatim, the Torah chose to start with the halachos of עבד עברי. What does this reveal to us about how we are to approach Mishpatim, the laws of the Torah that we can understand with our own intellect?

R’ Lopiansky explains that an עבד is somebody who is considered only an extension of his master. That is why anything that an עבד acquires becomes property of his master. A proper עבד does not have a will of his own; he lives to carry out the will of somebody else.

This is how we are to approach all of mishpatim. גדול המצווה ועושה יותר ממי שאינו מצוה ועושה – it is better to do a mitzva because Hashem has commanded it than to do a mitzva voluntarily. If we do a mitzva because its moral lesson resonate with us, we are attaching ourselves to that sense of morality. But when we do a mitzva because Hashem has commanded that we do it, we are connecting ourselves to Hashem Himslef. By making His will into our will, we have made ourselves an extension of Him.

לע״נ דוד חיים בן ישראל דוב הכהן
לע״נ ר׳ חיים דוב בן ר׳ בןציון שלום