With a two year old, when she's playing with her friends and with other children there is often a lot of negotiation that goes into who plays with what toy. For some reason it seems that the toy that someone else wants is always the most desirable; and so there needs to be some form of borrowing, lending, and negotiating to ensure that all the children are happy with the toy that they have and not simply sitting there coveting what their neighbor has.
In
this week's Torah portion of Mishpatim there are many laws and commandments that
we receive. And while none of them talk
about how children should share their toys, we do get an insight into how we
should behave with another person's belongings.
In
the midst of these laws we get given instructions about how to care for the weaker
embers of our society. It reminds us
that we should not oppress the stranger or treat the widow or orphan badly, and
then it talks about lending money to the poor amongst us. In illustrating this idea of lending someone
something God says: ‘If
you take your neighbor's garment in pledge, you must return it to him before
the sun sets; it is his only clothing, the sole covering for his skin. In what
else shall he sleep? Therefore, if he cries out to Me, I will pay heed, for I
am compassionate’ (Ex. 22:25-26).
In
this way, if a person lends someone an item of clothing as a guarantee to repay
a debt you can keep that item of clothing during the daylight hours but as soon
as it becomes night, it must be returned to that person so they have something
warm in which to sleep. We might think
about how this example could be transferred to those who put their homes as guarantees
for loans and for money that they borrow.
But
for us, what is striking here is that if the person does not receive his
clothing back and cries out to God then God will listen because God is
compassionate. Therefore, underlying
this commandment, there is an instruction that we should not be exploitative of
others, but that we should be compassionate towards one another. We should listen to their cries before they
are compelled to cry out to God.
With
this instruction we are therefore urged not to exploit the weak, but rather to
be compassionate to them. If this is the
law when taking their clothing as a guarantee for a debt, how much the more so
with their homes and other possessions?
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