To My Dear Students,

In our Torah Portion, Mishpatim, we turn from last week’s reading of the Ten Commandments, and are presented with laws for everyday behavior.  The focus now is not on lofty ethics, but on basic practicalities of life.  This week, we come down from Mt. Sinai to the real world.

A construction worker, who was building a high-rise, removed his safety apparatus for a moment while reaching for a pipe.  At that moment, a fellow worker bumped the beam on which he was standing.  The beam swayed and tipped and the worker fell 110 feet, landing on his face in a pile of dirt, miraculously missing rocks and debris all around.  When paramedics arrived, they found the man still breathing.  They placed him on a stretcher and, while he was being carried to the ambulance, the man was able to say a few words.  What did he say, this man who had somehow survived a fall of 110 feet?  “Please don’t drop me!”

It is usually not the 110 foot falls but the 3 foot falls that we ought to worry over and which are the cause of so much trouble and hurt.

Small matters have large consequences.  The details of living, every day and every hour, are so important.

Shabbat Shalom,

Your Rabbi