6:52pm - Early candle lighting
7:53pm - Candle Lighting, Friday
8:50pm - Havdalah, Saturday
(Melbourne Australia)
Good Shabbos!
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PARSHAH IN A NUTSHELL
Exodus 21:1–24:18
The name of the Parshah, "Mishpatim," means "Ordinances" and it is found in Exodus 21:1.
Following the revelation at Sinai, G‑d legislates a series of laws for the people of Israel. These include the laws of the indentured servant; the penalties for murder, kidnapping, assault and theft; civil laws pertaining to redress of damages, the granting of loans and the responsibilities of the "Four Guardians"; and the rules governing the conduct of justice by courts of law.
Also included are laws warning against mistreatment of foreigners; the observance of the seasonal festivals, and the agricultural gifts that are to be brought to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem; the prohibition against cooking meat with milk; and the mitzvah of prayer. Altogether, the Parshah of Mishpatim contains 53 mitzvot—23 imperative commandments and 30 prohibitions.
G‑d promises to bring the people of Israel to the Holy Land, and warns them against assuming the pagan ways of its current inhabitants.
The people of Israel proclaim, "We will do and we will hear all that G‑d commands us." Leaving Aaron and Hur in charge in the Israelite camp, Moses ascends Mount Sinai and remains there for forty days and forty nights to receive the Torah from G‑d
HAFTORAH IN A NUTSHELL
Jeremiah 34:8-22; 33:25-26.
In this week's haftorah, Jeremiah describes the punishment that would befall the Jews because they continued enslaving their Hebrew slaves after six years of service—transgressing the commandment discussed in the beginning of this week's Torah reading.
King Zedekiah made a pact with the people according to which they would all release their Jewish slaves after six years of service—as commanded in the Torah. Shortly thereafter, the Jews reneged on this pact and forced their freed slaves to re-enter into service. G‑d then dispatched Jeremiah with a message of rebuke: "Therefore, so says the Lord: You have not hearkened to Me to proclaim freedom, every one to his brother and every one to his neighbor; behold I proclaim freedom to you, says the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine, and I will make you an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth." The haftorah then vividly depicts the destruction and devastation that the Jews would experience.
The haftorah concludes with words of reassurance: "Just as I would not cancel My covenant with the day and night and I would not cancel the laws of heaven and earth, so too I will not cast away the descendents of Jacob . . . for I will return their captivity [to their land] and have mercy on them."
SAGES ON THE PARSHAH
If you purchase a Hebrew slave . . . (21:2)
There is nothing more difficult for a person than to be subjugated to another person. This is why the Parshah begins with the laws of how the Hebrew slave is to be treated.
(Ibn Ezra)
The law that the Hebrew slave must be set free in the seventh year is reminiscent of the exodus from Egypt referred to in the first of the Ten Commandments. As the Torah says regarding the Hebrew slave: "You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and G‑d redeemed you; therefore I command you this thing today" (Deuteronomy 15:15). It is also reminiscent of the work of creation, because like the Shabbat, the seventh year is when the Hebrew slave gains respite from serving his master. . . . All time cycles are ordained as cycles of seven—to refer to the seven-day cycle of creation. Thus it is fitting that this mitzvah should come first in our Parshah.
(Nachmanides)
https://w2.chabad.org/media/pdf/10446.pdf
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