page_title: Mishpatim
section_title: Exodus chapter 24
hierarchical_section_title: Mishpatim / In classical rabbinic interpretation / Exodus chapter 24
caption_attribution_description: English: The Ten Commandments, illustration from a Bible card published by the Providence Lithograph Company
context_page_description: Mishpatim is the eighteenth weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the sixth in the Book of Exodus. The parashah sets out a series of laws, which some scholars call the Covenant Code. It reports the people's acceptance of the covenant with God. The parashah constitutes Exodus 21:1–24:18. The parashah is made up of 5,313 Hebrew letters, 1,462 Hebrew words, 118 verses, and 185 lines in a Torah scroll.
  Jews read it the eighteenth Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in February or, rarely, in late January. As the parashah sets out some of the laws of Passover, Jews also read part of the parashah, Exodus 22:24–23:19, as the initial Torah reading for the second intermediate day of Passover. Jews also read the first part of parashah Ki Tisa, Exodus 30:11–16, regarding the half-shekel head tax, as the maftir Torah reading on the special Sabbath Shabbat Shekalim, which often falls on the same Sabbath as Parashat Mishpatim.
context_section_description: Rav Huna son of Rav Kattina sat before Rav Chisda, and Rav Chisda cited Exodus 24:5, "And he sent the young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt-offerings, and sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen to the Lord," as an application of the proposition stated in the Mishnah that "before the Tabernacle was set up . . . the service was performed by the firstborn; after the tabernacle was set up . . . the service was performed by priests." (The "young men" in Exodus 24:5 were the firstborn, not priests.) Rav Huna replied to Rav Chisda that Rabbi Assi taught that after that the firstborn ceased performing the sacrificial service (even though it was nearly a year before the Tabernacle was set up).
  It was taught in a Baraita that King Ptolemy brought together 72 elders and placed them in 72 separate rooms, without telling them why he had brought them together, and asked each of them to translate the Torah. God then prompted each of them to conceive the same idea and write a number of cases in which the translation did not follow the Masoretic Text, including, for Exodus 24:5, "And he sent the elect of the children of Israel" — writing "elect" instead of "young men"; and for Exodus 24:11, "And against the elect of the children of Israel he put not forth his hand" — writing "elect" instead of "nobles."
  Rabbi Isaac taught that when a king administers an oath to his legions, he does so with a sword, implying that whoever transgressed the oath would have the sword pass over his neck. Similarly, at Sinai, as Exodus 24:6 reports, "Moses took half of the blood" (thus adjuring them with the blood). The Midrash asked how Moses knew how much was half of the blood. Rabbi Judah bar Ila'i taught that the blood divided itself into halves on its own. Rabbi Nathan said that its appearance changed; half of it turned black, and half remained red. Bar Kappara told that an angel in the likeness of Moses came down and divided it. Rabbi Isaac taught that a Heavenly Voice came from Mount Horeb, saying that this much is half of the blood. Rabbi Ishmael taught in a Baraita that Moses was expert in the regulations relating to blood, and by means of that knowledge divided it. Exodus 24:6 goes on to say, "And he put it in basins (Hebrew: אַגָּנֹת‎, aganot)." Rav Huna said in the name of Rabbi Avin that Exodus 24:6 writes the word in a form that might be read aganat ("basin," singular) indicating that neither basin was larger than the other. Moses asked God what to do with God's portion. God told Moses to sprinkle it on the people. (Exodus 24:8 reports, "And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people.") Moses asked what he should do with the Israelites' portion. God said to sprinkle it on the altar, as Exodus 24:6 says, "And half of the blood he dashed against the altar."
  Reading Exodus 24:7 "And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the hearing of the people," the Mekhilta asked what Moses had read. Rabbi Jose the son of Rabbi Judah said that Moses read from the beginning of Genesis up to Exodus 24:7. Rabbi said that Moses read to them the laws commanded to Adam, the commandments given to the Israelites in Egypt and at Marah, and all other commandments that they had already been given. Rabbi Ishmael said that Moses read to them the laws of the sabbatical years and the jubilees [in Leviticus 25] and the blessings and the curses in Leviticus 26, as it says at the end of that section (in Leviticus 26:46), "These are the statutes and ordinances and laws." The Israelites said that they accepted all those.
  Reading the words of Exodus 24:7, "will we do, and hear" the Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer taught that God asked the Israelites whether they would receive for themselves the Torah. Even before they had heard the Torah, they answered God that they would keep and observe all the precepts that are in the Torah, as Exodus 24:7 reports, "And they said, 'All that the Lord has spoken will we do, and be obedient.'"
  Rabbi Phineas taught that it was on the eve of the Sabbath that the Israelites stood at Mount Sinai, arranged with the men apart and the w
caption: The Presence of the Lord Appeared as a Fire on the Top of the Mountain (illustration from a Bible card published 1907 by the Providence Lithograph Company)
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