Torah Study and Worship Service 10 AM

MISHPATIM

(Exodus 21:1-24:18)

February 18 / 25 Shevat

Although the Christians‘ New Testament says ?You have learned

that they were told: ?Love your neighbor and hate your enemy,?

no such injunction exists in the whole Hebrew Bible. While there

is no general rule that one ought to love one‘s enemy—a principle

well nigh impossible to be translated into actual life

—the Torah cites practical cases in which enmity

between people is to have its limits. The enemy alluded to in

23:4-5 is not a national but a personal adversary, someone toward

whom one has ill feelings, perhaps because of an ongoing lawsuit