Drash Cards for Mishpatim 5776
Drash Cards for Mishpatim 5776

by Marc Mangel

• You might be thinking “This is Shabbat Mishpatim, so Marc is going to tell us that the notion of Hebrew free loans comes from this parsha and that after Shabbat we should make a donation to the Hebrew Free Loan Association in SF”.

• Well, I am not going to tell you that is Shabbat Mishpatim, and the notion of Hebrew free loans comes from this parsha and that after Shabbat we should all make a donation to the Hebrew Free Loan Association in SF.

• Rather, today I want to talk about service learning.

• I googled ‘what is service learning’ and got this definition: “Service learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities” (National Service Learning Clearinghouse).

• I also asked one of the go-to service learning people in the Bay Area, Jennifer Mangel, if she had a snappy definition that I could use in the drash and she said: “Learn. Do. Reflect. Then repeat”.

• Well, some of the original service learning framework comes from Ch 24, v 7: “ [Then Moses] took the book of the covenant and read it aloud to the people. And they said ‘We will do and we will understand’”.

• Learn.Do. Reflect. Repeat. Do this mapping:
Moshe read the book of the covenant == learn
We will do ==do
And we will understand == reflect

The definition of service learning is in the Torah; not unexpected since the Torah is timeless.

• What about repeat? Our job is to make a dwelling place for God in this physical world. We do that through observing the mitzvoth and through a commitment each year during the RH to YK period to teshuvah – returning to God.

• Most likely the teshuvah goal you set for yourself is hard to achieve – and that’s the way it should be. But that also means sometimes you will slip from achieving that goal. And that’s where the fourth word in Jennifer’s definition — repeat – applies. Get right back to working on your teshuvah goals.

• In fact, it could be that you set a nearly impossible goal for teshuvah. Joan Feynman – the sister of Richard Feynman – once said, referring to her brother “Just because something’s impossible doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it”.

• Parsha Mishpatim does tell us about free loans, but also about making the world better through doing, and reminds us that the key to achieving our teshuvah goals is continual doing.