Connections

In perakim 18-19, we learn a lot about Avraham developing into a person of tzedek and mishpat. He is someone who teaches his children to act in tzedek and mishpat as opposed to sedom. As we saw in the sources, the Jewish people are supposed to do tzedek and mishpat and take care of their fellow man even if they are not like you. This includes the poor, a ger, an orphan, a widow, etc. Avraham did just that. This reminded me a lot of chumash class last year when we learned Devarim so I decided to take out my notes from last year and find the similarities. As you know, I love to connect things that we learn from past years! I just think it is so cool how everything really does connect, and messages and themes do not just stop in one parsha or sefer, it is everywhere in Tanach.

So I searched and searched and finally got up to the second semester where we started parshat re'eh. One of topics in parshat re'eh is the social and moral obligation to take care of the poor. This is discussed in Devarim because the poor people are at a greater risk to leave Judaism and/or be influenced if their basic needs are not met. When the Jewish people go into the land of Israel, we want to make sure that no one goes astray and if poor people are not being taken care of then there it is very likely that they will go astray. Here we see taking care of the poor, but it is included for a different reason. In Sefer Devarim we also learned about setting up a just society by using tzedek and mishpat. So, G-d was of course right! Avraham passes tzedek and mishpat to his generations and advocates on behalf of the individual.