In rearranging the narrative, the Torah accentuates the dual effect of the revelation at Sinai. As we have mentioned previously, the Torah is God’s guide to living, but it is also much more than that. As alluded to in the opening word of the Ten Commandments,² God declares that “I have written and bestowed My very soul in the Torah”; He implanted His essence within us when He gave us the Torah. Thus, giving the Torah established a double connection between God and the Jewish people: a contractual agreement based on commandments, compliance, reward, and punishment, and a covenantal bond transcending the parameters of behavior and forging an inviolable, eternal bond between God and His people. The contractual agreement was expressed through God’s commandments and our acceptance of them; the covenantal bond was expressed through the rituals and rites surrounding the revelation.

God declares that "I have written and bestowed My very soul in the Torah"; He implanted His essence within us when He gave us the Torah

From that point on, parashat Mishpatim returns to the preparations for the Giving of the Torah, this time focusing on the covenantal bond between God and the Israelites, through which the nation was granted its unique identity as God’s holy people. It describes the people’s preparations to enter into the covenant: how they accepted the Torah unconditionally by proclaiming “we will do and we will obey”; how Moses wrote down the “Book of the Covenant”; how God had them build an altar, offer sacrifices, and had Moses sprinkle them with “the blood of the covenant.” Tellingly, this parashah places great emphasis on ascending the mountain,⁶ for the focus here is the covenant, through which the Jewish people rose spiritually and connected to God. This conspicuous emphasis on ascent also reflects the second element of the bond between God and the people on the cosmic level, the empowerment of the world to draw nearer to God.

This reflects the bond between God and the people on the cosmic level, the empowerment of the world to draw nearer to God

Immediately thereafter, the Torah proceeds to the design for the Tabernacle—although its mandate, Rashi notes,¹⁰ came much later—after the sin of the Golden Calf and Yom Kippur—for the bond of the covenant culminated in the construction of the Tabernacle, by means of which¹¹ God dwelled in the midst of the Jewish people. Hence, the tablets of the covenant were kept in the innermost sanctum of the Tabernacle.

As for the name Mishpatim, this word is one of the Torah’s synonyms for “laws,” and refers specifically to those laws whose logic we readily understand—laws that any civilized society would conceive of and institute on its own. Indeed, most of the laws given in the beginning of this parashah fall into this category. But how does this name apply to the second half of the parashah if, as we have just said, it is devoted to the covenantal, supra-rational aspect of our relationship with God?

The Torah’s message here is actually quite lofty. The mishpatim were taught right after the Giving of the Torah in order to emphasize that “just as the earlier commandments [the Ten Commandments] are from Sinai, so, too, are these from Sinai.”¹² These apparently prosaic mishpatim are not merely the means to ensure society’s survival; they are meant to be ways to connect to God. To abide by them simply because they are sensible is to fail to recognize their infinite value as part of the Divine vision. Chasidim are thus wont to wish one another that they be able to fulfill the rational mishpatim with the same unquestioning acceptance and self-abnegation with which they fulfill those commandments whose explanation is entirely elusive.

On the other hand, our unquestioning acceptance of all God’s commandments does not mean that we are to perform them with the mindless obedience of an automaton. If God had not meant for us to appreciate the reasons for any of the commandments, He would not have provided us with the intellect to do so. The fact that we are able, in some instances, to understand the significance of the commandments indicates that God wants us to. The world did not deserve gold, the Midrash relates, but God created it in order to adorn the Holy Temple. Similarly, humanity was granted intellect to enable us to study the Torah. By understanding God’s will, we sublimate our intellect as well as our behavior to Divine truth; this is, in fact, the raison d’être of human intellect.

Every facet of our activity, from eating habits to business affairs, has the potential to connect us to God

This, then, is the message of the mishpatim: that every facet of our activity, from eating habits to business affairs, has the potential to connect us to God. By encompassing our whole experience, the Torah and the Divine consciousness it grants us become our vitality and the very substance of our lives.¹³

The above overview is an excerpt from "The Torah with an Interpolated English Translation and Commentary Based on the Works of the Lubavitcher Rebbe" published by Kehot Publication Society.