Literary Devices – Shemot 21
Structure
It can be challenging to identify a literary structure within the laws of Parashat Mishpatim; nonetheless several have attempted to do so by looking closely at both the content and wording of the various laws.1 Thus R. Leibtag suggests that the legal unit of Shemot 20-23 is set up as a chiasm:
A) Covenant a Sinai (19:1-20:17)
B) Laws between man and God (20:18-22)
C) Laws of slavery (21:1-11)
D) Civic law (22:12-23:9)
C') Days of rest2 (23:10-19)
B') Laws between man and God (23:20-33)
A') Covenant at Sinai
Articles
- For discussion of the above mentioned chiastic structure see R. Menachem Leibtag’s article "נעשה ונשמע". He also discusses the ordering of the laws within Parashat Mishpatim itself, suggesting that these progress from laws that ensure basic societal morality to those that strive for the transcendent values of love of one’s fellow man and of God.
- Compare Structure: Parashat Mishpatim, by R. Yoel Bin-Nun, who similarly suggests that the legal unit is structured chiastically, opening and closing with the covenant at Sinai. Sandwiched inside are the Decalogue (and laws which parallel it), two sets of laws related to the holiness of the nation, and at the core - a set of conditional laws.