Principles From the Parsha: ‘I Will Surely Hear His Cry’
This week’s parsha, Mishpatim, relays G-d’s instructions on how we should behave toward one another. In consecutive verses, chapter 22 requires Jews to acknowledge the dignity of strangers (verse 20) and of widows and orphans (verses 21-23). In the case of the former, the Torah succinctly and in straightforward terms admonishes not to “wrong or exploit” them, for “you” lived as “strangers in Egypt.” In the case of the latter, the Torah goes into greater detail.