This parashat has more commandments than any other portion… of the 613 mitzvot found in the Torah, 74 are in this parashat.

Here are five of them from Chapter 24 verses 14, 17, and 19 through 21.

14 You shall not withhold the wages of a poor or destitute hired worker, of your brothers, or of strangers who are in your land or within your cities.
17 You shall not pervert the judgment of a stranger or an orphan, and you shall not take a widow's garment as security.
19 When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to take it; it shall be left for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord, your God, will bless you in all that you do.
20 When you beat your olive tree, you shall not de-glorify it by picking all its fruit; it shall be left for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow.
21 When you pick the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean after you: it shall be left for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow.

Those verses call to mind something Hubert H. Humphrey – the happy warrior – once said:

In Judaism, it is seen as essential to be generous -- to practice tzedakah toward those who are less fortunate than we.

While tzedakah is most often defined as charity, it really is much more. It encompasses righteousness, justice, and fairness. I remember being taught that in Jewish thinking and tradition, aiding those in need is not merely expected. It is required.

From time immemorial, our rabbis have contended that God is especially concerned about those in need and, therefore, to God, tzedakah’s value is equal to the value of all the other commandments combined.

We are reminded that our obligation, yes, as people, but indispensably as Jews, is to our fellow human beings… not just to those who are kinfolk or Jewish, but to all people, no matter their religion, their gender, their race, their age, their heritage, their social or economic class… to all people.

The late English Orthodox Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, wrote about a man he met in the United States.

One Friday afternoon, the man was on his way to join his family in the Catskills for Shabbat when he saw a man wearing a yarmulke on the side of the road about to change a flat tire on his car.

So he pulled over, helped him change the tire, and wished him “Good Shabbos.” The man thanked him, took his yarmulke off, and put it in his pocket. He then turned and explained: “Oh, I’m not Jewish. It’s just that I know that if I’m wearing one of these, someone Jewish will stop and come to help me.”

There is one more verse I’d like to share at this time. It is chapter 22, verse 8.

22:8 When you build a new house, you shall make a guard rail for your roof, so that you shall not cause blood to be spilled in your house by one who might fall from the roof.

Its meaning for today seems totally obscure, but Maimonides had something to say about it. Like the other verses in this parashat, it is about our obligation to others. We have a responsibility to make sure that the person standing on our roof or entering our home, our household, or our community does not fall because we have been careless. We have a responsibility to do whatever it takes — to build a protective parapet if necessary— to make sure that in our house, no one is at risk of falling.

You see, often, we do not understand the depth of wisdom contained in the Torah’s directives for our daily existence. Even if the specific obligation may be obscure, the principle that underlies it may bring insight and meaning into our lives.

Michael Goldstein