The sicha for parshas Mishpatim is in Vol. III of Likkutei Sichos and is in part a continuation of the sicha of parshas Yisro.

The Gemarrah says, what is the meaning of the word “lifnei hem” from the posuk “ these are the commandments that you should place before them”, and gives a number of explanations:

1. The mishpatim have to be before them - before Jewish judges. When there is a civil suit between two Jews, they have to bring their case to Jewish judges and not to non-Jewish judges, even though the ruling of non- Jewish judges may be similar, the case has to go to the Jewish judge.

2. Lifnei hem means inward, like panim, pnim, inside. These commandments have to be taught with their reasons, with the pnim, the inside, with the background for the commandment.

3. The Alter Rebbe in Torah Ohr explains that lifnei hem means l’pniyusum, to their inward essence, to their neshama. When the commandments are taught, the hidden inner parts of the commandment also have to be taught, which stimulates the inner part of the neshama, so that the mitzvas have to be performed with soul, with neshama.

As we have spoken many times before whenever there are three explanations on the same inyan, or on the same word, they must all be connected. What is the connection here? And why is this lesson given in the mitzvas that are called mishpatim.

We know that there are three kinds of mitzvas, chukas, aidus, and mishpatim, and their difference is in terms of their logic. Chukim are commandments that have absolutely no explanation at all, and we see no benefit in the human condition. Yet G-d says, I have decreed a decree, and you have no right to question it. Those are called a chukim. They have to be fulfilled with the acceptance and the obedience of the yoke of G-dliness and not for logical, human reasons.

Then there are aidus: these are the mitzvas that testify to a certain event, like Shabbos testifying to G-d creating the world. These are not something that human intelligence would dictate, but once they are commanded, human intelligence can explain the significance and the benefits of these commandments.

Then there are those mitzvas called mishpatim. These are the mitzvas which human intelligence demands because of how necessary they are for the benefit of society so that even if G-d had not commanded them, as the Gemarrah says, we would learn not to steal from an ant, modesty from a cat and so on. These mitzvas, the mishpatim mitzvas, are so obvious to human intelligence, that we would keep them, even if they hadn’t been given.

These are the three different kinds of mitzvas. The question is, the lessons that we get from the word lifnei hem, that it should be that before Jewish judges and not non-Jewish judges, and that it should be with explanation and with reason given for the commandment, and that we should fulfill the mitzva with pnimiyus, with the neshama, why are they given in connection with those commandments that are called mishpatim?

Now the first explanation - it should be in front of Jewish judges and not non-Jewish judges, this obviously applies to mishpatim more than to the others. In the mishpatim, it is possible in a civil suit that the non-Jewish judges should come to the same ruling as the Jewish judges. One might think that it makes no difference what judge you go to, so the Torah has to tell us - lifnei hem- bring the case before the Jewish judge. It is obvious that when it comes to the mitzvas that are aidus and chokim, which are G-dly commandments, not logical commandments, here no one would think to bring questions about chukim, about not mixing milk and meat, to non-Jewish judges. So there we do not have to be told lifnei hem, before the Jewish judge and not before the non-Jewish judge.

But the other two explanations, that the commandment should be given with its explanation, and that a mitzva should be taught with the pnimius, with the inner core of the mitzva stirring the core of the neshama, so that the mitzva is fulfilled with the neshama, why is that said concerning mishpatim? It would be more appropriate to say it concerning the aidus and the chokim.

The purpose of giving a reason for a mitzva, is so that a person should feel connected to the mitzvah. If I don’t understand something, I don’t feel connected. When I do understand, it draws me into the activity so I do it with more enthusiasm. Where do I need to be told that I should understand the reason for a mitzva more than in the chukim. In the chukim, where no obvious explanation is available, here I need to be told that in order to do the chukim with a little bit of enthusiasm, I need to understand the mitzvah, and yet we are told that we should teach the reason for a mitzva in connection with those mitzvas that are mishpatim which already have an obvious reason. And it’s certainly true with the third explanation, that lifnei hem means with my neshama. Obviously I need to fulfill the mitzvas of aidus and chukim with my neshama, whereas by the mishpatim since it’s a human need, and human intelligence dictates it, so I’m already enthusiastic about that, what I really need help with, is to put my soul, my neshama into the mitzvas that are chukim and aidus.

What does this mean?

G-d wants that when we do a mitzva it should permeate into our entire being, not only in action, speech and thought, but even in emotion and intelligence - all should be affected and touched by the mitzva. The mitzvah should affect even those faculties of the neshama that are called makifim, the transcendent powers like will and pleasure. This means not only those mitzvas that in general are directed to the heart and mind, for example the love, fear and belief in G-d, where the mind and heart have to get involved, but even the individual mitzvas, the ones that are performed in action, have to affect the entire person. It’s not enough that they affect only the actions; they have to reach even the highest of all faculties, which is pleasure. A person should have pleasure in doing the mitzva because one has to serve G-d with joy, b’simcha u toov l’vav.

Therefore just as the mitzva of mishpatim involves the mind because it has an obvious reason, in the same way we have to do the chukim. Not only because we have to, but we should also involve our mind that the mind should agree and to the mind it should make sense that they should be fulfilled. It should reach into the inner functionings of the mind and heart and become comfortable there also.

What the Rebbe is saying is that every mitzva including the chukim have to be performed with a warmth, an enthusiasm, that feels relevant. There’s one of two ways to be relevant. Obviously if it makes sense to you that brings it close, makes it relevant. The other way is that when you discover a relevance on the level of neshama, then the neshama feels comfortable with the mitzva, to such a degree that even the mind and the heart become comfortable with the mitzvah. So although we haven’t discovered a reason, and the mind still doesn’t have an explanation for the chukim, but the mind now feels connected to the mitzvah and so will find a reason after the fact because it is already relevant. So when something feels relevant on the level of neshama it draws all the other faculties, the logic and the emotions, into the mitzvah. When you do something with your neshama, then all of you, every part of you gets involved and feels connected, feels a relevance which of course produces an enthusiasm.

So now we can understand why the Gemarrah says concerning the chukim that we have no permission to question it or to doubt it in your mind. You would expect that when you give a commandment that doesn’t have any explanation, the statement should be, I am making this decree, and you have no permission to not fulfill it, to refrain from it. But it doesn’t say, you have no permission to not fulfill it; it says you have no permission to doubt it in your mind.

It’s not enough that the person actually fulfill the mitzvah even if it doesn’t have a reason, because then he is doing the mitzvah without any enthusiasm, without involving his neshama. The chukim, those mitzvahs which have no explanation, we have to reach it on a neshama level. When you do that then you have no thoughts of doubt, because you don’t feel distant, you don’t feel that it is irrelevant, and so that even in your thought, there is no hesitation, your mind is involved in the mitzvah because the neshama draws the mind, so that you have no room for doubts even in thought. Not only do you fulfill the mitzvah in action, but also the thoughts are comfortable and feel the relevance of the mitzvah even though the relevance is not the result of logic.

And so in order to fulfill the chukim properly, you have to have the lifnei hem, the pnimiyus. You have to arouse the pnimiyus of the neshama so that the rest of the system, the seichel and the midos, are also involved in the mitzvah.

So again the question is, why are these instructions given concerning mishpatim when they seem to be more necessary in the eidus and the chukim?

The Chazal on the posuk, v’ele hamishpatim, tell us that the vav of v’ele, means that this in addition to what came before. That is, just as the commandments in parshas Yisro were given from Har Sinai, starting with Anochi Hashem Elokecha, which as we learned in parshas Yisro contains the deepest and profound concepts of the oneness of G-d, so too all the commandments even the simplest like not killing and not stealing, which are obviously necessary even to the human intelligence, need to be permeated with the awareness of the oneness of G-d, with Anochi Hashem Elokecha.

Now parshas Mishpatim begins with “v’ele”, “and these are the mishpatim”, which means that in addition to the commandment of not killing and not stealing, which have to be connected and permeated with the awareness of Anochi Hashem Elokecha, the commandments appearing now in parshas Mishpatim, like the previous commandments, have to be permeated with the awareness of Anochi Hashem Elokecha.

And that is the explanation of lifnei hem, that you have to bring mishpatim before Jewish judges, and not before non-Jewish judges. Even though the non-Jewish judge could come to the same conclusion based on human logic as the Jewish judge, a Jew has to be guided in his life by Torah, and not by human intelligence. So when you go to a Jewish judge and he gives you the ruling, his ruling is permeated with the awareness of Anochi Hashem Elokecha, that we do this logical thing not only because it is logical but because it is what G-d wants. When you go to the non-Jewish judge, it may be the same logic, but it is not based on Anochi Hashem Elokecha.

And this is also the Alter Rebbe’s explanation of lifnei hem, which means pnimiyus haneshama, that the study and the fulfillment of the mishpatim of Torah have to be not because of human intelligence but because of the neshama. If a person says, I will fulfill the chukim even though I don’t understand the explanation but I am sure G-d has a very good explanation, that is not bringing the neshama into the mitzvah. Even though you don’t have the explanation, you are motivated in the fulfillment of the mitzvah by an explanation, which is not available to you. However you are confident the explanation exists and because there is a good explanation, that is why you are going to fulfill the mitzvah. That is not bringing the neshama into the mitzvah.

Therefore even in the chukim, you have to fulfill the chukim not because of a hidden reason that may exist in heaven, but you have to fulfill it with your neshama, from the pnimiyus of your neshama. And so it is also with the learning and the fulfillment of all chukim. Concerning mishpatim, we have to work very hard until it is completely comfortable in our mind, that the mishpatim are not based only on human intelligence, but that there is a neshama involved even in the simple mitzvah of not killing and not stealing. You have to bring your neshama into that as well.

So this is the connection between the three meanings of lifnei hem. They all bring the same message, that in every mitzvah there has to be an inner connection, the person has to be connected to the mitzvah with his mind and with his neshama and with an awareness that even the simplest mitzvah comes from G-d, Anochi Hashem Elokecha.

The fact that even in the simple mitzvahs, in the mishpatim, we mustn’t rely on human intelligence, that it has to be lifnei hem, before Jewish judge, even if the non-Jewish judges are just as smart, there are two reasons for this:

First of all, when we do a mitzvah only based on human logic, there is a real danger that from the mitzvah we will come to an aveirah, a sin. The Gemarrah says, the yetzer hara is very shrewd. The Fredecke Rebbe explains that the yetzer hara will not come to a Jew and ask him to commit a sin. First he comes to the Jew and asks him to do a mitzvah, which means that the animal soul with its intelligence approves the fulfillment of a mitzvah and says do the mitzvah, and so the person does the mitzvah. But eventually because he is guided by his animal soul, eventually the animal soul, with the same logic that drove him to do the mitzvah will eventually drive him to do the aveirah until the point of idolatry.

Another reason is, if we do the mitzvah because of human intelligence, we are missing the essential connection of the mitzvah – mitzvah meaning connection – with Anochi Hashem Elokecha. And it is the whole purpose of the mitzvah to bring about that connection.

As we have said in parshas Yisro, the Giving of the Torah removed the decree that the higher worlds cannot come down, and the lower worlds cannot go up. We see here that even in the simple mitzvah, you have to have your neshama permeate the mitzvah, and even the person who is on a very low level, where he has to be told to learn modesty from a cat, is invited to come up to the higher world, that he should be told the mitzvahs with their meaning, and should be told the inner secrets of the mitzvah, the pnimiyus of the mitzvah so that his neshama is involved in the fulfillment of the mitzvah.