Unfinished Business - Parashat Mishpatim, Gilgul, and the Accounts We Don’t Close

Parashat Mishpatim is where the Torah moves from revelation to responsibility. After the thunder of Sinai, the Torah turns to contracts, damages, accountability, and justice — not as social convenience, but as spiritual necessity. According to the Zohar, these laws are the mechanisms through which balance is restored in the world, and through which souls repair what was left unfinished. Mishpatim is not only about how people live together; it is about why souls sometimes must return again. This morning’s class weaves the Zohar’s teachings on gilgul neshamot together with a powerful true story from the world of Telz and London, as told by Rabbi Hanoch Teller. It is a story of misunderstandings carried for decades, of grievances left unresolved, and of how Heaven orchestrates encounters so that accounts can finally be closed. The message is both sobering and hopeful: what we fail to repair may follow us — but what we choose to repair now can change everything.