This series has commonly discussed business-related lessons learned out from non-business-related stories and verses in the weekly Parsha. I believe that this may be one of the "70 countenances to the Torah." It’s enjoyable for me to find and share these lessons, and I hope you enjoy reading them.
When interpreting the Torah, it’s easy to manipulate and twist a text through midrashim and commentary to make almost any point. I’ve been at Shabbat meals where opposite hashkafic points were made – both valid and logical points, in-tune with different Torah viewpoints. That is one of the marvels of Torah study, and study of the whole world through a lens of Torah.
Nevertheless, sometimes people can misunderstand the lessons learned out from an intepretive view of the Torah, and get caught up in a debate of "your midrash contradicts my midrash, and only one of us can be right". This isn’t even as bad as people who try to bring Torah commentary and halachik pilpul to justify their actions that go against the Torah explicitly.
Parshat Mishpatim says to me, "continue to learn your lessons for good business from the Torah, but when you were 14 and lit some toilet paper on fire in camp, you were responsible for the towels and robes damaged when the fire spread out of control." Whatever we learn about business from stories are for educational purposes, and will always come second to the explicit laws and guidelines given to us in the Torah.