Parshat Mishpatim: I Shall Be Released
As we sit around the Seder table on the Seder night(s), how many of us really consider the phrase: ‘Avadim Hayinu LePharaoh Bemizrayim’ – ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt?’
I
would bet ‘a Shabbat-friendly wager’ (if there were such a thing) that we probably
don't give it much thought. We like
singing the tune of ‘avadim hayinuuuuu hayinu’ and look forward to the meal,
which will arrive eventually, depending on how much effort we put into
retelling the story of the Exodus...and watching the faces of our family and
friends longing for us to 'get on with it' - before the inevitable 'so, when do
we eat?' question arises.
But
it's not an easy topic to discuss. We were slaves and we came out of Egypt.
Seven weeks later, we were standing at the foot of Sinai and receiving the Ten
Commandments from the Almighty. Then
Moshe went up the mountain and some of what he learned up there forms the bulk
of this week's Parsha.
These are the laws that you shall
set before them:
If you buy a Hebrew slave, he
shall serve six years, but in the seventh he shall go forth free, without
paying anything.
If he came alone, he shall leave
alone; but if he was a married man, his wife shall leave with him.
If his master gave him a wife, and
she bore his sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall remain her
master's, while he shall leave alone.
No
sooner has Gd told us how he took the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery, than
he's dictating laws to Moshe about how they will have to treat Hebrew slaves. It seems incongruous that our nation, who
celebrates its annual festival of freedom, was being instructed on returning to
such a state. After all, isn't one
person in slavery a slave too many?
Let
us also remember that the Israelites were also given laws relating to their
ownership of non-Hebrew slaves.
As we
read a few weeks ago:
The Lord said to Moshe and Aharon:
This is the law of the Passover sacrifice: No foreigner may eat of it.) But any slave who has been acquired for money
and circumcised may eat of it. No
Gentile resident or hired labourer may eat of it.
To
understand the context of these laws, one should appreciate that the disturbing
nature of slavery is not a new phenomenon. It has sadly existed for thousands of years. It was only in the mid-19th Century in the
young country we call America, that brothers and cousins, friends and
neighbours went to war to fight for the freedom of the African slaves who were
living and dying under brutal conditions in the Southern plantations.
How
do we find a way to accommodate the Torah's seeming acceptance of the shameful
practice with our own liberation from Egypt? Perhaps a starting point is to study the next
few verses at the start of the Parsha regarding the Hebrew slave.
In
this verse, the Torah is defining a slave’s status and, in the process,
demonstrating how the servitude in Egypt was very different to the type being
described here. In effect, the Torah is
prescribing the idea that such a slave was akin to a member of the family,
albeit with certain constraints.
But if the slave declares, “I love
my master, and my wife and my children: I do not want to go free,” his master
shall bring him before Gd. He shall take
him to the door or the doorpost, and pierce his ear with an awl; after that he
shall remain his slave forever.
The
Torah is telling us something extraordinary. Unlike other slaves in history,
this person is being given the chance to gain the one request that is withheld
from his Gentile peers. He is being granted
his freedom (with the proviso that the wife provided by the master and their
offspring therein will remain behind). However,
in all other circumstances, he has the choice to walk out of the door as a free
man.
If he
stays, he does so of his own will and literally bears the sign of having given
up this opportunity.
The
Torah later tells us in the Book of Vayikra:
If your brother becomes poor and sells himself
to you, do not work him as a slave. He
shall abide with you like a hired worker or a resident worker and work with you
until the jubilee year. Then he and his
children with him shall be free to leave you and return to his family and their
ancestral land. For they are my servants
whom I brought out of Egypt: they cannot be sold as slaves.
In a
society where slavery was endemic, something different was taking place. Sadly,
slavery was embedded both within Israelite society and beyond it but the Torah
took a unique viewpoint. This still
doesn't answer the troubling question of how Jews were commanded to treat
Gentile slaves. On the one hand, they
could be brought into the Covenant of Jacob through circumcision. They would then have the right to partake of
the Korban Pesach (Paschal Offering) but was there a 'code of conduct' our
ancestors had to abide by.
The
Rambam sheds some light on this:
Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Avadim (The
Laws regarding Slaves) 8:12
When a person purchases a slave
from a gentile without making a stipulation beforehand, and the slave does not
desire to be circumcised or to accept the mitzvot incumbent upon slaves, he is
given leeway for twelve months. If at
the end of this period, he still does not desire, the master must sell him to a
gentile or to the diaspora. If the slave
made a stipulation with the master at the outset that he did not have to
circumcise himself, the owner may maintain him as a gentile for as long as he
desires and may sell him to a gentile or the diaspora....
The Rambam's solution to our quandary is steeped in
an understanding of human nature. At a
time when slaves were treated by some masters as subhuman, his sensitivity to
the feelings of the subject are commensurate with the Torah's humane approach. It is no wonder that we flinch when we hear of
man's inhumanity to his fellow.
Nearly
sixty years ago on 28th August 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Reverend
Martin Luther King said:
"I
have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former
slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at
the table of brotherhood...I have a dream that my four little children will one
day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin
but by the content of their character. I
have a dream today."
Numerous
Jews including Rabbis Abraham Joshua Heschel, Joachim Prinz and Uri Miller (who
recited a prayer before his speech) stood alongside Dr King. They testified to the vision that he shared. In doing so, they demonstrated what Judaism is
all about.
As
Bob Dylan, a man who is famous for using Biblical metaphors sang:
I see my light come shining
From the west down to the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released.
This
is the wish for all who are enslaved is it not?
As
Jews, we stood up against racial prejudice in America, Apartheid in South
Africa and attempted genocide in Bosnia, Rwanda and now China. If the Torah can find a way to somehow give
biblical slaves a chance of freedom, perhaps, it can instruct us as to how we
can tackle some of this century's other divisive issues.
It's
certainly something to consider whilst we wait to tuck into our Hillel
sandwich.
Shavuah Tov.
Comments
Post a Comment