Parshat Mishpatim; Exodus 21:1-24:18 by Rabbi Denise L. Eger

The legal inheritance of the Jewish people continues this week with Parshat Mishpatim. In last week’s portion the Ten Commandments were revealed by God, this week’s portion continues the revelation. The brilliance of the Jewish legal system is that it is not solely religious laws, ritual observances and the like but contained within it governance for everyday situations. Parshat Mishpatim addresses many interesting cases and situations that happen between people. Thus we read in the Torah this week of the laws surrounding violence against and between family members or other community members. Contained in the portion are laws and remedies surrounding problems with animals that damage human beings or property; laws dealing with borrowers and loaning money. And of course the portion opens with laws addressing the treatment of slaves.

Why would a group of people who had just been recently freed from slavery themselves need rules regarding how they should treat slaves? Could they imagine themselves as slave owners? Not too mention our modern revilement of the entire institution of slavery. We in our day believe and know that slavery is an anathema and that no human being should be owned as property by another. Why doesn’t the Torah echo that sentiment?

The ‘eved /slave written in the portion is not just any slave but an ‘eved ivri/Hebrew slave. This slave is a member of the Jewish people and although circumstances and perhaps financial disadvantage required a period of work and indentured service, the Torah tries to uplift the humanity and dignity of that person. He or she is not a slave for life as in the American south—but more like the indentured service of Europe and early American colonial society. One worked as a servant for a set period of time. This is not unlike the patriarch Jacob who worked for his uncle Laban two stretches of seven years each.

These former Egyptian slaves understood oppression from their hard labor in Egypt. They knew what carrying a four hundred year old yoke of servitude under harsh conditions was like. The statutes as handed down here in this portion continue to protect the servant even while one imagines that some former Egyptian slaves among the Israelites might take out their own years of harsh and cruel servitude on someone else. Thus the laws of Mishpatim regarding the ‘eved ivri, the Hebrew slave protects while recognizing that this institution exists in society. Later Torah and Talmudic rulings make the institution of slavery less appealing as an economic boon, since any slaves owned by Jews became Jewish themselves, the males subject to circumcisions as well as subject to observing Shabbat and the impact of the Sabbatical year. And this parasha makes clear the system for the manumission of slaves and their redemption payment.

At the Passover Seder we are reminded that we were once slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. Not only are we to remember the great miracle of the exodus and the miracle of freedom but also our harsh servitude there is to remind us how we ought to treat others. If we can treat the servant in our midst with dignity and respect it flows out from that idea—all in society must be treated with the same level of respect, for all our precious to God.

Posted by Lee at February 3, 2005 10:32 AM