ר"ע תיתד תונויצל ינויערה גוחה ,םולשו זוע
Why did the Torah choose to start the first Jewish legal codex given to the people of Israel after the giving of the Law on Mt Sinai, concentrated in the portion of Mishpatim, with the laws about the Hebrew slave? This question has exercised the minds of Bible commentators down the generations, as these laws do not seem of central importance in the laws of Israel. Nachmanides decided that this commandment is a reminder of the exodus from Egypt, the liberation from slavery, and a reminder of creation, in that the seventh year and the jubilee year, in which slavery ceases, recall the seventh day, the day of rest from labour. Avraham ibn Ezra states that "because nothing is harder for a man than to be at the disposal of a man like himself, the law of the slave came first." Hizkuni - "because He redeemed them from being slaves and commanded them not to enslave one another with hard labour and for generations, but only for six years."
The nineteenth century commentators, R. Shimshon Rafael Hirsch and Shmuel David Luzatto, saw these matters through the spectacles of the period. Romanticism was at its height, philosophy saw morality as the main area in which human understanding could become enlightened and improve. The struggle between the monotheistic religions focused on the moral character of the religion under investigation and the nature of its norms, and the struggle between philosophy and religion was over the question whether human understanding stood in need of religion for the purposes of moral inquiry. On the social plane, the Jews struggled for emancipation.
R. Shmuel David Luzatto concluded that the main aim of the Torah was to strengthen the natural human sense of mercy, to develop it, and set it on a firm basis of divine reward and punishment, of recompense for the moral act. In accordance with this principle, R. Shmuel David Luzatto decides in our case too that it concerns an Israelite slave (following Rashi and R. Avraham ibn Ezra), and that "the Torah, the ways of which are the ways of pleasantness and mercy, began its laws with the law of the slave and maidservant who, in ancient times, were considered as beasts, and no judge would judge their cause or take up their quarrel against their master," (XXI: 3). About his principle, R. Shmuel David Luzatto writes in commenting on this week's portion: "Because you were strangers in the land of Egypt"... the Torah based its commandments on two things: divine retribution (reward and punishment), and the feeling of mercy which is natural to a man, though habit can reinforce or diminish it... and so the Torah on the one hand bases its commandments on this feeling, and on the other buttresses this feeling in order to make it grow stronger and preserve it against dwindling..." (XXII: 20).
R. Hirsch determines that: "the Torah wished to inculcate into us the principles of justice and humanity, in accordance with which it enjoins us to observe human rights, and it begins with crime, that is with a man who commits an offense by stealing someone's property (and is sold in consequence of his theft) (XXI: 2). After that, the Torah continues with the person who sells his daughter as a maidservant because of poverty, and Hirsch says: "Crime and poverty are part of the way of the world, but they are two factors which can reduce human dignity to nothing. The Torah placed the wrongdoer and the beggar's daughter first in setting out human justice, and through then showed what it considers human dignity, and how it requires human dignity to be maintained, down to the lowest strata of society (XXI: 11)
Do R. Shmuel David Luzatto and R. Hirsch refer only to the human dignity of a member of the people of Israel, or is there a universal approach here?
R. Shmuel David Luzatto answers this question in the parasha of Bo chapter XXII verse 44 which deals with the Canaanite slave - "But every man's servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof" - (on the basis of the statements of R. Akiva or R. Yehoshua in the Mechilta "then shall he eat thereof - his master, indicating that the matter of circumcising his slave prevents him from eating the Paschal lamb") - "The sages of Israel arose and decreed that anyone who does not circumcise his slaves cannot eat of the Paschal lamb, and, in my opinion, their intention was that anyone who does not consider his slaves as human beings is not worthy of being reckoned among those who celebrate the festival of freedom." In R. Shmuel David Luzatto's view, this decree became necessary at the time of the end of the second Temple period, when morals became corrupted and people learned from the ways of the Romans, who were cruel to their slaves "and there were masters in Israel who did not want to circumcise their slaves so that they would not be considered Israelites and human beings."
And Hirsch, commenting on the same verse: "The saddening experiences of our own times (the struggle of slaves in the USA and the black uprising in Jamaica in 1865) show how wretched and helpless the slave is, whether he has been deprived of his rights by the accepted laws of the nations, or whether he has attained equality of rights, but people everywhere still look upon him as a slave or as someone who was a slave. A Jewish home was a refuge for him. There, the law protected him against abuse: and if he wished it - and the importance of this should not be underrated, he joined (according to Tractate Yevamot 48b) the covenant of G-d with Israel, together with his masters..." a slave acquired as someone's property you, the nation, are obliged to make him one of you through circumcision: first he should be circumcised for your sake, and only then will his master be allowed to take part in the Paschal sacrifice." And if it is thus in the case of a Canaanite slave, how much more does this apply in the case of a gentile who has the rights of a free person.
In this week's parasha, Hirsch adds, commenting on the verse "thou shalt not oppress a stranger". "Our verse again places first and foremost in our legislation the principle of equality and kindness, and in particular the way the Jewish state relates to foreigners will be put to this test; they will enjoy every benefit the law gives the citizen, out of an attitude of love and kindness, and this is always a reliable criterion for judging the level of humanity and respect for law in a country."
At the same time, Hirsch warns against idolaters in this parasha - "because they will be a snare for you (XXIII: 33) - leaving them in the country, without them abandoning idolatry, will be a trap and a snare for you... they will carry you away with their false vanities." R. Shmuel David Luzatto is also not prepared to go beyond the boundaries of reasonable universalism, and on the verse "thou shalt not curse G-d," he quotes the interpretations of Philo and Flavius - you shall not curse the gods of the nations, and decides this was nothing but toadying to the gentiles.
Returning to our question in the light of the earlier and later commentators, one can say that the issue of slavery is a central one in the Torah starting with the story of Joseph. The Torah tries to teach us through this story that it is opposed to the enslaving of man by man and the sale or capture of a human being. The brothers' sin was imitation of the culture of Egypt - "and we will be slaves to Pharaoh." Joseph cannot rely on his Egyptian master and his family or on the chief butler. The people of Israel cannot rely on the kings of Egypt to leave them in Goshen since they do not believe in the G-d of Israel and His morality. Joseph, the "Hebrew slave" instills in his brothers the idea that their request "we will be as slaves for you" is unacceptable because "am I in G-d's stead?"; a human being is G-d's servant alone. This is the message Moses attempts to convey to Pharaoh and Egypt - "send forth my people that they might serve me" - at the beginning of this week's parasha, this principle is enshrined in the legal codex on the "Hebrew slave", and, as mentioned, it is a universal principle, applicable to the entire human race.
Efraim Hamiel, a member of the "Netivot Shalom" board, is a doctoral student in the faculty of Jewish Philosophy at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
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