Parsha Mishpatim — How can you justify slavery?
You shall not wrong a stranger, nor oppress him; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
שמות כב׃כ Exodus 22:20
וגר לא־תונה ולא תלחצנו כי־גרים הייתם בארץ מצרים׃
Our Parsha deals with many laws of how we relate to others by our actions and we treat others.
In fact, these laws are an ancient legal code dealing with real-life problems.
Quoting Rav Kook “ The legal system of the Torah makes a great impression on life. It is not possible for social communal life to exist without the power of din ve’mishpat– law and judgment. The Torah can have a great effect on life when it directs life with its laws.
And through this, it also impacts the other pathways and activities of life.
We have to be very careful that our engagement in the theoretical Torah does not prevent the Torah from having a controlling influence on practical life. It is only then that the purpose of the Torah will manifest itself fully in reality.”
So, let’s have another look at ESG. (with a poetic license based on these teachings)
E- Emet-Truth,
S- Shalom-Peace
G- Governance — Din-Law
“These are the three pillars on which the world stands. (Pirkei Avot 1:18) and they are all dependent on Din-Law as our sages teach: ‘Din brings Emet which brings Shalom’. (Jerusalem Talmud, Taanit 4b)”
More reading — https://haorot.com/mishpatim-laws-of-good
In today’s enlightened world we are repulsed by slavery and the selling of our daughters for marriage.
This is not a halachic or legal discussion, but a look at this from a philosophical or moral view.
The Torah permitted Slavery with limits. Slavery was an economic necessity resulting from somebody who could not support himself, who chose to sell himself. He was not captured against his will. This is a big difference — once he sold himself as his owner had an obligation to feed and house and treat him in a ‘pleasant’ manner.
The question is asked — Why did God not make a law to abolish slavery?
Slavery was universal and it would not be possible to command do not own slaves like you we commanded not to kill.
Therefore, the Torah allows a humane, limited form of Slavery
“If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything . . . But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.” (Ex. 21: 2–6)
What is being done in these laws? First, a fundamental change is taking place in the nature of slavery. No longer is it a permanent status; it is a temporary condition. A Hebrew slave goes free after seven years. He or she knows this. Liberty awaits the slave not at the whim of the master but by divine command. When you know that within a fixed time you are going to be free, you may be a slave in body but in your own mind, you are a free human being who has temporarily lost his or her liberty. That in itself is revolutionary. This alone, though, was not enough. Six years is a long time. Hence the institution of Shabbat ordained so that one day in seven a slave could breathe free air: no one could command him to work:
https://lessons.myjli.com/why/index.php/2016/11/16/the-slow-end-of-slavery/
Quoting Rabbi Sacks z’l
Nowhere is this clearer than in the opening of today’s parsha. We have been reading about the Israelites’ historic experience of slavery. So, the social legislation of Mishpatim begins with slavery. What is fascinating is not only what it says but what it doesn’t say.
It doesn’t say: abolish slavery. Surely it should have done. Is that not the whole point of the story thus far? Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery. He, as the Egyptian viceroy Tzofenat Paneach, threatens them with slavery. Generations later, when a pharaoh arises who “knew not Joseph,” the entire Israelite people become Egypt’s slaves. Slavery, like vengeance, is a vicious circle that has no natural end. Why not, then, give it a supernatural end? Why did God not say: There shall be no more slavery?
If history tells us anything it is that God has patience, though it is often sorely tried. He wanted slavery abolished but he wanted it to be done by free human beings coming to see of their own accord the evil it is and the evil it does. The God of history, who taught us to study history, had faith that eventually we would learn the lesson of history: that freedom is indivisible. We must grant freedom to others if we truly seek it for ourselves.”
https://www.rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/mishpatim/the-slow-end-of-slavery/
Let’s Look at what Reb Shlomo Carlebach says on Parshat Mishpatim in a talk that called titled — You are not a master over anyone in the world.
Ascend to the mountain and be there (Sh’mot 24:12)
[In the 60’s and 70”s many young Jews explored their spirituality
With Eastern religions, and many of the Gurus had their disciples kiss their feet]
We Jewish people, children of Avraham Avinu have a very deep sense of paganism. We have an absolute refined sense of what idol worship is . Idol worship is if a human being takes to himself more power than he has, it’s when I make myself bigger than I am. A human being has a right to be a teacher, but if you make yourself more than you are, it’s really a bad scene.
I’m not only referring only to other religions. When I see a rabbi making himself bigger than he is, it’s also idol worship. If a teacher takes more power than he has in the classroom, makes himself more a master over the children than he has, it’s terrible.
Imagine I will tell you “I want you to know, I have divine powers. I want you to kiss my toes and bow down before me” what am I doing to you? In order to be more than I am — I have to take away from you. I wouldn’t bow down before the holiest man in the world. I would walk up to him, shake his hand and kiss him. I respect him, but bowing down? I only bow down before G-d, nobody else. I only bow down before G-d. You can cut my throat but I’m not bowing down before a human being. When you fall down on the floor, and kiss someone’s toes, do you know what that means? I am nothing in their presence. Being nothing in someone’s presence is only by G-d, and even G-d doesn’t like it too much.
When G-d spoke to us on Mount Sinai, do you think we were lying on the floor, licking the toes of Moshe Rabbeinu? When we stood on Mount Sinai, we stood straight up.
The Ba’al Shem Tov says the difference between bowing down before a human being and bowing down before G-d is very simple. To bow down before a human being, the smaller you get, the more you bow down. The way to bow down before G-d is to make yourself as tall as you possibly can. The fact is, we only bow down to G-d one time on Rosh Hashanah and three times on Yom Kippur. How come? Because even bowing down before G-d is a heavy scene.
Now open your hearts. There are moments when I have a chance to become a master over somebody else. If you stood on Mount Sinai then you know that only G-d is a master. If you didn’t stand on mount Sinai, you make them into a slave, you keep them as a slave.
This can happen between husband and wife, and even parents and children,
The essence of yiddishkeit is that you are not a master over your children. You are not a master over anyone in the world.
The worse thing in the world is when we play G-d over somebody else.
The worse thing about our school qqsystem is that a good teacher is someone whose students are afraid of him or her. It’s the worse of the worse, its idol worship school. Nebach! Those teachers did not hear G-d’s word on Mount Sinai
So you see what it is, when Moshe Rabbeinu comes down from Mount Sinai the first thing he says is ‘Yidden, I want you to know one thing. If anybody here thinks to be a Master over anybody else, then they were not on Mount Sinai,’ because only G-d is the master.
Good Shabbos!