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Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Mishpatim Exodus 21:1-24:18
By Shlomo Riskin
Efrat, Israel - Judaism has often been called (derogatorily) the religion of
law, but the truth is that Judaism gave to the world the great idea of a G-d
of love - Y-HVH. It is this redeeming G-d who created every human being in
His image and displayed to all of the nations His desire for everyone to be
free when the totalitarian despot Pharoah was forced to free the subjugated
Israelites. And our G-d is a G-d of unconditional love: when Moses asks the
question of questions, “Show me your ways on earth,” the Almighty
responds “Y-HVH Y-HVH,” “Redeeming love, Redeeming love”. The
repetition is explained by our Talmudic Sages to mean, “I am the G-d of
redeeming love before you sin, and I am the G-d of redeeming love after you
sin” (Exodus 22:18, 34:6, Rashi ad loc).
Yes, our Bible presents a legal system which it commands the Israelites to
follow “for your good.” But the purpose of the law is to bring us close
to the G-d of love, the goal of the law is to create a more perfect society
of peace. It is as Chaim Nahman Bialik declared concerning the Tractate
Shabbat: “It is a book of many laws, even minutiae of details, but the sum
total of these legalisms is a day - the Sabbath - which is wholly poetry and
song.“ With this perspective in mind, it is important to study this week’s
Biblical reading of Mishpatim. I will ask legalistic questions about the
order of the text; but what I hope will emerge is a ringing declaration
concerning the inalienable rights of the human being.
Our Biblical portion is a continuation of the Decalogue - specifically of
the inter-personal relationships of ethics and morality which the Decalogue
emphasizes - but with a strange order which seems to lack rhyme or reason.
Our reading opens with the laws relating to a Hebrew servant. It then goes
on to catalogue the penalties for acts of murder - willful as well as
accidental - for kidnaping, for striking or cursing one’s parents, for
killing a servant, for causing a miscarriage, for damaging an organ or limb
of a servant (Exodus 21:1-28).
The text then goes on to delineate the laws of damage done by one’s
property (one’s ox, one’s open pit) and then the damage done by an
individual who steals someone else’s ox or sheep. The Bible then returns
to damage done by someone’s animal and then returns to the case of
stealing an object which one was entrusted to guard. That section concludes
with the responsibility one incurs for damages done to an object which one
borrowed, the segment known as the “guardians” (shomrim).
A close reading of these verses (Exodus 21:1 - 22:1) reveals serious
questions as to the logical order (or lack thereof) of this legal document.
If the text following the discussion of servitude begins with human beings
who murder or damage - and therefore a man who steals another, a kidnapper,
is included in this list (Exodus 21:16) - why does the text wait many verses
later until it includes the case of an individual who steals an animal, and
precedes it with a law concerning damage wrought by oxen, not by human
beings?! (Exodus 21:37). And then the Bible continues to delineate animals
who do damage, and only afterwards returns to a thief who steals the silver
or vessels he had obligated himself to guard (Exodus 22:6). Why not group
all the cases of stealing together? And why do the laws of damages begin
with the laws of a hired laborer?
As I believe Elhanan Samet conclusively proves in his study of Mishpatim,
the order of the groupings of the various categories of the laws becomes
clear when we realize that the laws are catalogued in accordance with the
severity of damage done to the victim rather than to the status of the
assailant. Hence the first category opens with crimes of humans perpetuated
against humans, from murder to kidnaping to maiming. This category would
also include the case of the ox who kills a human being (in this I would
differ from Samet), since the owner of the ox is guilty of manslaughter and
must make restitution with “the redemption (value) of his life” (21:29).
These are all cases of human victims!
The next category includes damage done to animals, and therefore the human
theft of an animal fits within this classification. And finally, the last
category deals with damage done to the inanimate objects, and so it
concludes with an individual who steals the silver or the vessels he was
given to guard (Exodus 22:6).
The introduction to all of these laws is the law of servitude: our Bible
utilizes the term eved, which in Egypt meant slave, but here defines it,
indeed, transforms it from within to mean a hired laborer, for a limited
number of years and for non-servile tasks. Remember that the very first of
the Ten Commandments revealed at Sinai was, “I am the Lord who took you
out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage”, the Lord who detests
enslavement and ultimately caused Pharoah and his cohorts to drown in the
Reed Sea. How fitting it is that the very first group of laws following the
Decalogue re-define slavery to mean hired labor!
And G-ds abhorrence of slavery is a direct corollary of His having created
every human being in His image (Gen.1:27), with the inherent right to be
free. And if the human being is inviolate, he dare not be unjustifiably
murdered, maimed or stolen from. Hence the first category of damages,
following the laws of the hired laborer, emphasize the fact that one human
being dare not violate the ultimate value - and inviolability - of another
human being. What follows is the prohibition of damaging another person’s
livestock, and finally damaging another’s inanimate possessions. What
appeared at first to border on legalistic casuistry now emerges as a most
powerful declaration of the Biblical Axiomatic truth: every human being must
be seen as an end unto him/herself, and not as a means to someone else’s
end - not him and not his possessions!
The Canaanite slave is another category in Jewish law, which may very well
be obsolete nowadays and which we will discuss at another opportunity. It is
instructive nevertheless to study the final words of Maimonides in his
Mishneh Torah, Laws of Slaves (9,8):
“The trait of piety and the way of wisdom teach that an individual must be
merciful and pursue righteousness so that he not place a heavy yoke on his
(Canaanite) slave and not cause him anguish...he must eat whatever the
householders eat... he may not be humiliated by hand or by words... but must
be addressed gently with his complaints listened to...’Did not one stomach
make me?, He (G-d) made him and formed him from one womb’...”
Shabbat Shalom
Shlomo Riskin
Chancellor Ohr Torah Stone
Chief Rabbi - Efrat Israel
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