Parshas Mishpatim
Jews and Slavery
One of the main issues that the Torah deals with in this week?s parsha is
that
of slavery. The Torah envisioned two types of servants. One was Jewish,
who was basically a hired hand for a period of six years or until the
yovel (Jubilee year) arrived, whichever came first. This servant had the
right to renew his indentiture past the six-year period if he so desired
but never past the time of the arrival of the yovel year The Torah
obviously disapproved of the renewal arrangement, for the servant first
had to suffer having his ear drilled before continuing service to his
master.
Rashi, quoting the Talmud states that the Lord is disappointed, so to
speak, in the servant?s choice of continued indenture since ?they [the
Jews] are my servants and are not meant to be servants to others
servants.? There are compelling human reasons for the arrangement of
servitude. It was to repay items that had been stolen or to provide some
sort of home setting and living for the very destitute and homeless. It
is also humanly understandable that inertia and fear of outside social
conditions and having to begin life anew may contribute to the servant
wishing to remain a servant to a kind and decent master for longer than
the six-year period. Nevertheless, from all of the restrictions that the
Talmud discusses on the treatment of servants it is obvious that the
project of slavery could not ever be of financial or economic benefit to
the masters of those servants.
The prophets of Israel in later generations also spoke out strongly
against the institution of slavery amongst Jews. As such, it seems that
the Torah saw this arrangement as a method of social rehabilitation of
petty criminals and the unfortunate dregs of society. But in its moral
view of human life, the Torah had scant room for slavery as a social or
economic institution. There was also a set of laws that governed the
purchase and maintenance that governed the second type of servant ? the
non-Jewish one.
If that be the case, that the Torah did not favor at all the institution
of slavery, then why did the Torah allow its existence within Jewish
society at all? This difficult question has challenged all of the
commentators to the Torah, especially those of the last two centuries.
There is no doubt that for millennia slavery was an accepted social
institution in the world, even in the civilized world. It took a
four-year bloodbath with over six hundred thousand dead to end slavery
in the United States in the middle of the nineteenth century. There is
slavery still existent in parts of the world even today. There is a
conception in Torah that the Torah dealt with the reality of the
weakness of human behavior and allowed under very strict and hoarded
circumstances behavior and institutions, which were not in the purview
of the great moral framework.
The story of the yefat toar - the beautiful non-Jewish captive woman
taken in war and permitted to the Jewish soldier under rigorous
conditions and restrictions ? is an example of such a Torah attitude in
a difficult situation that allows behavior because of social conditions
that does not really meet the standards of Torah morality. The idea of
slavery is perhaps one of those examples. In any event, slavery has been
non-existent in most of the Jewish world for many centuries and the
study of slavery and its laws and restrictions remains today a
theoretical study without current practical implications in Jewish life.
Shabat shalom.
Rabbi Berel Wein
Text Copyright © 2006 by Rabbi Berel Wein and Torah.org
Visit www.rabbiwein.com for a complete selection of Rabbi Wein's books and tapes.
