MISHPATIM: SLAVERY & AN EYE FOR AN EYE
The Parshah
of Mishpatim contains 53 mitzvot—23 positive commandments and 30
prohibitions.
This essay concentrates on just two of the mitzvot:
SLAVERY and An Eye for An Eye.
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Slave Market in
Cairo, Egypt & Nubia. David Roberts, between 1845 and 1849.
Our exodus from Egypt can be
considered as a Slave Revolt. It should be no surprise then that the very first
decrees given by God to the newly freed Israelites are rules relating to Hebrew
slaves. Laws
of slavery are the very first laws given to the newly freed Israelites
following the Ten Commandments. Those who have just left slavery themselves are
told by God what to do when acquiring a slave.
One Law in particular comes from Exodus 21:4 –the Pairing of
a Hebrew man slave with a Canaanite non-Jewish woman slave.
“If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or
daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall
go out alone”.
Although Canaanite slaves work forever, We are not to
humiliate them.
Question: What is the basis for the pairing? Is it Voluntary
or Involuntary?
From the Talmud, Niddah 9a there is some insight: Compare the
practice of two prominent religious leaders:
“Rav Sh’muel assigned his female slaves to individual
husbands according to their individual choice”.
However, “Rav Nachman interchanged them at will. He
humiliated them”.
Rav Nachman was the son in law of the Exilarch. This is a
case of “Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely”.
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Slavery is a system in which principles of property law are
applied to people. Slavery allows a slave master to own, buy and sell
individuals. A slave is a form of property. In our Talmud class on tractate
Bava Basra at 149b it was made clear that a Canaanite slave was considered
property that can be passed on from generation to another.
Slaves are unable to withdraw unilaterally from
such an arrangement and they work without pay. The evil of slavery is so
obvious, it seems unnecessary to even to mention it. But do not forget that
slavery and human trafficing still exists. Depending on your definition, 20- 40
million people are in some form of slavery today.
PLEASE NOTE: Although the Chumash mentions slavery as an established
institution, a Jew has only one master, and that is God.
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When we were slaves in Egypt, Hashem freed us
from servitude, from Egyptian bondage.
Jews are a people of compassion and moral
justice; slavery and having slaves is not part of our social fabric.
Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, Hayez, Francesco (1791-1882)
This is borne out in the Haftorah portion which
is from Jeremiah in part Chapter 34:8-22.
It is 586 BCE. Nebuchadnezzar is
breathing down our neck. The Kingdom of Judah is about to fall.
We are given an opportunity by Hashem to avert
the destruction of Jerusalem, if only we free our slaves. Slave holders take a
sacred oath in the Temple to do this, but renege on their word…
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That every man should let his manservant and
every man his maidservant, a Jew and a Jewess go free, that none should hold
his Jewish brother as a slave. |
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10: Now all the princes and all the people who had
entered into the covenant hearkened that every one should let his manservant
and everyone his maidservant go free, no longer holding them in slavery; then
they obeyed and let them go. |
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11: But afterwards they turned and brought back
the manservants and the maidservants whom they had let free, and forcibly
made them into manservants and maidservants. |
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12: Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah
from the Lord, saying: |
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13: So says the Lord God of Israel; I made a
covenant with your fathers on the day that I brought them forth out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves, saying: |
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14: "At the end of seven years you shall let
go every man his brother Jew who has been sold to you, and when he has served
you for six years you shall let him go free from you"; but your
forefathers did not obey Me, nor did they incline their ear[s]. |
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15: And now this day you turned and did what was
right in My sight by proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor, and you
made a covenant before Me in the House upon which My Name is called. |
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16: But then you turned and profaned My Name, and
you took back, each man his manservant and each man his maidservant, whom you
had let free to themselves, and forced them to be manservants and
maidservants to you. |
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17: Therefore, so says the Lord: You have not
hearkened to Me to proclaim freedom, every one to his brother and every one
to his neighbor; behold I proclaim freedom to you, says the Lord, to the
sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine, and I will make you an object of
horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. |
Result: The Temple is destroyed; the Kingdom is lost; we go into
Exile.
What a bunch of fools we were!
WHY WAS SLAVERY SO IMPORTANT TO US?
THINK OF PHARAOH WHO WENT TO GREAT LENGTHS TO
GET HIS SLAVES BACK.
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AN EYE FOR AN EYE
In Parshat Mishpatim at 21:23 we are taught “עַ֚יִן תַּ֣חַת עַ֔יִן”, "An eye for an eye".
23: But if there is a fatality, you shall
give a life for a life,
24: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a
hand for a hand, a foot for a foot,
This is a principle that is sometimes referred to as reciprocal justice or
measure for measure ( מדה קנגד מדה) or
in Latin, lex talionis, the law of retaliation or possibly equitable
retribution. On its face this principle seems pretty straight forward: A person
who has injured another person is to be penalized to a similar degree by the
injured party.
I think the original intention of “An eye for an eye” may have been two-fold:
To prevent excessive punishment at the hands of either an avenging private
party or his Family or Clan or Tribe. It served to prevent feuds and vendettas.
· To ensure that the standard of care for a wealthy perpetrator, who may wish
to buy his way out, be the same as for an improvised person.
At the time when we received the Torah at Mt. Sinai there was a Babylonian legal
code present in Mesopotamia called the Code of Hammurabi. Included in this code
was the principle of “An eye for an eye”. What the law would have been in Egypt
I do not know.
I do know that 500 years later at the time of
the Judges, as shown in 1:5-7 and Chapters 20 and 21 we went beyond the law of
retaliation. Excessive punishment was still in play.
EXCEPTIONS AND LIMITS OF THE LAW
An exception to an eye for an eye is the crime
of unintentional murder. The perpetrator is allowed to seek sanctuary in Cities
of Refuge.
From Numbers 35:
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At that time our nature was to take revenge.
Maybe it was it possible for a monetary
payment, כֹפֶר to be acceptable in place of bodily
punishment. However that is a stretch.
Sometime later, it is hard to say when, the lex
talionis was "humanized" by the Rabbis who interpreted "an eye
for an eye" to mean reasonable monetary compensation. The Rabbis of the
Talmud interpreted it that way. And it is so today.
Monetary Form of Compensation: the Rabbis instigated a sophisticated
five-part monetary form of compensation, consisting of payment for
"Damages, Pain, Medical Expenses, Incapacitation, and Mental
Anguish". Many nations have this today.
Question: Is this dangerous ground? Is the reinterpretation of lex talionis an
example of the ability of Judaism to adapt to changing social and intellectual
ideas?
Bits and Pieces
The Sadducees did not accept the Rabbis’ reinterpretation.
Their rationale: A blind offender who blinds someone cannot be punished.
False Witnesses: The Torah requires the court to "do to him
as he had conspired to do to his brother" Reciprocal Justice required that
the person giving false testimony received the punishment that would have been
given if his testimony was believed.
This includes lases and death.
Devarim - Deuteronomy - Chapter 25:11-12 –
If [two] men, a man and his brother, are
fighting together, and the wife of one of them approaches to rescue her husband
from his assailant, and she stretches forth her hand and grabs hold of his
private parts
you shall cut off her hand You shall not have pity.
As per Rashi: monetary punishment only/
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