The Morality of Slavery
INTRODUCTION TO PARASHAT
HASHAVUA
PARASHAT
MISHPATIM
The Morality of
Slavery
By Rabbi Yaakov
Beasley
INTRODUCTION
After the
dramatic recitation last week of the Aseret Ha-Dibrot, in this weeks
parasha, we find ourselves with the practical details of the
statutes and the laws of the Torah.
No longer do we read of Divine Revelation. Instead, the topics of this weeks
parasha include the legal consequences of manslaughter and homicide, the
proper disposal of witches, the regulations regarding lost property, brief
mentions of Shabbat and the holidays, the responsibility of negligent watchmen
and wild oxen, and rules regarding compensation for bodily harm.
The
parasha opens with one of the Torahs most challenging sections, the laws
of slavery:
When you
acquire a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years; in the seventh year he shall
go free, for nothing. If he came in single, he shall leave single; if he had a
wife, his wife shall leave with him. If his master gave him a wife and she has
borne him children, the wife and her children shall belong to the master, and he
shall leave alone. But if the slave declares, I love my master, and my wife and
my children; I do not wish to go free, his master shall take him before God. He
shall be brought to the door or the doorpost and his master shall pierce his ear
with an awl; and he shall remain his slave for life.
(21:2-6)
To our modern
sensibilities, the very concept of slavery evokes images of brutality and
primitiveness. For those who have
followed the story of the Jewish People as they left
This issue
bothered commentators of the previous generations as well. The Abarbanel comments here on the
juxtaposition between the Aseret Ha-Dibrot at the end of last weeks
parasha and the passage on Hebrew slaves at the beginning of this week's
reading. He notes that
Chazal interpreted the injunction "And these are the rules" as
meaning that the text which follows should be seen as adding to what preceded
(that is, to the first commandment, which identifies Hashem as the one
"who brought you out of the
R. Samson Raphael Hirsch further
develops this idea. He notes that
an eved ivri (a Hebrew servant) was not something encountered every day.
Jewish courts did not sell a person, and a person would not sell himself except
in the most dire of circumstances. Accordingly, even the situation of a "slave
who is not a slave" came about only rarely. Even in the extreme case of a thief
sold to pay for his theft, it is said, "He shall remain with you as a hired or
bound laborer" (Vayikra 25:40), and we are taught that "you may not
change his trade," that is, he must continue doing the skills he learned and may
not be forced to do menial tasks.
To properly
discuss this issue, we will quickly review the laws of slavery as they appear in
the Torah and in rabbinic literature and examine three separate possibilities of
reconciling these laws with our sensibilities.
SUMMARY
The first issue
that we must deal with is defining the terms by which we discuss these
regulations. According to Torah
law, there are two types of servants.
The first was a non-Jew who was sold to Jewish masters, and the second
was Jewish (the eved
ivri). The eved ivri is basically a
hired-hand for a period of six years or until the yovel (Jubilee year)
arrives, whichever comes first. There are two compelling reasons for this
arrangement: either, the person has stolen items and can not afford to repay his
debt, or a person facing extreme financial difficulties sells himself to provide
some sort of home setting and life.[1] When the six years of the persons term
come to an end, the eved ivri has the option to renew his
indenture past the six-year period if he so desires. (He can not, however,
extend it beyond the time of the yovel year).[2]
In essence, the Hebrew
slave is simply someone who is employed for a
lengthy period. The only thing he has in common with a
regular slave is that within that period of time, he may not change
his mind and leave. The non-Jewish slave, on the other hand, may
stay for a longer period. If he
does not choose to adopt Jewish practices and regulations within a year after
being acquired, however, he also must be set free.
Despite these rules, the Torahs
dislike of the institution shines through, as seen in both the words of the
prophets and as reflected in rabbinic law:
A hired laborer only works during the
day; a Hebrew bondsman works day or night. [On this, the gemara asks:]
But is it conceivable that a Hebrew bondsman should work day or night? After
all, it is said (Devarim 15:16), "he...is happy with you" - eating with
you, drinking with you, and enjoying shelter with you. (Kiddushin
15a)
The next four pages in the Talmud
discuss all of the regulations that protect the eved ivri from any form
of abuse. For example, he should
not be made to work as a slave if he has prior training or education; his master
must provide sustenance for his wife and children; the bondsman is released
after the sixth year and in the jubilee year with a grant from his master; he
may even redeem himself. The Talmud concludes by interpreting the verse he...
is happy with you" as follows:
Eating with you and drinking with you,
for you are not to eat fresh bread while he eats stale moldy bread, you drink
aged wine while he drinks young wine, you bed down on feathers while he on hay.
Hence it is said that whoever buys himself a Hebrew bondsman [a slave] is as if
he bought himself a master.
(Kiddushin 20a)
Tosafot ask: what is meant by buying
oneself a master? Does it not suffice for a bondsman to be like a master? In
what way is he more master than the master himself? Tosafot explain that in
certain situations, the servant is given more consideration than his master:
As the Talmud Yerushalmi states:
Sometimes, a person only has one pillow and if he lies down on it, he has not
fulfilled the commandment that the bondsman be happy with you; but if he
neither lies down on it nor gives it to his bondsman, he acts as the wicked
people of Sodom. Thus, he must give it to his bondsman, and so he [the bondsman]
is as master to his owner.
The halakhic works reflect this
attitude. The Rambam notes that
although these protections technically only apply to the eved ivri, the
wise person would behave towards his entire household with
kindness:
It is
permissible to work a non-Jewish servant harshly. Yet, although this is the
law, the way of the pious and the wise is to be compassionate and to pursue
justice, not to overburden or oppress a servant, and to provide them from every
dish and every drink. The early sages would give their servants
from every dish on their table. They would feed their animals and their servants
before sitting to their own meals. Does it not say (Tehillim 123:2), "As
the eyes of the servant to the hand of his master; as the eyes of the maid to
her mistress [so our eyes are towards the Lord our
God...]"?
So, too, you
should not denigrate a servant, neither physically nor verbally. The Torah made
him your servant to do work, not to be disgraced. Do not treat him with constant
screaming and anger; rather speak with him pleasantly and listen to his
complaints. Such were the good ways in which Job took pride when he said, "Did I
ever despise the judgment of my servant and my maid when they argued with me?
Did not my Maker make him, too, in the belly; did not the same One form us both
in the womb?"
For anger and
cruelty are only found among other nations. The children of Abraham, our father
- and they are Israel, to whom the Holy One, blessed be He, has provided the
goodness of Torah and commanded us righteous judgments and statutes - they are
compassionate to all. This is one of
the attributes of the Holy One, blessed be He, that we are commanded to emulate
(Tehillim 145:9): "And He has compassion for all He has
made."
Furthermore,
all who have compassion will be treated compassionately, as was stated
(Devarim 13:18), "He will give you compassion and He will have compassion
upon you and multiply you.
(Mishneh Torah, Laws of Indentured Servants,
9:8)
Notwithstanding all these
restrictions, our society today views slavery in the most negative light. The
claim that the laws of the Torah essentially remove a Hebrew bondsman from the
class of a slave and that a Hebrew maidservant was not intended for bondage at
all but for a marital relationship does not lessen this negative outlook. How, then, to reconcile them with
our modern outlook?
IN COMPARISON WITH OTHER
NATIONS
The first approach suggests that we
err when we judge these laws without an appreciation of their background the
milieu in which they were given.
According to the laws of the ancient nations, no punishment was meted out
to a master who killed his slave, as the slave was considered his property, to
do with as he saw fit. Similarly, we find that other codes contain no
restrictions on the extent to which a master may beat his slave, as a slave is
his property. In contrast, our parasha states that a master who knocks
out even the tooth of his slave must grant the slave automatic freedom.
Only by way of comparison
can we appreciate the magnitude of the moral and legal revolution introduced by
the laws of the Torah pertaining to striking of a slave.[3]
While the Torah technically maintains the legal status of the servants
output as belonging to his master, the Torah insists on maintaining the
servants human
value. His life is not the
masters property. It belongs,
instead, to the One Who gave him life, and Hashem will demand his blood
from the hands of those who spill it.
In his commentary Diyyukim, R.
Pinchas Wolf adds a very creative question to this discussion. If the bias of
the Torah is so humane, why did it allow slavery at all, whether of a Hebrew or
of a Canaanite? He argues that had the Torah abolished slavery entirely, this
act would not have been felt at all and the Torah would not have achieved its
intention of having an impact on all peoples." People would have rejected the
innovation as another peculiarity of the Jews, like the Shabbat or
shemitta:
Rather, the Torah left slavery in and
of itself in existence, but improved the condition of the slave to the extent
that the
However, while we can appreciate the
revolutionary nature of the Torahs laws compared to ancient times, should we,
supposedly the beneficiaries of more enlightened times, not hope and strive
for more?
RAV KOOK AND THE IDEAL OF
SLAVERY
One approach
that has many adherents among religious Jews today, especially among those
labelled the Mercaz circle, suggests that the Torahs laws of servitude are,
in fact, an ideal, in that they maintain both the dignity of the individual and
the economic reality of the world. They suggest that there will always be poor
people who find themselves in difficult straits and circumstances. What better manner in which to help them
regain both their moral bearing and their financial well-being? This approach is best articulated by R.
Avraham Yitzchak Ha-Kohen Kook:
You should
know that slavery, as with all the moral, upstanding ways of God in which the
righteous walk and the evil stumble, never in itself caused any fault or error.
Slavery is a natural law amongst the human race. Indeed there is no
difference between legal slavery and natural slavery. In fact, legal
slavery is within the jurisdiction of Torah, and is legislated in order to
control certain flaws, and this, because God anticipated the reality of
natural slavery. Let me explain. The reality of life is that there is rich and
poor, weak and strong. A person who has great wealth hires poor people - legally
- in order to do his work. These employees are, in fact, natural slaves due to
their socio-economic standing. For example, coal miners. These people go to work
in the mines of their own free will, but they are in effect slaves to their
employers... and maybe if they were actually owned by their employer, they would
be better off!... The rich, with their stone hearts, scoff at all morals and
ethics. They dont care if the mines lack air and light, even if this shortens
the life expectancy of their workers, whose numbers run into the tens of
thousands, many of whom become critically ill. They certainly wont engage in
any extra expense to improve working conditions in the mines, and if a mineshaft
collapses burying workers alive, they dont care. Tomorrow they will find new
workers to employ. If these people were owned by the master by legal slavery, he
would have a financial interest to look after their lives and well-being,
because they are his own assets. (R. Kook. Iggerot HaRaaya, vol.1,
no.89)
Put simply, R. Kook suggests that
servitude is like any other natural phenomenon it can be used properly and
responsibly or it can be abused. As long as some people are wealthy and powerful
and others remain poor and weak, natural servitude will always exist, even if
slavery were to be formally outlawed.
The poor will always rely on the wealthy to hire them. It is better that the worker remain the
property of the owner, creating a situation in which it is in the masters
best interest to look after his slave's welfare. The owner will more often than not care
about his profit sheet, not his workers interests.
WOULD THE MOREH ABOLISH
SLAVERY?
Another
approach exists as well. Not all
the commentators automatically accept the idea that the laws of the Torah
necessarily reflect the highest ideal to which we should strive. Instead, these laws are viewed as a
moral bare minimum. Rashi, when
discussing the rules regarding a beautiful captive woman who was taken in war,
notes that Chazal stated, dibra ha-Torah kenegged yetzer
ha-ra. The very nature of the
commandment recognizes human weakness.
In his
philosophical work, the Moreh Nevukhim, the Rambam suggests that the
institution of the sacrificial cult, the korbanot, was also a non-ideal
phenomenon (Moreh III:32).
Instead, he suggests, it was to provide a Jewish answer to pagan
rituals. Had Hashem
commanded the people at that time to abolish the sacrifices entirely and instead
rely on verbal prayer alone, Bnei Yisrael would have been unable to
comprehend the new rules. Instead,
they had to be weaned off of sacrifices, like a child, by the successive
limitations on the offerings.
Similarly, we may suggest that given the prevalence of the institution of
slavery in the ancient world (still heavily reliant on tremendous amounts of
manpower for its agricultural needs), the total abolishment of the institution
would have been beyond the comprehension of everyone at the time. Instead, the Torah chose to limit the
institution as much as realistically possible and send the clear value-based
message that this situation was not an ideal to be perpetuated forever. Ultimately, we aspire for the situation
mentioned in the Abarbanel above to be totally free from others, to properly
become servants to Hashem.
[1] Here is R. Samson Rafael Hirschs explanation of this
law:
This
is the one and only case in which the Torah orders deprivation of freedom as a
punishment; and how does it order it? It orders the criminal to be brought
into the life of a family as we might expect a refractory child to be brought
under the influence of Jewish family life... How careful is it that the
self-confidence of the criminal should not be broken... it insists that he may
not be separated from his wife and family... In depriving him of his liberty,
and thereby the means to provide for his dependents, the Torah puts the
responsibility of caring for them on those who ... have the benefit of his
labors (commentary to 21:6).
[2] Clearly, however, the Torah disapproves of the person exercising this
option. Here are the words of R.
Alex Israel, who deftly summarizes this topic:
The
Torah wishes the freedom of everyman. The slave who prefers the security and
comfort of the artificial environment of slavery - the world where he is taken
care of and his worries are dealt with by others - and is willing to trade his
freedom and liberty for that comfort, is scorned by the Torah. The Talmud
asks:
Why
the doorpost of all the parts of the house? God said,: This is the very doorway
that was my witness in Egypt when I passed over the lintels and doorposts of the
houses of Israel. It was then that I said, The children of Israel will be
slaves to me, and not slaves to my slaves, the people whom I took from Slavery
to freedom. Now this person has deliberately acted to acquire a (human) master
for himself - let his ear be pierced before that doorpost (Kiddushin
22b).
The
Talmud continues:
Why was the ear singled out from all other limbs of the body? God said:
The ear which heard my voice at Mt. Sinai saying, The Children of Israel are My
slaves and not slaves to others slaves and went and acquired a master for
himself, let his ear be pierced through.
[3]
In
Kadmoniot Ha-Halakha, Shmuel Rubinstein (Kovno, 5686) writes (chapter
22):
The
gemara (Kiddushin 25a) teaches: 'There are twenty-four protruding
limbs of a person, for all of which a slave is set free, and these are: the tips
of the fingers, toes, ears, nose, penis and breasts... Rabbi says: Also
testicles. Ben Azzai says: Also the tongue.
The
situation of a slave in ancient times was truly awful. He was like an object
owned by his master, who was free to do whatever he wanted in order to force the
slave to perform hard labor day and night, and to use him for all kinds of
perverted purposes. The master could beat his slave mercilessly for any major or
minor wrongdoing; he could permanently maim his limbs without fear of any
punishment. For any purpose desired by the master, the slave could be blinded.
Herodotus writes (4:2) that the Scythians used to blind their captive slaves so
that they would work in producing butter. And there were several other such
purposes for which slaves would be struck with blindness, TO THE POINT WHERE
PUTTING OUT EYES BECAME A SYMBOL OF SLAVERY. Likewise, prisoners taken in war
were blinded as a sign of slavery, and this was done particularly to kings and
officers of the defeated army, as a sign of revenge and enslavement. For the
same reason, Shimshon was blinded by the Philistines (Shoftim 16:21), and
this is apparently also the meaning of the words of Nachash the Ammonite to the
men of Yavesh Gil'ad: By this condition I will make a covenant with you: if you
all put out your right eye (Shmuel I 11:2), as if to say, In order that
you will be slaves and prisoners of war to me. For the same reason, King
Tzidkiyahu was blinded by Nevukhadnetzar (Melakhim II 28:7), and this is
also the meaning of the words of Datan and Aviram to Moshe, Will you put out
the eyes of those men? As if to say, Are we considered in your eyes as slaves,
prisoners of war, that you will exert your power over us and to do us whatever
you wish, to drag us wherever you decide? This arrogance on the part of the
enslavers seems to have lasted until much later times, explaining even Herod's
blinding of Bava ben Buta (Bava Batra 4a).
For
some wrongdoing in his work or for breaking some vessel, the slave's fingers or
hands could be cut off, and this was apparently also done to prisoners of war as
a sign of enslavement. This explains the amputation of thumbs and big toes by
Adoni Bezek, who testifies that seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes
amputated [would gather food under my table]. This was practiced among the
Romans, too: Seneca reports that for breakage of a small vessel, the slave's
hands would be cut off, or he would be put to death.
THE
AMPUTATION OF A SLAVE'S EARS WAS SO COMMONLY PRACTICED THAT IT WAS ESTABLISHED
AS A PUNISHMENT FOR SLAVES. The Hammurabi Code stipulates, If a slave strikes a
free person on the cheek, his ear is to be cut off (205); If a slave tells his
master, You are not my master, and it is proved that he is in fact his master,
then his master is to cut off his ear (282).
Slaves
were routinely castrated in order that thoughts of women would not interfere
with their work, and eunuchs were also used to serve women. This was so common
that the term eunuch came to be used for all kinds of servants, even those not
castrated, like Potifar, the eunuch of Pharaoh (Bereishit 39:1) and the
royal wine-bearer and baker who are referred to as Pharaoh's eunuchs (ibid.
40:2)
In
summary, there was nothing that prevented a master from doing any of this to his
slave; it seems that they would even make the slaves deaf in order that they
would not talk among themselves during their work, or for other purposes. AND
THEY WOULD STRIKE OR KNOCK OUT THEIR TEETH so that they would not be able to eat
much. Cicero describes how it was common among the Romans that if a slave knew
some evidence against his master, the master would cut out his tongue in order
that he would not be able to testify. And the maiming of slaves, either by
purposeless beating or for some purpose desired by the master, was so common
that BLEMISHES WERE INFLICTED ON THE EXPOSED BODY PARTS OF THE SLAVE IN ORDER TO
MARK HIM AS A SLAVE, AND THE BLEMISHES WERE A SIGN OF
SLAVERY.
It
was against all of this that the Torah came to improve the lot of the slaves and
their worth, as much as was possible in those days. For beating to death the
Torah prescribes, He shall surely be avenged which, in the view of the Sages
(Sanhedrin 52b), refers to the death penalty.
For
causing blemishes to the exposed body parts in order to thereby signify that he
was a slave or even without such express intent the Torah prescribes that
he shall send him free, which is the opposite of the purpose of creating these
blemishes. From this we derive the laws stipulating that the master must set the
slave free for causing blemishes upon the exposed body
parts.
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