- there are 70 faces to 
Post by alon on Jan 28, 2023 8:01:52 GMT -8
This Week’s Readings:
Parashah- Exodus 21:1-22:24(25)
Haftara- Jeremiah 34:1-14
D’rash: This parashah is divided into four main sections:
Rights of persons- 21:1-36
1-11 regulations of slavery
12-27 wrongs to fellow man
28-36 injuries resulting from carelessness or neglect
Rights of property 22:1-15
1-6 theft
7-15 dishonesty
social justice- 22:16-25 (and continuing through 23:19 next week). The primary difference in the instructions in this weeks parashah and those continuing into next week is all this weeks include instructions for property rights, punishments, and restitution; ch 23 is simply a list of positive (you shall do this) and negative (you shall not do this) ‘commandments’ and promises of God if they are obeyed.
Due to limitations of space here I will not be touching on all these. I would however like to concentrate on just a couple of things. The Hebrews had been slaves in Egypt, so here God begins His instructions to them with that topic. In these mitzvoth we will see that, while a form of “slavery” will exist, it will be nothing like their experience under the Pharaoh’s. In fact, it will not be “slavery” at all:
Exodus 21:2 When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing [without payment to his master].
H5650 עֶבֶד ‛ebed; a servant: bondage, bondman, [bond-] servant, (man-) servant.
from ESV footnotes: vss 2-7 servant; the Hebrew term ‘ebed designates a range of social and economic roles
“Slaves” are typically wholly owned by their masters. This was the case of the Hebrews in Mitzrayim. They are not set free after a time.
There were actually different classes of servitude in Pharaonic Egypt:
chattel slavery- slaves as personal property which could be bought and sold
bonded labor- similar to what God institutes, but without the safeguards He gives
forced labor- what the Hebrews experienced in Egypt
The lines here are blurred by uncertainty about language usage, which changes over time. Slavery as we think of it was however banned by Torah. Recall the eighth commandment forbids stealing, which includes stealing of humans. Also in this chapter:
Exodus 21:16 “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.
What is translated “slavery” in most English Bibles is more accurately indentured servitude- a person is contracted to work for a specified time to repay a debt or loan. It may be voluntary, or it may be a judicial imposition. Also note the first word of this verse is כִּי kı̂y, better translated “if” than “when;” Shemot 21:2a OJB “If thou acquire an eved Ivri (Hebrew servant),” which is how it is also translated in my Green’s Interlinear and other references.
Just as there are three types of “slaves” in Egypt, there are to be three types of bonded servants in Yisroel:
paupers- those unable to sustain themselves voluntarily worked for someone who took care of their needs
debtors- those who could not pay off a debt worked without salary for one who would pay the debt for him
thieves- if a thief could not make the required restitution, he worked to repay his debt
Note that in the Yovel year all “slaves” were to be set free regardless if they had repaid their debt or if they’d served their six years (Hebrew custom was to release them at the start of the seventh year, not at the last):
Vayikra 25:10 OJB And ye shall treat as kadosh (holy; set apart) the fiftieth year, and proclaim deror (freedom) throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a Yovel (Jubilee) unto you; and ye shall return every man unto the ancestral heritage of his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his mishpochah (family, or social unit).
Exodus 21:7-11 “When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. If she does not please her master, who has designated her [Or so that he has not designated her] for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her. If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.”
vss 2-7 ‘ebed עֶבֶד- servant; bondman, bondservant; the Hebrew term ‘ebed designates a wide range of social and economic status, condition, or positions
Deuteronomy 15:12-13 “If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed. Both men and women sold as bondservants not only will go free, they will be given some remuneration for their service. The text goes on to instruct the master to be generous to them, even should the Yovel come before their debt is paid.
However vss. 7-11 deal with something we today would find very unsettling. I doubt it was any more gratifying for people at the time. This was the case in extreme poverty, where the selling of a daughter would help the family and ensure her provision. Note that while vs. 7 deals with her “sale,” vss 8-11 deal with guarantees and protections for her. This was not to be the abject slavery of the pagan nations around them. Later Jewish law forbade this practice, however it was common in the time of the Exodus. And biblically done only in the case of the most extreme poverty.
A young girl or woman could become a maidservant. As such she would be privy to many of the families secrets. More commonly she would be designated for marriage, either to the master or his son. Therefore her term of service had no limits. Being a father of one beautiful daughter I can surmise her father would have tried to place her in the best situation he could arrange. Still, this would be a tragedy for the family, having fallen so low as to require this to survive. Unless their fortunes changed, the next step would be the entire family going into servitude just to survive.
If she was not married, she could be redeemed by any of her family acting as a goel; a kinsman redeemer. If she was married there are provisions in place for her wellbeing. They could not sell her to a נָכְרִי עַם nokrı̂y ‛am, a strange people or nation. “Strange” carries connotations of “outlandish, adulterous, abusive” as well as being an outsider. She would have become chattel, to be used, then passed on to another. This was expressly forbidden.
If she married his son and was later rejected she is to be cared for as a daughter. If the master himself married her and later marries another he still had to care for her needs. And these are specified:
food
clothing
conjugal rights
A Hebrew woman who is thusly sold is definitely not a slave! She has the rights and status of a wife or a daughter. There are rules of conduct to protect her dignity as well as provision for her needs. She was not chattel to be passed around, neglected, or abused.
Later we’ll see that even foreign women taken captive for wives had protections:
Deuteronomy 21:10-12a,13b-14 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife, and you bring her home to your house, she shall … remain in your house and lament her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. But if you no longer delight in her, you shall let her go where she wants. But you shall not sell her for money, nor shall you treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her.
Women in the surrounding nations were not treated as well as Hebrew women. So a woman who was captured and betrothed to a Hebrew man was very fortunate. To go from a pagan culture where she would live a life of servitude and worse to a wife in a nation that had protections in place for women was a good thing for her.
I chose these because many times people throw them up as criticisms of Judaism and God. “The Bible allows slavery” and “it is cruel towards women” are charges we too often hear. Hopefully this will help debunk these ideas.
Mekorot: All scripture from the ESV unless otherwise specified; JPS Study TNK: D Prager; MF Unger: several reference books; my father and others
Next Week’s Readings:
Parashah- Ex 22:25(26)-23:33
Haftara- Is 49:1-26
* Apostolic references will be given in the darashot
Parashah- Exodus 21:1-22:24(25)
Haftara- Jeremiah 34:1-14
D’rash: This parashah is divided into four main sections:
Rights of persons- 21:1-36
1-11 regulations of slavery
12-27 wrongs to fellow man
28-36 injuries resulting from carelessness or neglect
Rights of property 22:1-15
1-6 theft
7-15 dishonesty
social justice- 22:16-25 (and continuing through 23:19 next week). The primary difference in the instructions in this weeks parashah and those continuing into next week is all this weeks include instructions for property rights, punishments, and restitution; ch 23 is simply a list of positive (you shall do this) and negative (you shall not do this) ‘commandments’ and promises of God if they are obeyed.
Due to limitations of space here I will not be touching on all these. I would however like to concentrate on just a couple of things. The Hebrews had been slaves in Egypt, so here God begins His instructions to them with that topic. In these mitzvoth we will see that, while a form of “slavery” will exist, it will be nothing like their experience under the Pharaoh’s. In fact, it will not be “slavery” at all:
Exodus 21:2 When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing [without payment to his master].
H5650 עֶבֶד ‛ebed; a servant: bondage, bondman, [bond-] servant, (man-) servant.
from ESV footnotes: vss 2-7 servant; the Hebrew term ‘ebed designates a range of social and economic roles
“Slaves” are typically wholly owned by their masters. This was the case of the Hebrews in Mitzrayim. They are not set free after a time.
There were actually different classes of servitude in Pharaonic Egypt:
chattel slavery- slaves as personal property which could be bought and sold
bonded labor- similar to what God institutes, but without the safeguards He gives
forced labor- what the Hebrews experienced in Egypt
The lines here are blurred by uncertainty about language usage, which changes over time. Slavery as we think of it was however banned by Torah. Recall the eighth commandment forbids stealing, which includes stealing of humans. Also in this chapter:
Exodus 21:16 “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.
What is translated “slavery” in most English Bibles is more accurately indentured servitude- a person is contracted to work for a specified time to repay a debt or loan. It may be voluntary, or it may be a judicial imposition. Also note the first word of this verse is כִּי kı̂y, better translated “if” than “when;” Shemot 21:2a OJB “If thou acquire an eved Ivri (Hebrew servant),” which is how it is also translated in my Green’s Interlinear and other references.
Just as there are three types of “slaves” in Egypt, there are to be three types of bonded servants in Yisroel:
paupers- those unable to sustain themselves voluntarily worked for someone who took care of their needs
debtors- those who could not pay off a debt worked without salary for one who would pay the debt for him
thieves- if a thief could not make the required restitution, he worked to repay his debt
Note that in the Yovel year all “slaves” were to be set free regardless if they had repaid their debt or if they’d served their six years (Hebrew custom was to release them at the start of the seventh year, not at the last):
Vayikra 25:10 OJB And ye shall treat as kadosh (holy; set apart) the fiftieth year, and proclaim deror (freedom) throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a Yovel (Jubilee) unto you; and ye shall return every man unto the ancestral heritage of his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his mishpochah (family, or social unit).
Exodus 21:7-11 “When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. If she does not please her master, who has designated her [Or so that he has not designated her] for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her. If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.”
vss 2-7 ‘ebed עֶבֶד- servant; bondman, bondservant; the Hebrew term ‘ebed designates a wide range of social and economic status, condition, or positions
Deuteronomy 15:12-13 “If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed. Both men and women sold as bondservants not only will go free, they will be given some remuneration for their service. The text goes on to instruct the master to be generous to them, even should the Yovel come before their debt is paid.
However vss. 7-11 deal with something we today would find very unsettling. I doubt it was any more gratifying for people at the time. This was the case in extreme poverty, where the selling of a daughter would help the family and ensure her provision. Note that while vs. 7 deals with her “sale,” vss 8-11 deal with guarantees and protections for her. This was not to be the abject slavery of the pagan nations around them. Later Jewish law forbade this practice, however it was common in the time of the Exodus. And biblically done only in the case of the most extreme poverty.
A young girl or woman could become a maidservant. As such she would be privy to many of the families secrets. More commonly she would be designated for marriage, either to the master or his son. Therefore her term of service had no limits. Being a father of one beautiful daughter I can surmise her father would have tried to place her in the best situation he could arrange. Still, this would be a tragedy for the family, having fallen so low as to require this to survive. Unless their fortunes changed, the next step would be the entire family going into servitude just to survive.
If she was not married, she could be redeemed by any of her family acting as a goel; a kinsman redeemer. If she was married there are provisions in place for her wellbeing. They could not sell her to a נָכְרִי עַם nokrı̂y ‛am, a strange people or nation. “Strange” carries connotations of “outlandish, adulterous, abusive” as well as being an outsider. She would have become chattel, to be used, then passed on to another. This was expressly forbidden.
If she married his son and was later rejected she is to be cared for as a daughter. If the master himself married her and later marries another he still had to care for her needs. And these are specified:
food
clothing
conjugal rights
A Hebrew woman who is thusly sold is definitely not a slave! She has the rights and status of a wife or a daughter. There are rules of conduct to protect her dignity as well as provision for her needs. She was not chattel to be passed around, neglected, or abused.
Later we’ll see that even foreign women taken captive for wives had protections:
Deuteronomy 21:10-12a,13b-14 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife, and you bring her home to your house, she shall … remain in your house and lament her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. But if you no longer delight in her, you shall let her go where she wants. But you shall not sell her for money, nor shall you treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her.
Women in the surrounding nations were not treated as well as Hebrew women. So a woman who was captured and betrothed to a Hebrew man was very fortunate. To go from a pagan culture where she would live a life of servitude and worse to a wife in a nation that had protections in place for women was a good thing for her.
I chose these because many times people throw them up as criticisms of Judaism and God. “The Bible allows slavery” and “it is cruel towards women” are charges we too often hear. Hopefully this will help debunk these ideas.
Mekorot: All scripture from the ESV unless otherwise specified; JPS Study TNK: D Prager; MF Unger: several reference books; my father and others
Next Week’s Readings:
Parashah- Ex 22:25(26)-23:33
Haftara- Is 49:1-26
* Apostolic references will be given in the darashot
