mishpatim

This is a new wiki for studying the parashah



Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1-24:18)**
 * פרשת משפטים

//The laws assembled in Mishpatim ... do not appear to be organized in any logical pattern. Civil, criminal, ethical, and cultic injunctions are listed indiscriminately, yielding a chaotic legislative quilt. Nor do the traditional commentaries waste much time trying to figure our the reasons for the sequence.

And yet I find it striking that our parasha opens with a set of regulations governing the institution of slavery:

"When you acquire a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years; in the seventh year he shall go free, without payment.... When a [Hebrew] man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not be freed as male slaves are. If she proves to be displeasing to her master, who designated her for himself [i.e. for marriage], he must let her be redeemed...(Ex. 21:2,7)."

Ten of the first eleven verses of the parasha deal with the protection of Hebrew slaves in a bold new spirit that practically eliminates a status that turns humans into chattel. The Torah seeks to prevent us from degrading members of the community who have fallen on hard times.//

--> Ismar Schorsch - JTS 1994

**א** וְאֵלֶּה הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים אֲשֶׁר תָּשִׂים לִפְנֵיהֶם. __** ב ** כִּי תִקְנֶה עֶבֶד עִבְרִי שֵׁשׁ שָׁנִים יַעֲבֹד וּבַשְּׁבִעִת יֵצֵא לַחָפְשִׁי חִנָּם__. ** ג ** אִם-בְּגַפּוֹ יָבֹא בְּגַפּוֹ יֵצֵא אִם-בַּעַל אִשָּׁה הוּא וְיָצְאָה אִשְׁתּוֹ עִמּוֹ. ** ד ** אִם-אֲדֹנָיו יִתֶּן-לוֹ אִשָּׁה וְיָלְדָה-לוֹ בָנִים אוֹ בָנוֹת הָאִשָּׁה וִילָדֶיהָ תִּהְיֶה לַאדֹנֶיהָ וְהוּא יֵצֵא בְגַפּוֹ. ** ה ** וְאִם-אָמֹר יֹאמַר הָעֶבֶד אָהַבְתִּי אֶת-אֲדֹנִי אֶת-אִשְׁתִּי וְאֶת-בָּנָי לֹא אֵצֵא חָפְשִׁי. ** ו ** וְהִגִּישׁוֹ אֲדֹנָיו אֶל-הָאֱלֹהִים וְהִגִּישׁוֹ אֶל-הַדֶּלֶת אוֹ אֶל-הַמְּזוּזָה וְרָצַע אֲדֹנָיו אֶת-אָזְנוֹ בַּמַּרְצֵעַ וַעֲבָדוֹ לְעֹלָם. {ס} ** ז ** __וְכִי-יִמְכֹּר אִישׁ אֶת-בִּתּוֹ לְאָמָה לֹא תֵצֵא כְּצֵאת הָעֲבָדִים.__ __** ח ** אִם-רָעָה בְּעֵינֵי אֲדֹנֶיהָ אֲשֶׁר-לא (לוֹ) יְעָדָהּ וְהֶפְדָּהּ__ לְעַם נָכְרִי לֹא-יִמְשֹׁל לְמָכְרָהּ בְּבִגְדוֹ-בָהּ. ** ט ** וְאִם-לִבְנוֹ יִיעָדֶנָּה כְּמִשְׁפַּט הַבָּנוֹת יַעֲשֶׂה-לָּהּ. ** י ** אִם-אַחֶרֶת יִקַּח-לוֹ שְׁאֵרָהּ כְּסוּתָהּ וְעֹנָתָהּ לֹא יִגְרָע. ** יא ** וְאִם-שְׁלָשׁ-אֵלֶּה לֹא יַעֲשֶׂה לָהּ וְיָצְאָה חִנָּם אֵין כָּסֶף.

JPS translation (1917)
 * 1** Now these are the ordinances which thou shalt set before them. __**2** If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.__ **3** If he come in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he be married, then his wife shall go out with him. **4** If his master give him a wife, and she bear him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. **5** But if the servant shall plainly say: I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free; **6** then his master shall bring him unto God, and shall bring him to the door, or unto the door-post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for ever. **{S}** __**7** And if a man sell his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not go out as the men-servants do.__ **8** __If she please not her master, who hath espoused her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed;__ to sell her unto a foreign people he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. **9** And if he espouse her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. **10** If he take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her conjugal rights, shall he not diminish.

So my question about all this has two-parts:


 * Can we really consider these laws about the Hebrew slave to be bold, audacious, and progressive?
 * If so, how does one communicate this to students?

please add your thoughts here:

Here's another dvar torah that looks into this issue, with a bit more sensitivity perhaps:

[|Rabbi Michal Shekel, Kolel Parasha Study]