Weekly Parashah-Mishpatim 5781
This week’s Parashah is Mishpatim, it is translated as ‘social ordinances’. It contains many laws regarding how we can live together in community.
“When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male of female and destroys it, he shall let him/her go free on account of his eye. If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let him/her go free on account of his tooth.”(Exodus 21:27-28).
These verses give us a different way of thinking about slavery. While all of us know that enslaving someone is not good, there is also a reality that slavery doesn’t just end immediately and there has to be ways of treating our slaves that is humane and decent. Since slaves were considered property, these verses don’t make much sense. It is my property and I should be able to do anything with my property that I want is conventional thinking.
Our Holy Torah is saying, not true. If we mistreat a slave, we have to give them their freedom. Just because we have bought the slave doesn’t mean that they are not human beings. We have to still treat every human being with respect and decency. How much more do we have to treat everyone who isn’t a slave with respect and decency. While we can rationalize our bad behavior by saying “well he/she did this to me” Torah is telling us that someone else’s bad behavior does not mean we can act in the same manner. How are you treating your friends, family and enemies with decency and respect in all of your affairs?
“You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not mistreat any widow or orphan. If you do mistreat them, I will heed their outcry as soon as they cry out to Me. And my anger will blaze forth and I will put you to the sword and your own wives shall become widows and your children orphans.”(Exodus 22: 20-23).
In order to be able to live together as in community, the powerless and voiceless have to be treated with love and care. This is such a revolutionary idea to people in power and those whose voices stretch far and wide, that we are still not practicing it now. Looking at how countries treat the people who immigrate is disgusting according to these verses.
As the son of a widow, I remember my mother making less money than a man in the same position. I remember how Black men were paid less than white men for the same work. I see today how we take advantage of immigrants in working conditions. Reading these verses and seeing the Impeachment Trial and the videos and proof of what went on, I understand the power and necessity of these laws.
We have to be in Recovery from our prejudices, which according to Rabbi Heschel are eye diseases and cancers of the soul. We have to live the principles of Recovery as laid out in the verses above. We have to be better in the ways we treat other people, we have to respect the dignity of every individual and we have to, as Father Greg Boyle teaches, erase the margins and practice Radical Kinship. This is the path to redemption, community, and wholeness. How are you in recovery from your prejudices and embracing everyone and honoring the dignity of every human being? Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Mark