Punishment or Rehabilitation
The Torah is a Torah of Kindness. Even punishment has to benefit the one who is punished.
Purchasing a Master
This week’s Torah portion Mishpatim begins its discussion of Jewish criminal and civil law with the laws of the Eved Ivri-the Hebrew servant. A person, who could not make restitution for a robbery, would be sold as an indentured servant for six years. At any time during these six years, he can release himself from servitude by remunerating his master. At the end of the six years he can stay on as a servant until the jubilee year. However, the Torah strongly discouraged him from choosing this option, of remaining a servant.
The Talmud tells us that while in servitude, his “master” may not subject him to any demeaning type of labor. Moreover, if the master had one pillow, he had to give it to his servant. These and similar laws have prompted our sages to declare “one who purchases a servant, has actually purchased a master for himself.”
The question has been asked why would the Torah—on the heels of last week’s parsha in which the Ten Commandments were given— begin its detailed discussion of Jewish law with the Hebrew servant, which was a rare occurrence?
One Master Only
One explanation is that the Jews had just been liberated from their experience of servitude in Egypt. Lest they would wax nostalgic about the “good old days” when they were slaves, the Torah wanted to impress upon them how undesirable even the most benign form of slavery was. It is not uncommon for slaves to yearn for the days when they had a “roof over their head.” For these tragic individuals who suffered from slavery living independently may be an imposition.
The Torah thus strongly inveighs against this “slave mentality” and commands us to divest ourselves from it.
In the words of our sages, G-d said to Israel “You are My servants, not servants of servants.” No matter how secure one’s life can become by becoming a servant, the Torah considers this institution anathema to Judaism.
As an introduction to all of Jewish criminal law, the Torah—by introducing us to the undesirability of any form of servitude—guides us how to avoid being caught up in a life of crime. “Don’t ever become a slave to another human being, fad or any worldly influence. No one, except for G-d and His Torah, should dictate to you what to do.” Only when we realize the undesirability of servitude can one be free of the insidious influences that can cause one to lead a life of crime.
This distaste for servitude is the reason why Jews have always clamored for the ultimate and final Redemption, when we will have no masters over us except for one G-d.
It is not the appeal of freedom, in and of itself, that makes us yearn for the coming of Moshiach, but the opportunity that this freedom provides. We will no longer have to “share” or allegiance to G-d with other forces and institutions.
Even the movements of recent history to gain freedom and independence are not true revolutions and the freedom gained, although much appreciated, are not absolute. Whenever one group of people overthrew the yoke of an oppressive regime they have merely substituted one form of tyranny for another, perhaps, more benign form of subservience. It may be subservience to another government that wields excessive power and may even discriminate against one class as we have seen in our own blessed country. Or it may be society enjoying freedom that looks to various fads and vices to worship, such as the drug culture where millions of people become slaves to drugs etc.
In the Messianic Age we will enjoy true and unmitigated freedom.
A Criminal and Human Dignity
On another more down-to-earth level the Torah is also teaching us a lesson about how to deal with a criminal. Rather than to subject a person to a meaningless prison sentence, stripping the individual of his/her human dignity and denying him/her the opportunity to accomplish something, which is, after all, the essence of humanity to contribute to society, the Torah provides an “ideal” form of punishment for a criminal who is not an immediate threat to society, but needs to be rehabilitated.
First, the victim of the crime of theft gets restitution.
Second, the criminal goes through some measure of humiliation and a limited loss of freedom. It is enough of a punishment to serve as a deterrent because it informs the thief that his recalcitrant behavior was a result of his servitude to worldly and material desires. It was not, however, enough degradation to demoralize the individual and strip him of his dignity.
Third and most important, the thief would have to spend six years in the home of a decent, lawabiding member of society. He would be part of a household where ethics were part of life. Most likely the thief did not come from a good and stable family. His six years of constructive work—within the confines of a warm home atmosphere—would guarantee the thief’s complete rehabilitation.
Clamoring for Complete Freedom
Another positive feature of the limited servitude the criminal would endure is the realization how bad loss of freedom can be. Even the limited loss of freedom and degradation would suffice to impress upon the perpetrator to never want another master, but to cherish and strive for complete freedom.
Our stay in exile has gone through many stages. For most of our history, we have been subjected to the worst deprivation of freedom. We were persecuted in the most inhumane ways. However, in the last century—for the Western world—and in the last decade for the rest of society, Jews have been living in a free society.
Upon closer analysis, as has been noted above, even our freedom is incomplete. Our experience in this country can perhaps be compared to the benign state of the Eved Ivri, the Hebrew servant. While the servant has all his conveniences—and he is clearly not a slave who has no legal status and few rights—he still has other masters over him. He is not just beholden to the one G-d and the Torah.
Maimonides, in describing the most significant characteristic of the Messianic Age states that it will remove our subservience to other governments. At that time we will enjoy complete and unmitigated freedom, so that we can be true servant of the One Master.
Perhaps, one can find this idea alluded to in the gematria (numerical value) of the phrase eved ivri, the Hebrew servant, which is the equivalent of the word Moshiach!
The message is twofold. First, even the most subtle form of servitude cries out for Moshiach. And second, it will be Moshiach, the ultimate servant of G-d, who personifies and will bring about ultimate freedom. True freedom can only occur when one transfers all their subservient and submissive behavior to the one and only G- d.
As good as life can be now, we must never forget to mean what we say in our prayers for G-d to liberate us, imminently, even from this benign phase of exile and bring the final and complete Redemption, when we will all assume the status of eved ivri, in the truest sense of the word!
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Mishpatim by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
