Kedushah/Sanctification, Narrow is the Way

In Parsha Mishpatim we find practical, moral and ethical principles for societal life. As I have said over and over again in all my lessons, the Torah is a document which teaches, both by instruction and example, how a redeemed person is to live in a redeemed community. It is in short, HaShem’s manual of life. So the question arises how does the following mishpat (judgement) apply to us today?

Shemot {21:2} If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything. {21:3} If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is married, then his wife shall go out with him. {21:4} If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her bnei (children) shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.

I dealt with this mishpat quite extensively in my last year’s commentary. I related it to social justice and to our bankruptcy laws. This year the same mishpat has caught my attention, therefore I would like to look at it at another angle.

How does this mishpat have any relevance in our modern society? How does it apply especially in the western world where slavery and debtors prison was abolished hundreds of years ago? I think I can explain a very practical and modern application of this portion of our Parsha that all of us will be able to understand and relate to.

First we need to understand that a slave, as described in this passage of Scripture, is basically, in modern terms, an employee who is working off a debt. This in itself is nothing unusual in our modern society. One person owes another a sum of money; however they do not have the means of paying off the debt, at the present time. So they offer instead as repayment, work in kind. The debtor happens to be a wallpaper hanger by profession. The lender was planning on papering their bathroom and living room walls. So in lieu of payment they ask the debtor to work off the debt by doing the wallpapering work for them in exchange for repayment. This of course is a type of barter system. The lender gets work done which he wanted anyway and which he would have had to pay for anyway, and the debtor gets to pay off his debt with his labour, which does have a cash value.

There is however another very practical lesson to be learned from the portion of Scripture found in Parsha Mishpatim. It is in the following verse:

Shemot {21:4} If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her bnei shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.

Now what possible practical application can we get we get from this? Well if we continue our way of thinking, that a slave in biblical days was in essence an employee, there is much to be learned here.

Many employees today, in our modern society, are involved in practical research and development. Perhaps, as it is in our case, an employee is compiling an e-mail list. The employee did not come into our employment with that list, but developed it while under our employment. As the employer we went to great expense in acquiring this list; salaries, equipment and overhead costs, such as rent, electricity, heating, etc. Therefore even though it was through the employee’s expertise that the list was complied, it does not belong to them it belongs to us, who paid for it. Therefore when the employee leaves, this list, or the patent or the research or whatever it may be, in the case of our Parsha a wife and children, can not leave with the employee but must remain the property of the employer. Now some might say we are talking about a wife and children here, these are not inanimate objects but rather human beings! My answer is, ‘All the more reason for us to follow this principle because we see how seriously HaShem applies it.’ In addition this shows us just how narrow the way is with HaShem.

Rabbi Jack "Yaacov" Farber is the spiritual leader of Congregation Melech Yisrael in Toronto, Canada.

Copyright 2004