The Haftarah Project: Mishpatim—Justice for Some or Justice for All
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The haftarah for Parashat Mishpatim recounts the prophet Jeremiah’s reprimand of the Israelites for continuing to subjugate their Hebrew slaves, by freeing and then re-enslaving them in violation of the commandment to free Jewish slaves after six years. “But now you have turned back and have profaned My name; each of you has brought back the men and women whom you had given their freedom and forced them to be your slaves again.” On the surface, it sounds like a righteous chastisement. But as Rabbi Rachel Barenblat writes: “Slave ownership? We’ve just read and relived the story of the Israelites’ transformation from slaves into free and covenanted people, and now we’re kicking off a long set of legal ins and outs with a rule about owning Israelite slaves?” Furthermore, Jeremiah is entirely silent on the topic of non-Jewish slaves, who appear to have been excluded from this constraint on slavery, even though later in this same parashah we are told, “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. (Exodus 22:20)”
The Torah delineates two categories of slavery: the Eved K’naani (non-Jewish slave) and the Eved Ivri (Hebrew slave). The Eved K’naani remained enslaved for life, whereas the Eved Ivri worked for a fixed term before being granted freedom (with more restrictive exceptions for Jewish women). The tacit tolerance of slavery in general, and the exceptionalist approach to Jewish slaves while discounting the others, render this haftarah a problematic one.
One response to these implications has been to say that slavery was a cultural norm in biblical times. Numerous aspects of the parashah, particularly its discussions of property law and damages, are framed in an ancient context that can perhaps be made relevant for today. Many have viewed Jewish law, with its regulations requiring the release of Jewish slaves and with some protections for all slaves, including a mandated day of rest on Shabbat, as an improvement over common practices of the era.
However, the underlying acceptance of slavery in general, and the exclusion of non-Jewish slaves from whatever improvement may be represented in these writings, reflect not only historical distance but also present a moral problem for us today as well. How are we to celebrate and sing about the implicit endorsement of a repugnant institution, no matter how circumscribed, and of that institution’s insidious distinction between the Eved Ivri and the Eved K’naani? It is disturbing to encounter our texts’ sanction of slavery in any format, and even more so to recognize that in the United States, some slaveholders and even some rabbis — including BJ’s Rabbi Rev. Dr. Morris J. Raphall in 1861—invoked biblical law to justify it.
Throughout history, Jews have engaged with the Torah through the lens of rabbinic interpretation rather than taking its words at face value. Rabbi Moses ben Nachman (Nachmanides, also known acronymically as Ramban), a major medieval Jewish scholar, philosopher, and commentator, offered in a commentary on another parashah (Va’ethanan, Devarim 6:18): “And you shall do what is right and good in the eyes of God that it may go well with you.” He understands this as a broad moral directive. “Our Rabbis have a beautiful Midrash on this verse. They have said: ‘[That which is right and good] refers to a compromise and going beyond the requirement of the letter of the law.’ The intent of this is as follows: At first, he [Moses] stated that you are to keep God’s statutes and God’s testimonies which God commanded you, and now he is stating that even where God has not commanded you, give thought as well to do what is good and right in God’s eyes, for God loves the good and the right.”
The Rambam is even more clear and specific, suggesting in that while the law allows the Hebrews “to have a Canaanite slave perform excruciating labor,” the law doesn’t always embody God’s righteousness, stating that, “Although this is the law, the attribute of piety and the way of wisdom is for a person to be merciful and to pursue justice.”
So why choose to continue the tradition of reading this haftarah with these objectionable undercurrents, which addresses such a limited piece of the broader Torah portion? In Studies on Shemot, Nechama Leibowitz pointed out that the Torah cautions us regarding our behavior toward the stranger no less than 36 times, the most repeated injunction in the Torah. Empathy is an outgrowth of experience. She summarized, “We are bidden to put ourselves in the position of the stranger by remembering how it felt when we were strangers in another land.”
Perhaps as a minimum, we should offer a companion text – a reading based on other verses in the same parashah (Exodus 22:20-21), that would push us to confront this history in a more direct and ethical way – one that rededicates our commitment to liberation.
MISHPATIM
Strangers
EXODUS 22:20
You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him,
For you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
We were strangers in Egypt and in Kiev.
we were foreigners in Babylon and Berlin,
We were outsiders and wanderers
in Spain and Poland and France.
We looked at the citizens of those lands
with the dark pleading eyes of the alien.
Our hearts beat the hesitant beats
of those without rights, fearful and uncertain.
We pray You help us to remember
the heart of the stranger
when we walk in freedom,
Help us to be fair and upright
in all our dealings with other people.
O, burn and brand the lesson
of all the years and all the lands
on our hearts.
Lord, make us forever strangers
to discrimination and injustice.
From Harvest, Collected Poems and Prayers
by Ruth Brin
Editors Note: The reflections from the Haftarah Project represent the thoughts and opinions of the author.