Behar 2022
1Parshat Behar elaborates on the laws concerning Eved Ivri, first introduced by the Torah in Parshat Mishpatim:
2“When your brother becomes poor and sells himself to you, do not work him in a humiliating fashion.” (Lev 25:39). Rashi, quoting the Mechilta, says that this means you may not require him to do work that you might otherwise consider appropriate for a slave. For example, you may not require him to dress you or assist you at the bath house or carry you in any fashion.
3“He shall be like a hired worker or a resident neighbor alongside you. He will work until the Yovel” (ibid. 40) Rashi further describes this role as, "Let him do either farming or skilled craftsmanship and treat him like you would any other hired person." And Torat Kohanim further explains: “Just as a hired person gets paid at the end of his work day, so shall you pay him at the end of his work period (after the six-year time frame or Yovel, whichever comes first). Just as a neighbor among you may not be cheated or verbally abused, so shall you treat him. He shall be with you in food and in drink and in clean clothes, so that you shall not eat clean bread and he shall eat less clean bread. So that you drink old wine and he inferior wine. So that you sleep on a mattress, and he sleep on the floor. You may not sub-contract him out to others so that he becomes the servant of the public.“
4“And he can then (at Yovel) leave you along with his children and return to his family and to his family inheritance.” (ibid. 41) This teaches that you cannot make him live in a different place than you, so that he is in a large city, and you are in a village or vice versa. And just as you must feed him, so must you feed his wife and his children.
5“For they are My servants who I took out of Egypt. They shall not be sold as a slave is sold” (ibid. 42) This means not with an announcement nor on the selling stone. - (Rashi) From here we learn that a laborer can quit even in the middle of the day. (Baba Metziyah 87a)
6“You shall not work him with cruelty, and you shall fear your God” (ibid. 43) Do not force him to do unnecessary work just to keep him busy or to show your power. I am your God, so I know. (Rashi).
7In Parshat Re’eh, in the context of the sabbatical year, the Torah once again addresses the treatment of Jewish slaves:
8“When you send him away as a free man do not send him empty-handed. You shall give him from your sheep, your storehouse, and your wine cellar.”
9As the above Pesukim show, the life of the Jewish slave is hardly that of the endless toil the Jews themselves experienced in Egypt. In fact, the Torah emphasizes that Bnei Yisrael may not do what was done to them in Egypt, using the term, “Avodas Perach,” cruel labor. This is the term used to describe the Jewish slave experience in Egypt. “And they forced the Jews to perform “Avodat Perach” cruel labor.” (Ex : ) The so-called Jewish Slave was more like a hired, live-in worker who was treated like a family member and released at the end of his contract with a generous balloon payment. It is easy to imagine scenarios in which the so-called slave would consider this situation desirable. The Torah, however, clearly considers to wish to continue this arrangement as negative: “If the slave says I have loved you and your home for it is good for me with you. You shall take a nail and place it in his ear and in the doorpost and he will be a slave forever.” (Deut) (Ex 21:6) Midrash Lekach Tov (Ex 21:6) explains why: "The ear that heard 'For they are My slaves that I have taken out of Egypt. These people shall not be sold as a slave is sold', and you wish to be a slave. Therefore, your ear is pierced, and you will be a slave until Yovel.”
10The Jewish slave, however, is not free to choose where to live or how to earn a living. Those are precious rights that represent the essence of free people. God said, "You are MY slaves," but only in what relates to observing His commands. You may choose where to live and what to do for a living.
11The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in fact protects citizens' right to live where they please:
12“The right to travel is part of the "liberty" of which a citizen cannot be deprived without due process of law. [1] It is part and parcel of the guarantee of freedom of movement that the Constitution affords its citizen.” (Constitution case law.)
13The laws of Eved Ivri are no longer in effect, as the institution cannot exist without the relief of Yovel. In our times, there cannot be a Jewish Slave. But lest you associate a fundamental immorality with the institution of the Jewish slave, a close reading of the Parsha sheds new light on the institution itself, and dispels any such notions of the purported immorality that adheres to it. Study the Parsha and become enlightened.
14Dedicated to the memory of Joel Shulman A’H