MISHPATIM_EXODUS XXI:1-XXIV:18

The first instruction in these chapters concerns the laws that should govern slavery. The Tora emphasizes that slavery does not exist forever. The slave is released after completing six years of servitude. However, in the case of the master who provides a wife with whom he forms a family, the slave may request that his period of servitude be extended when he declares, “I love my master, my wife, and my children,” according to the sacred text. In this case, it can continue until the jubilee year, on which date he must necessarily be set free because human beings should only be the “servants of the Creator,” but not the servants of other servants.

Why does the litany of laws that characterize this section of the Tora begin with those that should govern the slave? When it is assumed that the Tora uses language that is immediately understandable by human beings, it can be argued that the slave is an example of the most vulnerable and helpless being in society. The Tora, therefore, looks out for him because he is the one who needs the most protection, especially when one takes into account that slavery existed for millennia before and after the giving of the Tora.

A compelling and probable additional reason is the immediate antecedent of the Hebrew people, who had spent 210 years of slavery in Egypt. It was imperative, therefore, that a protective framework for the slave be enacted. In addition to sympathizing with the slave, the Hebrew people could empathize with their situation. With the word “empathy,” we emphasize that he could put himself directly in the situation of his neighbor and feel in his flesh the pain of others because he had gone through the same experience during Egyptian slavery. In this way, the Hebrew people were sensitized to identify with the less fortunate fully.

The patriarchs went through periods of famine to understand what the lack of sustenance, the absence of bread on the table, entails. During the Passover Seder dinner, the middle Matsa is broken, and a half is saved for the Afikoman with which that night’s meal is concluded. The Matsa is called Lechem Oni, the bread of poverty, because the poor rarely have complete bread. He also doesn’t eat all the bread he has now; he keeps a piece because he’s not sure if he’ll have food the next day. The survivors of the Nazi concentration camps know that: they always save some crumb for another day, just in case.

In some cases, the slave who ascends to power is usually crueler than those who never knew serfdom. Aware of the possible tricks, he becomes a severe foreman who suffocates any attempt at freedom. For this reason, the Tora insists and warns Vezacharta ki eved hayita beMitsrayim, “and you will remember that you were a slave in Egypt” for the double reason: the experience of slavery that must serve to understand its dehumanizing effect fully and, at the same time, to make the Hebrew the bearer of the message of freedom. Because only under the cloak of freedom can the imperatives, the Mitzvot of the Tora, be fulfilled. 

The exodus from Egypt gave them the time to devote to fulfilling God’s will. The chapters of Mishpatim contain many rules that seem reasonable, indispensable laws for coexistence that can be derived from a logical process. Their Divine origin gives them an additional nuance and adds a fundamental condition. It prevents or at least hinders its manipulation that its meaning is distorted at the convenience of the person or of some authoritarian whose purpose is to impose his will on his neighbor.

MITSVA: TORA ORDINANCE IN THIS PARSHA

CONTAINS 24 POSITIVE MITZVOT AND 29 PROHIBITIONS

1. Exodus 21:2 Laws concerning a Hebrew slave.
2. Exodus 21:8 Marital status of a Hebrew slave.
3. Exodus 21:8 Redemption of a Hebrew slave.
4. Exodus 21:8 Whoever buys a female Hebrew slave from her father cannot sell her.
5. Exodus 21:10 Do not diminish or deny your wife: food, clothing, conjugal rights.
6. Exodus 21:12 The court must execute the one who deserves this form of death by strangulation.
7. Exodus 21:15 Do not beat the father or mother who deserves this death.
8. Exodus 21:18 Laws of punishment
9. Exodus 21:10 The court must execute by the sword the one who deserves this form of death.
10. Exodus 21:18 Obligation of the court to adjudicate damages caused by domestic animals.
11. Exodus 21:28 Do not eat of the ox sentenced to be stoned.
12. Exodus 21:33 Obligation of the court to adjudicate damage caused by a well.
13. Exodus 21:37 Court forced to impose payment on the thief.
14. Exodus 22:4 Court forced to impose harm caused by a domestic animal by grazing or trampling.
15. Exodus 22:5 Court forced to award damages by fire.
16. Exodus 22:6 Court obliged to award payment to a custodian.
17. Exodus 22:8 Court is obliged to adjudicate both litigants.
18. Exodus 22:9 Court obligated to guard receiving payment or other custody.
19. Exodus 22:13 Court forced to adjudicate the case of one who borrows an object for use.
20. Exodus 22:15 Court forced to adjudicate the case of a seducer.
21. Exodus 22:17 Do not allow life to the sorceress.
22. Exodus 22:20 Do not verbally oppress the one who converts to Judaism.
23. Exodus 22:20 Do not deceive him who converts to Judaism in cases of property.
24. Exodus 22:21 Do not mistreat an orphan or widow.
25. Exodus 22:24 Lend to the poor.
26. Exodus 22:24 Do not insist on paying a debt to the poor who have no resources to pay.
27. Exodus 22:24 Do not help the lender or creditor foreclose an interest-bearing loan.
28. Exodus 22:27 Do not curse the judge.
29. Exodus 22:27 Do not curse the Name of God.
30. Exodus 22:27 Do not curse the ruler.
31. Exodus 22:28 Do not set aside tithing in the wrong order.
32. Exodus 22:30 Do not eat a qualified animal tre’ifa.
33. Exodus 23:1 Do not hear a plea in court if the opposing party is not present.
34. Exodus 23:1 The sinner must not bear witness.
35. Exodus 23:2 A capital case should not be condemned by a majority of a single judge.
36. Exodus 23:2 The judge who argues innocence in capital punishment must not then argue for guilt.
37. Exodus 23:2 Follow the majority in legal decisions.
38. Exodus 23:3 No mercy should be shown for the poor during judgment.
39. Exodus 23:5 Remove the heavy burden from the animal from the neighbor.
40. Exodus 23:6 Do not pervert righteousness in the case of a sinner.
41. Exodus 23:7 Not deciding a capital punishment case through probabilities.
42. Exodus 23:8 The judge must not receive a bribe.
43. Exodus 23:11 Shemita’s obligation to leave the product of the land without an owner in the Sabbath year (seventh year).
44. Exodus 23:12 Rest on Shabbat.
45. Exodus 23:13 Do not swear by invoking an idol.
46. Exodus 23:13 Do not lead the Jewish people into idolatry.
47. Exodus 23:14 Bring offerings to the Holy Temple on holidays.
48. Exodus 23:18 Do not make the Passover offering while you still have chamets.
49. Exodus 23:18 Do not allow parts of the Passover offering to spend the night.
50. Exodus 23:19 Bring the Bikurim (first fruits) to the Temple.
51. Exodus 23:19 Do not cook meat in milk.
52. Exodus 23:32 Do not make treaties with the seven nations to be eradicated from the Land of Israel, nor with idolaters.
53. Exodus 23:33 Do not allow idolaters to settle in the Land of Israel.