Portion 18 Mishpatim Exodus 21:1-24:18
21:1 Like the covenant with Noah, these are minimal standards. Several of the rules in this Torah portion are explicitly or implicitly repudiated by the Torah in other places. The higher standards of the Garden: nonviolence, and men and women working and worshiping in equality as the image of God, are still to be aspired to.
21:2 The word “Hebrew” is almost always used to describe the Israelites to or by a foreigner, such as Pharaoh in Egypt. Could the Torah be indicating that by taking a slave, an Israelite has alienated himself from the covenantal community?
21:2 Since a primary reason (or perhaps the only reason, no debt slavery is allowed 22:24-26) to be sold into slavery is for a thief to make restitution, this is effectively a maximum jail sentence of six years, far less punitive than U.S. law.
21:3a It appears as if the slave owner can prevent the slave from marrying outside of the slave owner’s household. Are there any counter examples of this in the biblical literature?
21:3b It also appears that if a married male becomes a slave, his wife becomes a slave too for the period of her husband’s enslavement. Any biblical examples?
21:4-6 A counter example is Jacob working off the bride price for Laban’s daughters. But, perhaps this is not a counter example since Jacob fled without telling Laban.
21:7-11 The Torah is comparing Israelite marriage to female slavery, symbolically indicated in the Garden narrative by Adam naming Eve like he named the other animals.
21:13 There appears to be enough wiggle room here to prevent most death sentences. “A Sanhedrin which kills once in seven years is considered murderous. Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah said: once in seventy years. Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon said: if we had been in the Sanhedrin, no one would have ever been killed.” (Mishnah Makot 1:10).
21:17 Etz Hayim says that this is about the children putting a curse on their parents. The curse of Noah and several of the other curses in the Torah apply to offspring so children cursing their parents curse themselves.
21:19 The goal of the covenantal judicial system is restitution not punishment.
21:21 The absence of restitution in this verse contradicts 21:3 which states that slave owners have the responsibility to insure that slaves under their care do not leave slavery in worse circumstances than they came into it.
21:23-25 Talmud interpretation is eye’s worth for an eye, etc. Plaut says that there is no story in the Bible where the literal meaning of the verse is carried out. Plaut believes the Talmud interpretation to be the original intent of these verses but he fails to mention if there is any story in the Bible where the Talmudic interpretation is carried out.
21:26-27 Using the Talmudic interpretation from 21:23-25, a slave can go free when the owner has caused damage to the slave equal to or greater than the value of a single tooth. Therefore the slave in 21:21 was already free when he or she died.
21:28 Do any Rabbis interpret the ox in verses 21:28-32 figuratively? The ox could represent our animal instincts, mental illness, passions, the evil inclination, etc so that this verse commands removing the source of violence within us instead of perpetuating the cycle of violence.
21:29-31 The death penalty can be replaced with a fine and redemption of life provided that the cause of death was an “ox.” Mishnah Makot 1:10, quoted above in 21:13, tells us that there is always an ox.
21:32 How much was thirty shekels of silver worth?
21:33-34 How much restitution? More or less than thirty shekels?
22:1 This verse has tunneled here from the death penalty section to give us an example of one species of ox. It is the animal instinct to strike first when you fear you will be attacked. This ox is exemplified by that voice inside us that says “If someone is coming to kill you, rise early and kill him first" (Sanhedrin 72a and parallels) The Torah does not condone killing out of fear or the presumed knowledge of someone’s intent to kill you. Such knowledge is always clouded in darkness anyway. But the Torah does forbid the imposition of the death penalty on those who have killed out of fear.
22:2a If some time has elapsed before the killing takes place then one can not presume that fear was the motivating factor. The owner is guilty of murder and of taking the law into his own hands. Verses 22:1-2a tunneled up into this place and stole the integrity of verses 21:37 and 22:2b-3, but the Torah did not kill it. It left it here so that it might teach us that by taking vengeance into our own hands we deny our enemies their right to make restitution.
22:2b This is the only verse that gives a reason why a male may be sold into slavery (and again only for six years maximum), to make restitution for a crime. Presumably females may be sold into perpetual slavery because being female is a crime worse than ox theft.
22:4-14 All of these verses emphasize restitution instead of punishment.
22:20-23 A reference to exile which the prophets attributed to social injustice, in particular injustice against strangers, widows, and orphans. The symmetry of these verses implies that one of the crimes of the leadership of Judah, when it was threatened with invasion from Babylon, was to put strangers to the sword, perhaps for fear that they were spies or terrorists.
22:24-26 Not only is interest forbidden, there is also no punitive action imposed, such as debt slavery or even the permanent forfeiture by the poor person of their collateral, when the poor person can not pay the lender back.
23:23 Any killing is to be done by God, not the people.
23:25-26 Jeffrey Tigay, in the Oxford Jewish Study Bible, claims that this hyperbole is typical of ancient treaties. I think the Torah places this here to remind us that we are the Canaanites when we treat our religious rituals as if they were magic spells that persuade or compel God to do good things for us.
23:31 These are symbolic borders to a symbolic land. Fox suggests that what is translated “Sea of Reeds” might really mean “Sea at the End of the World.” Regardless, it is the sight where God showed the Israelites that their salvation lies in them refraining from taking vengeance into their own hands. It is contrasted with the Sea of Philistia, where God steered the Israelites away so that they would not see war. The wilderness is the site of testing and of revelation. The Euphrates runs through the Garden of Eden where people lived in harmony and where people first were tempted and embraced the domination system.
21:1 Like the covenant with Noah, these are minimal standards. Several of the rules in this Torah portion are explicitly or implicitly repudiated by the Torah in other places. The higher standards of the Garden: nonviolence, and men and women working and worshiping in equality as the image of God, are still to be aspired to.
21:2 The word “Hebrew” is almost always used to describe the Israelites to or by a foreigner, such as Pharaoh in Egypt. Could the Torah be indicating that by taking a slave, an Israelite has alienated himself from the covenantal community?
21:2 Since a primary reason (or perhaps the only reason, no debt slavery is allowed 22:24-26) to be sold into slavery is for a thief to make restitution, this is effectively a maximum jail sentence of six years, far less punitive than U.S. law.
21:3a It appears as if the slave owner can prevent the slave from marrying outside of the slave owner’s household. Are there any counter examples of this in the biblical literature?
21:3b It also appears that if a married male becomes a slave, his wife becomes a slave too for the period of her husband’s enslavement. Any biblical examples?
21:4-6 A counter example is Jacob working off the bride price for Laban’s daughters. But, perhaps this is not a counter example since Jacob fled without telling Laban.
21:7-11 The Torah is comparing Israelite marriage to female slavery, symbolically indicated in the Garden narrative by Adam naming Eve like he named the other animals.
21:13 There appears to be enough wiggle room here to prevent most death sentences. “A Sanhedrin which kills once in seven years is considered murderous. Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah said: once in seventy years. Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon said: if we had been in the Sanhedrin, no one would have ever been killed.” (Mishnah Makot 1:10).
21:17 Etz Hayim says that this is about the children putting a curse on their parents. The curse of Noah and several of the other curses in the Torah apply to offspring so children cursing their parents curse themselves.
21:19 The goal of the covenantal judicial system is restitution not punishment.
21:21 The absence of restitution in this verse contradicts 21:3 which states that slave owners have the responsibility to insure that slaves under their care do not leave slavery in worse circumstances than they came into it.
21:23-25 Talmud interpretation is eye’s worth for an eye, etc. Plaut says that there is no story in the Bible where the literal meaning of the verse is carried out. Plaut believes the Talmud interpretation to be the original intent of these verses but he fails to mention if there is any story in the Bible where the Talmudic interpretation is carried out.
21:26-27 Using the Talmudic interpretation from 21:23-25, a slave can go free when the owner has caused damage to the slave equal to or greater than the value of a single tooth. Therefore the slave in 21:21 was already free when he or she died.
21:28 Do any Rabbis interpret the ox in verses 21:28-32 figuratively? The ox could represent our animal instincts, mental illness, passions, the evil inclination, etc so that this verse commands removing the source of violence within us instead of perpetuating the cycle of violence.
21:29-31 The death penalty can be replaced with a fine and redemption of life provided that the cause of death was an “ox.” Mishnah Makot 1:10, quoted above in 21:13, tells us that there is always an ox.
21:32 How much was thirty shekels of silver worth?
21:33-34 How much restitution? More or less than thirty shekels?
22:1 This verse has tunneled here from the death penalty section to give us an example of one species of ox. It is the animal instinct to strike first when you fear you will be attacked. This ox is exemplified by that voice inside us that says “If someone is coming to kill you, rise early and kill him first" (Sanhedrin 72a and parallels) The Torah does not condone killing out of fear or the presumed knowledge of someone’s intent to kill you. Such knowledge is always clouded in darkness anyway. But the Torah does forbid the imposition of the death penalty on those who have killed out of fear.
22:2a If some time has elapsed before the killing takes place then one can not presume that fear was the motivating factor. The owner is guilty of murder and of taking the law into his own hands. Verses 22:1-2a tunneled up into this place and stole the integrity of verses 21:37 and 22:2b-3, but the Torah did not kill it. It left it here so that it might teach us that by taking vengeance into our own hands we deny our enemies their right to make restitution.
22:2b This is the only verse that gives a reason why a male may be sold into slavery (and again only for six years maximum), to make restitution for a crime. Presumably females may be sold into perpetual slavery because being female is a crime worse than ox theft.
22:4-14 All of these verses emphasize restitution instead of punishment.
22:20-23 A reference to exile which the prophets attributed to social injustice, in particular injustice against strangers, widows, and orphans. The symmetry of these verses implies that one of the crimes of the leadership of Judah, when it was threatened with invasion from Babylon, was to put strangers to the sword, perhaps for fear that they were spies or terrorists.
22:24-26 Not only is interest forbidden, there is also no punitive action imposed, such as debt slavery or even the permanent forfeiture by the poor person of their collateral, when the poor person can not pay the lender back.
23:23 Any killing is to be done by God, not the people.
23:25-26 Jeffrey Tigay, in the Oxford Jewish Study Bible, claims that this hyperbole is typical of ancient treaties. I think the Torah places this here to remind us that we are the Canaanites when we treat our religious rituals as if they were magic spells that persuade or compel God to do good things for us.
23:31 These are symbolic borders to a symbolic land. Fox suggests that what is translated “Sea of Reeds” might really mean “Sea at the End of the World.” Regardless, it is the sight where God showed the Israelites that their salvation lies in them refraining from taking vengeance into their own hands. It is contrasted with the Sea of Philistia, where God steered the Israelites away so that they would not see war. The wilderness is the site of testing and of revelation. The Euphrates runs through the Garden of Eden where people lived in harmony and where people first were tempted and embraced the domination system.
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