Torah Pearls #18 – Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1-24:18)

In this episode of The Original Torah Pearls, Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1-24:18), we tackle the Biblical issue of slavery and then move on to issues of debt, abortion, and end with a discussion about the process of the revelation of Scripture.

I look forward to reading your comments!

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You are listening to The Original Torah Pearls with Nehemia Gordon, Keith Johnson, and Jono Vandor. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Jono: It is time for the Pearls from the Torah Portion with Keith Johnson in Charlotte, and the caffeinated Karaite Nehemia Gordon in Jerusalem. Welcome back, my friends.

Nehemia: Oh, welcome back! That's the energy drink speaking.

Keith: Yes.

Jono: Yes, it is, isn’t it? Oh, deary me. Well, I just want to say g'day to Jerry and Owen listening in British Columbia, Canada, Thomas in Ohio, Gale, sorry, Gayle in Georgia, and Rebecca in Washington, Deb in Israel and Morgan in Kansas, and everybody listening wherever you may be around the world. Fellows, who have we got to say g'day to?

Nehemia: Hey. I’m doing a shout-out to Carol the Wandering Jew on Facebook, who shared the program. Keep sharing!

Keith: I just want to say a shout-out to all of my friends generally, but specifically, I want to thank those in Tool, Texas and Big Sandy, Don and Carole that are listening, and other friends from Tool, Texas. You guys are awesome for listening to Torah Pearls and also sharing the information.

Jono: G'day to everyone in Tool, Texas, and thank you for your company. Today, we are in Mishpatim, Exodus 21, verse 1 to 24:18, and it begins like this, "These are the judgments which you shall set before them: If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing. If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he comes in married, then he shall go out with his wife. And if his master has given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself." Now, I’ve got to stop there. I have to stop there because reading that seems to me like you can breed servants?

Nehemia: Well, we can't understand this particular passage unless we...there's actually two other passages in the Torah, one in Leviticus 25, verses 39 to 55, and the other Deuteronomy 16, verses 12 to 18. And then the whole issue is revisited in Jeremiah 34:8-22. So really we have three passages in the Torah, and this fourth one in Jeremiah. To get the full picture we need to read all of them together. This, I think, is an important principle in general in the Torah, that when we look at commandments, there’ll be a commandment that’s given in Exodus and then repeated in Deuteronomy, and sometimes it’ll be repeated twice, once in Leviticus and then a third time in Exodus, Leviticus, and then Deuteronomy, and sometimes also Numbers. So I think it's important for these commandments to look at all of the different passages that talk about them. It’s very often presented from different perspectives and different little pieces of information are given. So, are we really going to go into this topic of slavery?

Jono: Oh, my goodness. I mean, we -

Nehemia: Talk about slaves and talk about this? Because we could really spend the entire hour just talking about this.

Jono: We really could.

Nehemia: I want to briefly say, briefly, what we have here in Leviticus, and we should save this for when we get to Leviticus, but just very briefly, it talks about Leviticus 25, verses 39 to 55. There it very clearly talks about how you really can't mistreat your Hebrew servant. And let me just use the word, if I’m allowed to use this, because “servant” is a euphemism. Really, the word used in Hebrew is “eved,” which is “slave.”