By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin
PIKESVILLE, Maryland — The weekly biblical portion of Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1-24:18) contains many common-sense rules demonstrating how the Torah humanized ancient laws in other cultures. I will give some examples. As the Torah wanted, these laws reflect the ancient rabbis’ understanding of the laws called “Oral Laws” or “Rabbinical Judaism.” The rabbis understood that the Torah spoke to primitive people who could only accept primitive ideas. However, the Torah demanded that the rabbis humanize these laws to benefit all God provided.
For example, ancient cultures, such as the Hammurabi Code, stated, “If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.” However, in the Babylonian Talmud Bava Kama 84a, rabbis understood from multiple hints in the Torah that this cruel punishment should not be inflicted, but the offender must pay monetary compensation.
Another example is the treatment of non-citizens. While other ancient cultures saw outsiders as inferiors and treated them as such, even calling them Barbarians. Exodus 22:20 states that the Israelites must treat non-Israelites as they want others to treat them. So important is this message that it is repeated 36 times in the Torah. Many Jews and non-Jews see the command to love others as you love yourself as a fundamental Torah teaching.
The German-Jewish philosopher Herman Cohen (1842-1918) wrote, “The stranger was to be protected, although he was not a member of one’s family, clan, religion, community, or people, simply because he was a human being. In the stranger, therefore, man discovered the idea of humanity.”
The Torah taught in the Decalogue that people should not be passive but work to improve themselves and all that God provided for six days. It introduced the idea of a day of rest, the Shabbat, every seventh day. Remarkably, it required Jews to not only treat themselves but also give rest to people who worked for them and even animals.
Because of the primitive nature of the Israelites when they were given the Torah, the Torah had to allow the continuation of primitive acts such as slavery while giving broad hints to humanize them. An example is the requirement in this biblical portion that if you take a man as a slave, you must support his wife and children.
While in the Hammurabi Code, a slave’s ear was cut off if he wanted to be free, the Torah ruled in this portion that a slave’s ear was just pierced for wishing to remain a slave (because slavery is wrong.)
All too often, people allow themselves to be led astray by large groups or majority opinions. Like animals, they tend to follow the herd. Exodus 23:2 tells people not to side with the mighty to do wrong.
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Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin is a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Army Chaplains Corps and is the author of more than 50 books.