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Someone wrote to me troubled with the concept that G-d (and Judaism) seems to support the concept of slavery.
G-d created man with free choice -- so often the choices we have may not be perfect, but may be acceptable. The Rambam once opined (Chapter 32, Book 3 of The Guide for the Perplexed) that G-d allowed man to bring sacrifices because it was something man wanted to do and had been doing since Cain and Abel. If you remember, G-d did not ask Cain and Abel to bring sacrifices -- they did so voluntarily. Since man seemed inclined to do so G-d structured many mitzvot about the how, why and what around sacrifices. Sacrifices were never really something G-d Himself wanted, says the Rambam, but G-d recognized that they were important to humans because they felt as if they were giving Him something of value to them -- and they also felt the loss when a domestically owned animal (for example) of theirs was killed on their behalf -- they felt regret, sorrow and even pain.... So it helped in the repentance process. I think we can extend this type of thinking to indentured servants or even slavery. The Torah does not dictate slavery -- indeed Jews haven't had slaves for thousands of years. But the Torah recognized that people would be put into that situation as it was very common among all peoples in those times. Thus the Torah structured many mitzvot on how it is critical for a Jew to treat an עֶבֶד / eved (could be translated as servant or slave) properly. Translations are never perfect. The Hebrew word translated as slave is עֶבֶד / "eved" and it is translated as servant or slave. Moses is called "eved HaShem" in the Torah -- G-d's servant or slave. The Torah teaches us that one of the worst possible wrongdoings is that of idolatry. In biblical times when a person could be indentured to another (to pay a debt, for example) they served time to pay the debt and were then freed. However if such a person was an idolater it was considered better for their immortal soul to not be freed under those circumstances -- to return to idolatry. An eved who converted then fell under the rules for an eved Ivri (Jewish eved) and would eventually be freed. It was also considered a kindness to keep an eved because such a person might otherwise have been impoverished and would have died homeless and on the street (sound familiar). In Judaism a master had to take care of their servants / slaves before they could take care of themselves... it was actually not a bad lot in life! Does that make sense? The late Rabbi Sacks Z"L -- who we just lost very recently -- wrote a wonderful discussion of this very topic in his shiur on Parsha Mishpatim discusses this in detail. Here is a bit of his article and a link to it if you would like to read it for yourself. It is entitled "The Slow End of Slavery" -- "Change is possible in human nature but it takes time: time on a vast scale, centuries, even millennia. There is little doubt that in terms of the Torah’s value system the exercise of power by one person over another, without their consent, is a fundamental assault against human dignity. This is not just true of the relationship between master and slave. It is even true, according to many classic Jewish commentators, of the relationship between king and subjects, rulers and ruled. According to the sages it is even true of the relationship between God and human beings. The Talmud says that if God really did coerce the Jewish people to accept the Torah by “suspending the mountain over their heads” (Shabbat 88a) that would constitute an objection to the very terms of the covenant itself. We are God’s avadim, servants, only because our ancestors freely chose to be (see Joshua 24, where Joshua offers the people freedom, if they so chose, to walk away from the covenant then and there). So slavery is to be abolished, but it is a fundamental principle of God’s relationship with us that he does not force us to change faster than we are able to do so of our own free will. So Mishpatim does not abolish slavery but it sets in motion a series of fundamental laws that will lead people, albeit at their own pace, to abolish it of their own accord."
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