Mishpatim and Slavery
Parashat Mishpatim introduces the core legal principles of the Torah. Yet instead of beginning with uplifting commandments like “Love your neighbour” or “Do not put a stumbling block before the blind,” the Torah starts with a subject that deeply challenges modern sensibilities: slavery.
The opening verses are:
וְאֵלֶּה הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים אֲשֶׁר תָּשִׂים לִפְנֵיהֶם
These are the rules that you shall set before them.כִּי תִקְנֶה עֶבֶד עִבְרִי שֵׁשׁ שָׁנִים יַעֲבֹד וּבַשְּׁבִעִת יֵצֵא לַחָפְשִׁי חִנָּם
When you acquire a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years; in the seventh year he shall go free, without payment.
For those of us raised in a liberal Western framework, this is difficult. The Torah legislates slavery rather than prohibiting it. And beyond that, the Torah calls on us to see ourselves as avadim laHashem, servants of God. These are two challenges that require thoughtful engagement.
- Why the Torah legislates slavery rather than abolishes it
God could have created human beings already perfect, already obedient, already free of moral struggle. But there would have been no growth, no learning, no free will. Instead, we are placed in a world where we develop ourselves, confront the moral failures of society, and slowly elevate the human condition.
At the time the Torah was given, slavery was universal. The Israelites themselves had just emerged from centuries of bondage. Poverty, debt, and servitude were woven into the economic fabric of the ancient world. Rather than abolish an entrenched system overnight, the Torah regulates it and humanises it, setting standards far ahead of those of surrounding cultures.
And the phenomenon has not disappeared. The Walk Free Global Slavery Index estimates that 50 million people today are in forced labour, forced marriage, debt bondage, and other slavery‑like conditions. Many millions more live in situations barely distinguishable from servitude. Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery in the United States, but the long road to equality continued across generations.
In this sense, humanity is a work in progress, and the Torah reflects that reality. It offers a fixed divine blueprint together with a flexible interpretive system. The Written and Oral Torah were given together, allowing future generations to deepen, refine, and extend the law while remaining anchored to its principles.
As the Rambam writes:
“All the commandments that were given to Moses at Sinai were given together with their explanation. This is what is called Oral Law. Moses taught the entire Torah that G-d gave him to the entire Jewish people. He taught them the Written Torah and then taught them its explanation, the Oral Torah.”
(Rambam, Introduction to Mishneh Torah)
The Talmud famously asserts this interpretive responsibility in the story of the heavenly voice:
“Rabbi Joshua stood on his feet and said: ‘It is not in heaven.’
What did he mean by this? Rabbi Jeremiah said: ‘The Torah was already given at Mount Sinai. We do not pay attention to a heavenly voice, for You already wrote in the Torah at Mount Sinai, “After the majority to incline” (Exodus 23:2).’”
(Bava Metzia 59b)
With regards to slavery specifically, the late Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks captures this moral trajectory with characteristic insight:
“In miracles, G-d changes nature but never human nature. Were He to do so, the entire project of the Torah – the free worship of free human beings – would have been rendered null and void… G-d wanted mankind to abolish slavery but by their own choice, and that takes time. Ancient economies were dependent on slavery… The challenge to which Torah legislation was an answer is: how can one create a social structure in which, of their own accord, people will eventually come to see slavery as wrong and freely choose to abandon it?”
(Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Covenant & Conversation, Mishpatim: “The Slow End of Slavery”)
The Torah does not expect a perfect world. It expects a developing one, guided by laws that are firm yet adaptable, like the Japanese bullet train built with flexible tolerance to withstand earthquakes. We are meant to move society forward. I do not believe in slavery, and I believe the Torah expects us to work toward a world without it. We still have 50 million people to free.
- We are meant to be servants of God
The second challenge is philosophical rather than historical. In a culture that celebrates freedom from all external constraint, the Torah teaches that true freedom comes from knowing Whom we serve. We are not, and were never meant to be, entirely autonomous. We are avadim laHashem.
For unto Me are the children of Israel servants; they are My servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your G-d.”
(Leviticus 25:55)
Even in the context of human servitude, the Torah insists that our ultimate allegiance is not to any human master but to God. The Exodus itself is framed not only as liberation from Pharaoh but as redirection of our identity: we were taken out of Egypt so that we could become God’s servants, not servants of servants. This is a form of servitude that does not diminish freedom but creates it. To live without answering to anything higher than ourselves is not freedom, but rootlessness. To bind ourselves to the Creator is to anchor our lives in purpose, morality, and transcendence.
This is the real square and circle. The Torah discourages human slavery by regulating it out of existence over time, while at the same moment encouraging a different kind of avdut, a willing submission to God that elevates rather than degrades. Modern society often views any form of obligation as an infringement of personal liberty, yet the Torah teaches that freedom without direction becomes emptiness. The Oral Law allows the Torah’s principles to flex and adapt as human understanding grows, but the foundational truth remains: true freedom comes from choosing to align ourselves with the divine will.
Mishpatim presents many challenges to the modern reader, and slavery is only one of them. But part of understanding the Torah is recognising that it speaks to each generation at its own stage of moral development. We often judge the ancient world by today’s standards without acknowledging that our own world, too, is far from perfected. The Torah’s laws set humanity on a path of continual refinement, guided by principles that are fixed yet applied through a system intentionally designed to evolve. Our responsibility is to continue that journey, to elevate society, and to draw closer to God through choosing lives of meaning, service, and moral purpose.
