The Blogs: What If: Musings on Parshat Behar

This week, I am tackling the very difficult topic of the ad infinitum slavery of those from the nations around us in this week’s parshat behar. It is a legacy which has ramifications for us today. First, let’s look at the relevant passage which I’ve divided into two parts. We all know the first part for it is frequently and proudly quoted:

If your kin under you continue in straits and must be given over to you, do not subject them to the treatment of a slave. Remaining with you as a hired or bound laborer, they shall serve with you only until the jubilee year. Then they, along with any children, shall be free of your authority; they shall go back to their family and return to the ancestral holding. — For they are My servants, whom I freed from the land of Egypt; they may not give themselves over into servitude. — You shall not rule over them ruthlessly; you shall fear your God (Leviticus 25: 39-43).

The second part is less known, less talked about, ignored and even justified, or explained away:

Such male and female slaves as you may have—it is from the nations round about you that you may acquire male and female slaves. You may also buy them from among the children of aliens resident among you, or from their families that are among you, whom they begot in your land. These shall become your property: you may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property for all time. Such you may treat as slaves; But as for your Israelite kin, no one shall rule ruthlessly over another (vs. 44-46).

We tend to slough over the fact that God has commanded us to take slaves and keep them as slaves in perpetuity, so long as they are from the nations around us. Often we prefer not to acknowledge these verses, perhaps because they were used as justification of slavery in the South.

In the Torah: A Women’s Commentary I found a refreshing acknowledgement of what is actually written in the latter verses:

44-46. Indentured foreign females and males do not go free. When sold into slavery, foreigners become the Israelites’ possession “for all time” (v. 46). This harsh ruling contradicts other laws in Leviticus that specify an identical law for the Israelite, the foreigner, and the resident alien (as 24:22 states: “you shall have one standard for stranger and citizen alike”; see also Exodus 12:49 and Numbers 15:16). Later rabbinic traditions attempt to ameliorate this legislation by interpreting “for all time” to mean “until the jubilee year,” but such a generous reading contradicts the plain sense of this passage.

After finishing this blog (and rereading it prior to publication) I got an email linking me to the JTSA website with a stirring d’var torah by Marjorie Lehman, “Grappling with Slavery in Parashat Behar.” I highly recommend your reading it.

WHAT IF?

After having faced up to this very difficult text (not for the first time), I wondered what if the second part of this passage were not there? Would our world have been different? I’m not sure, because slavery has been around forever. Its origins date back to the earliest human civilizations. It emerged as a means of dealing with war captives, debtors, and those on the margins of society. It probably did not exist in hunter-gatherer societies because they lacked the economic surplus to support a slave class. But once agriculture developed, so did social stratification, because surplus food allowed certain groups to dominate others. The Code of Hammurabi (c. 1754 BCE) mentions slaves. In Egypt, slaves were captives from military campaigns. The economies of Greece and Rome depended on slave labor. Yet it is horrifying to see it justified in our holy Bible. How do we live with it? Should we explain it away?

APOLOGETICS ABOUT ETERNAL SLAVERY FOR NON-ISRAELITES

For the fun of it, I checked with ChatGPT to see what he/she/it/they/them had to say about slavery in the bible. Although acknowledging the difference between enslaved Israelites who had to be let go, and those from the nations around them, even the AI tool seems to be apologetic. After presenting the facts, it justifies its immorality. Here is the entry as it appeared:

Foreign Slaves (Non-Israelites)

Often acquired through war, purchase, or birth into slavery–Considered property and could be inherited (Leviticus 25:44–46).–Had fewer rights than Hebrew slaves and could be held indefinitely.–However, mistreatment was discouraged: [my bold] A master who maimed a slave (e.g., gouged out an eye or knocked out a tooth) had to free them (Exodus 21:26–27).

Note: that to explain away the seriousness of this, even ChatGPT quotes from Exodus.

And let us not forget Maimonides who is often quoted on this issue in the Mishneh Torah. He is at his apologetic best when he discusses the laws of slaves:

It is permissible to have a Canaanite slave perform excruciating labor. Although this is the law, the attribute of piety and the way of wisdom is for a person to be merciful and to pursue justice, not to make his slaves carry a heavy yoke, nor cause them distress. He should allow them to partake of all the food and drink he serves. This was the practice of the Sages of the first generations who would give their slaves from every dish of which they themselves would partake. And they would provide food for their animals and slaves before partaking of their own meals. And so, it is written Psalms 123:2: “As the eyes of slaves to their master’s hand, and like the eyes of a maid-servant to her mistress’ hand, so are our eyes to God.”
Similarly, we should not embarrass a slave by our deeds or with words, for the Torah prescribed that they perform service, not that they be humiliated. Nor should one shout or vent anger upon them extensively. Instead, one should speak to them gently, and listen to their claims (Maimonides Laws of Slaves 9:8.).

Despite Maimonides’ admonition to us to be kind to our slaves, he takes for granted that they will not change their status. To add insult to injury, he includes slaves in the same category as animals.

PERSONAL “WHAT IFS”

Last week I had an interesting conversation with a friend. It turned out that she and her husband had strong roots in the Conservative Movement in the U.S. yet joined an Orthodox synagogue rather than ours when they moved to our community. He was a wonderful Torah reader. I told her that this was a real loss to our synagogue, because my husband was always looking for Torah readers instead of his having the burden to prepare. When I told my daughter about this story, she said, you know, if he had become the Torah reader in your synagogue, you would never have learned the trope and become the main Torah reader. This led me to think about all the “what ifs” in my life and my world. Following this, my daughter and I had an interesting mutual “what if” situation. She was at a rabbinical conference for rabbis in the U.S. and because she was not flying El Al, was unable to return to the U.S. because of all the cancellations. So she had to spend another Shabbat in NYC. She ended up having a Shabbat meal at the same person’s home where I had spoken on a fund-raising trip for a women’s shelter in 1989. Because of the missed flight, my daughter and I have now come full circle with a wonderful woman and philanthropist.

MORE WHAT IFS

One friend told me that she had written a paper in high school about “what if the South had won the Civil War?” Another one said, “what if the Art School that Hitler applied to, had accepted him, rather than rejecting him, and he had become an artist?” Another friend said, “what if the army commanders had listened to the women soldier observers (tatspaniot) when they passed on information to their male superiors about the activities of Hamas prior to October 7^{th?” FEEL FREE TO ADD YOUR LIST OF “WHAT IFS” TO MINE!}

Here is my favorite “What If”, which in Hebrew is ואולי by the Israeli poet Rahel, translated by Moshe Kaye.

Rahel, Ve-ulai

And perhaps, there weren’t ever those things

and perhaps, I never awoke early

with the dawn to go to the garden

to work it with the sweat of my brow…

And ever, during long and blazing days

of harvest (long and blazing days)

at the peak of the cart ladened with sheaths of wheat

I didn’t give my voice in song.

I never cleansed myself

in the peaceful pale blue and in innocence