Slavery in the Torah: Compassion inside Justice

The first parsha in the Torah is the parsha of Avadim. So just two things. The first is I remember [snorts] years ago, many many years ago, so through Torah Links, I had a khavrusa that was coming from he was learning Torah for the first time. The first time I learned with him was parshas Mishpatim. He said he wanted to learn a little bit of Chumash, so we sat down and we started learning parshas Mishpatim. And the first parsha in the Torah talks about slavery. Everybody knows I remember what amendment it is, but Lincoln freed the slaves and it was considered a very very big deal because the ones that were pro-slavery, you know, in hindsight are treated as being very immoral, right? All men were created equally. And if that's the case, he was very very bothered by how you talk and that the Torah seems to be very very pro-slavery. I'll tell you something interesting. Should probably discuss this off record, but there was a a certain godol. He was a talmid of the Chasam Sofer. Well, if you know, you know. At one point, he became a rav in New Orleans, Louisiana. Yeah. He was a talmid of the Chasam Sofer. Then he went and he studied in the University of Hungary. Eventually, he made it to the United States. He needed a job and he becomes a a rav in New Orleans. Now, this is when Louisiana was part of the Confederate States of America. So it was during the Civil War when, you know, several states in the United States had seceded and these were the Southern States who were very very pro-slavery. And he comes and he gives his first Shabbos Shuva drasha. You can actually find this Shabbos Shuva drasha if you know how to look. But the bottom line is he comes and he gives his first drasha and what he did was what any good rabbi would do and that is he preached to the converted, right? Literally. So he gets up and he says that I know that this khabura are very very pro-slaves. And he says it's it's okay because open the Torah. Parshas Mishpatim. THE FIRST LAW THAT Moses gives over to the Jewish people right after the Torah is the laws of slaves. SO THIS IS PART and parcel of of everything that it is that we do and we believe in. And he goes and he bangs out this drasha. It's it's mamash mind-boggling. This was a real talmid chakham. This tshuvas from him. Again, if you know, you know. But the bottom line is is that's what this Adam Gadol got up and this was his Shabbos Shuva drasha like 1862 in New Orleans. Love to have been there. But this is what's going on, right? So but what's the good of that? Good of that. It's something that is really hard to wrap our heads around. At the end of the day, the Torah is in many ways the the moral code for all future generations. How do we understand the fact that there was slavery in the Torah. This is above my pay grade, but just there's one mar amakin that if you don't know this mar amakin, you don't have a right to even ponder this question. And that is the Gemara says in Maseches Kiddushin daf kaf vov alef. It says ki tov lo imach. Right? It says in the parsha of Avadim ki tov lo imach. What does it mean ki tov lo imach? Say Chazal, imach b'ma'akhal v'imach b'mishteh. That if somebody purchases an eved, he has to be with him. Imach b'ma'akhal and imach b'mishteh. He should eat with you. He should drink with you. Shelo yechei atah ochel pas naki You should not be eating good bread v'hu ochel pas kibeir. And he's eating not good bread. Ayin yashan. You shouldn't be drinking aged wine v'hu shoseh yayin chadash. And he's drinking a 2026 something. Atah yashan sweet wine. AL GABBEI MUCHAN. YOU'RE drink You're sleeping on like a very soft pillow and blanket v'hu yashan al gabbei ateven. And he's in the barn. That's where he's sleeping. Mikol amru Chazal said, you know, you see from this halacha ki tov lo imach kol hakoneh eved ivri k'koneh odin l'atzmo. That if somebody acquires an eved ivri, he literally thinks he bought an eved and bought an eved. He was koneh odin l'atzmo. If you take a look at Tosfos. Tosfos says, I understand kol hakoneh eved ivri k'koneh odin l'atzmo. I just learned this Chazal. I hear imach b'ma'akhal imach b'mishteh. Shelo yechei atah ochel pas naki v'hu ochel pas kibeir. You want koneh an odin? If you want koneh an eved, you thought, you know, this eved, he's going to do what I'm going to say jump and he's going to say how high, right? But it's not mamash like that. But how are you koneh odin l'atzmo? You're eating the same foods. If he's eating better food than you, it's koneh odin l'atzmo. But that's not what's going on. So Tosfos quotes a Yerushalmi. Quote, dipa'amim ein lo ela karachas. You know what the ayin mak of koneh odin l'atzmo is? Because sometimes a person only has one pillow. Im shocheiv al avatzmo, if he's going to take the pillow for himself, einu mekuyam ki tov lo imach. He's not going to be mekuyam. And you know what he's going to have to do? He's going to have to go ahead and he's going to have to give it to his eved. So the ki tov lo imach is because that's true. If you have two pillows, you're both getting a pillow. But what if you only have one? So you have to fight for the pillow. You know who's getting it? You know who's getting it? He's getting it. And that's why kol hakoneh eved ivri is k'koneh odin l'atzmo. You're actually going and you're buying an eved for yourself. It's true. There's a parsha of avdus in the Torah, but it's done in the Torahdig way. It's done in an extremely sensitive way. And really, you have to understand the parsha of Avos Uvanim and you have to understand the Mishpatei haTorah before you even weigh in on a on a conversation like this. In Mishneh Torah when the Torah passes over the parsha of Avadim, so the Torah talks about the eved ivri and the Torah talks about the fact that he goes out after six years and if he chooses to stay on board a little bit longer, so there's the parsha of the nirtza. Over there the lashon haposuk is as follows. V'hayah ki yomar lach It's going to be if the eved ivri is going to come to you and he's going to say lo eitzei me'imach. I don't want to leave. Ki aheivcha. I love you. Ba'es b'sechah in your house. Ki tov lo imach. Right? Ki tov lo imach because it's it's pretty good. Right? Why would an eved ivri ever want to stay on board? It's ki tov lo imach because kol hakoneh eved k'koneh odin l'atzmo. In a situation like that v'lakachta samarta ya. V'nasata b'ozno uvada lo es. V'hayah lo eved olam. Etc. etc. etc. But the Lutzker Rav in his 9th letter, we're going to end with this, says that we know wherever it says vayehi in the Torah ein ela lashon tzar. Wherever it says v'hayah, it's always a lashon of simcha. Said the Lutzker Rav, v'hayah ki yomar lach lo eitzei me'imach ki aheivcha ba'es b'sechah ki tov lo imach. On what planet, in which part of the world is there such a thing that somebody was being held hostage and now all of a sudden he's allowed to go free and he says, you know something, lo eitzei me'imach. Ki aheivcha. I love my captors. Ba'es b'sechah. Ki tov lo imach because you've been treating me so well. It's never ever ever happened in history with the exception of amongst the Jewish people. And being that there's an Indian where it's even shaya that an eved would say that I want to stay. Lo eitzei chafshi. Ki tov lo imach. Says the Lutzker Rav, v'hayah. This is an incredible simcha. Simcha uvisura tovah l'Yisrael she nitnu l'Yisrael min hashamayim chukim tzadikim umishpatim yesharim haposem es ya'aseh lo eved v'amavad b'ofen chazal. Shelo eved omer ahavti es adoni. V'odin ein lo godol b'veiso. Lo ya'aseh eved b'umah. Lo b'ma'akhal. Lo b'mishteh. Lo b'mashina. Ki tov lo imach. He says, you want to bring out the beauty of the Torah. It's true there's a parsha of Avadim because unfortunately, sometimes people are forced into situations like this. But don't for one minute visualize the relationship between the master and the slave in the same way that maybe it played itself out in the last you know, few hundred years. That's not what the visual is. It's a visual of ki tov lo imach. It's a visual of kol hakoneh eved k'koneh odin l'atzmo. That's why there was even an Indian of a anirtza. Where would you come to such a thing? Ahavti es adoni. Imagine those words. Right? Where would you even come to that? The Torah says because the Mishpatei haTorah force us to do things differently. They train us to [snorts] do things differently. And that's v'hayah. That's v'hayah ki yomar eved. And the reason is is because in the simcha uvisura tovah l'Yisrael she nitnu l'Yisrael chukim min hashamayim, there's nothing that brings out the beauty of the Torah sometimes than the way the Torah navigates these very very challenging situations. So yeah, it's true. There was a parsha of avdus in the Torah. And without a doubt, once upon a time, it's definitely something that made a lot of sense. Right? There's no question in the world. This is the way the world was. But the Torah rising above says that although it's true there's an Indian that you can have an eved, but remember ki tov lo imach. Ad kedei kach kol hakoneh eved k'koneh odin l'atzmo.