Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra comments:
Abraham the author declared …
I could not explain these blessings without mentioning a few of the
[realities established by the] natural sciences. So that
man's corporeal body may stem from the mundane
world and the supernal soul be connected to it, there are
mediators between the soul and the body, two
forces, generally referred to in the holy tongue as ruach
(spirit) and nefesh; For the soul is wisdom, and has her
seat in the brain in man's head, from whence stem all the senses and
the movement of the object. The spirit is located in the
heart, in which the vitality of man is entrenched, and it
quests for the authority to overcome anything standing in its way;
it is the wielder of anger. As King Solomon wrote: "Don't let your
spirit be quickly vexed"(Ecclesiastes 7:9), "A dullard vents all his
rage"(Proverbs 29:11). The nefesh located in the
liver yearns to eat, as it is written, "When your nefesh
desires". And the lust for sexual intercourse arises from it. So man
is created such that these three aforementioned [elements
within him] are strong, or [such that] they all are weak, or [such
that] one is strong and the other is weak, or [such that] neither is
strong and neither is weak … the revered Name gave
the Torah in order to strengthen, augment and amplify the supernal
soul, so that the corporeal body would not have dominion
over it, but if the Torah is not kept than the physical body
will overcome the soul
(Ibn Ezra, Exodus 23:25).
In the continuation of this passage, Ibn Ezra develops the aforementioned notion that by
involving Himself in man's life by giving the Torah, G-d enables divine law to establish
its dominion over the laws of nature and nullify them.
Furthermore, Ibn Ezra cites an example from the field of astrology in which when man
places himself under the dominion of the Torah's laws, divine law voids the stars'
decrees: even "if man's destiny demands that he die before his appointed time in battle,
G-d to whom he has cleaved will save him."
As has been shown
there is a dynamic link between the physical body and the nefesh,
the spirit and the soul. This link parallels the division we espouse
between the Worlds of Production (the physical body) and
Creation (the soul) and the World of Creativity
, the
latter critically functioning as the linchpin bringing together and activating the two other
antithetical worlds: the corporeal one and the spiritual one. Furthermore, Ibn Ezra
perceives the relationship between them in terms reminiscent of our insight encapsulated
in the verse "One people shall be mightier than the other, and the older shall serve the
younger"(Gen 25:23); when the soul governs the corporeal body, the corporeal body
follows the dictates of the soul. However, when the corporeal body takes charge, it
enslaves the soul and forces the good inclination to serve the evil one. The Torah, its
commandments and its values, teach the soul how to dominate the corporeal body and
make use of it, without having to separate from it. Other religions have tried
unsuccessfully to champion the soul over the body by separating the two. They have
attempted to teach the proverbial horse to live without nourishment only to find out that
precisely when the experiment has finally succeeded, the horse breaths its last.
Many commentators have asked why the Torah saw fit to begin Parshat Mishpatim – the
parsha dealing with the Torah's most fundamental laws and halakhot – with the laws
pertaining to the Hebrew slave. The laws of the Hebrew slave seem to reflect the unique
characteristics of Jewish jurisprudence, "your wisdom and your insight in the eyes of the
nations"(Deut 4:6), which demand that even if the laws pertaining to a certain matter are
the same in both the non-Jewish and Jewish legal systems, it is absolutely forbidden for a
Jew to plead his case before the non-Jewish courts. In addition to the surface variations
between the two legal systems, the Gentile legal system seems to me to posses an
inherent flaw which makes our system preferable to theirs.
This principle is clearly manifested in the
laws of the Hebrew slave. Superficially, the laws pertaining to the
sale of a Hebrew slave are merely a subsection of the laws dealing
with acquisitions, commercial laws. In order to complete an ordinary
acquisition the states of mind of buyer and seller must be
ascertained. The act of acquisition (ma'aseh kinyan
) concretely expresses the fact that their minds are made up. The slave, for all
intents and purposes is the object being acquired; Jewish law considers the object's -- his
-- state of mind very carefully. The buyer, in acquiring a Hebrew slave, effectively
"acquires a master for himself" as the verse relates: "If he had a wife…"(Ex 21:3); "If his
master gave him a wife"(Ex 21:4); "If the slave declares: 'I love my master…"(Ex 21:5).
Crucial subsections reflecting the slave's state of mind. The laws of the Hebrew slave
also reflect the divine state of mind as several kabbalistic commentators, including the Or
HaHaim and the Alshikh, understand the laws of the Hebrew slave as analogous to the
relationship between the soul and the body, and between the Creator and His creations.
Thus each and every human action or behavior takes place around three qualitative hubs
expressing the Torah's values:
- Attention focused upon the behavior or
actions of the slave , impress the Torah
value granted to the individual, qua individual, as a human value.
- Even though on a superficial level the
master-slave relationship seems to be comprised of the
interactions between a man and his slave, in reality a
reciprocal relationship between man and his fellowman
is formed. Their interaction
creates an interpersonal relationship.
- The relationship between the
master and the slave with the Master of the World obligates both of them. Man (both master and
slave) always relates to G-d.
Parshat Mishpatim begins with the laws of the Hebrew slave to teach us that this three
dimensional paradigm is found within and shapes every action or commandment man
performs whether it is performed on an interpersonal level or as part of his relationship
with the Divine.
The slave who has his ear pierced embodies the connection between all of these aspects
and his Father who is in Heaven, as he launches himself into an extensive servitude to
stay with his master and his family by piercing "the ear which heard at Mount Sinai:
'They are my servants' – and not the servants of servants."
For a discussion of the individual who acts as a sentient object, see tractate Kiddushin 7.
"If his master gives him a wife"(Ex 21:4), the Or Hahaim wrote:
His Master, who dwells in Heaven, acquired a wife for him, for you will find
several human beings who are endowed with pure souls through the mystery of
coupling at the time of conception based upon the merit of their righteous fathers,
'she had borne him boys and girls'[Ex 21:4] … the principal progeny of righteous
men are their good deeds … for this reason the verse declared 'she had borne him
boys and girls'[Ex 21:4], those good deeds analogous to boys are commandments
performed with tremendous effort, while those analogous to girls are on a lower
level than those analogous to boys. For an individual such as this [the Hebrew
slave], 'the wife and her children shall belong to her master' [Ex 21:4] to
distinguish the Hebrew slave's gains from those of the man who acquired a wife
through great effort …"
The
Or HaHaim points out the connection between the individual and his
good deeds both in this world and in the World to Come. In light of
this, by performing one act
the
circle encompassing man and himself, man and his fellowman, and man and his Creator
is completed combining all these elements into one tight package, for each action
performed in the lower realm has its parallel in the supernal realm. And each individual
act impacts upon and influences another, in keeping with the credo "all Israelites act as
guarantors one for the other." No man can declare: "I have saved myself."
A similar paradigm
exists for describing the relationship between the various elements
comprising man himself. As Ibn Ezra has written, the soul is
involved with the entities know as the spirit and the
nefesh, or, to use our terminology, the head, the hand, and the heart comprise
one tight package. The components serve to reflect
one another for "everything is in the heavens and the
earth." An anti-pragmatist approach in so far as it defines
the relationship between spirit and matter. In this way, Jewish law
creates a complementary linkage joining supernal and sublunary
adjudication, as the verse relates "then his master shall bring him
to the elohim"(Ex 21:6). "And Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra wrote
that the judges are called elohim
because they uphold the laws of G-d on
earth"(Nahmanides, Chavel edition, 1973, 347).
Nahmanides discerning
a stronger and more unifying bond cites the midrash: "But when the
judge sits and renders judgment in truth, the Holy One, blessed be
He, leaves, as it were, the supreme heavens and causes His Presence
to dwell next to him, for it is said, When the Eternal raised
them up to judges, then the Eternal was with the judge"(Chavel,
1973, 348). To put it into our terms, actualizing the Divine
presence in the context of reality
. From whence stems the concept espousing the unification of man and his Maker
and man and his fellowman, all under the rubric of all-encompassing reality unifying
heaven and earth.
Apparently the message taught by the laws of the Hebrew slave is not simply a practical
legal one. For as our Sages, may their memory be a blessing, taught: "anyone who
acquires a Hebrew slave, purchases a master for himself;" the righteous were motivated
to acquire Hebrew slaves by their altruism, for purchasing a Hebrew slave is truly
illogical. Who would willingly buy himself a master? Clearly the Torah had another
reason for discussing the laws of Hebrew slaves, to teach the moral of the union of the
three aspects discussed above.
Translated by
Rabbi Meshulam Gotlieb
www.MGtransEd.com
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