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Back to Question of the Week Q: Dear Rabbi, I'm preparing a Drash on Parashat Re'eh. Could you please explain to me why Eved Ivri [a Hebrew servant] is thrust with an awl to be marked for the rest of his life? Also, could you refer me to commentators who wrote about Eved Ivri? Thank you, Yoav |
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A: Dear Yoav: Just so all the cyber-students out there can be on the same [web] page, let's first quote the relevant passage: If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, sells himself to you and serves you six years, in the seventh year you must let him go free. And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed. Supply him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today. But if your servant says to you, "I do not want to leave you," because he loves you and your family and is well off with you, then take an awl and push it through his ear lobe into the door, and he will become your servant for life. Do the same for your maidservant. Do not consider it a hardship to set your servant free, because his service to you these six years has been worth twice as much as that of a hired hand. And the LORD your God will bless you in everything you do. (Deuteronomy 15:12-18) Now, a lot could be said about the institution of slavery or servitude in ancient Israel, and it's too much to go into here. However, one point should be made. Even though that it's a little weird for a people that had been enslaved in Egypt to be keeping indentured servants of their own, the laws in the Torah should be understood as an attempt to make this widespread ancient practice more ethical and humane. For example, even servants got Shabbat off; they were included in the celebration of the holidays and festivals; and they were somewhat protected from physical abuse. (Cf. many chapters in the Torah: Exodus 20, 21, 23; Leviticus 25; Deuteronomy 5, 16, and 23.) It's also important to understand the context of these laws in Deuteronomy quoted above: the previous section deals with debts and loans, so we're probably talking about a person who has to default on his debts and "sell himself" as a servant to another person for a period of several years. Even a slave who becomes a "servant for life" is understood to serve only as long as the master's life, and would go free if there was a Yovel [Jubilee] year before that. (Cf. Leviticus 25) OK, with all that context, what does the ritual with the awl and the ear and the doorpost mean? Prof. Jeffrey Tigay, who wrote the Jewish Publication Society Commentary on Deuteronomy, writes that "the significance of this action is unclear," but he offers a couple of educated guesses, based on Biblical context and history: 1) Making a pierce in the ear was a symbol of the ear always being "open" or ready to hear the master's orders. 2) Maybe there was an old custom of the ear holding an earring or a some other mark of a slave- but if so, that part didn't make it into our text. 3) Driving the awl into the doorpost might symbolize "attaching" the servant to the household. Later rabbis thought that this ritual as a kind of punishment for the servant, who is apparently choosing to become a servant to a human master rather than a free servant of God. This interpretation is based on Leviticus 25:42, which says that Israelites are not to be sold as permanent slaves, because they are "My servants," according to God. Thus, this "ear" that heard Torah is ignoring it and taking on a human master. Finally, one should note that these laws have not been practiced for many, many years- nobody (whom I know of) is suggesting that they be revived. The laws of servitude in the Bible are an important example of the Torah's advanced morality in comparison to the law systems of other ancient societies, but no modern Jewish movement thinks that such laws are appropriate today. NJL |
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