Mishpatim (Shabbat Shekalim) 5773 - English

By Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky

B´nei Israel Congregation, Costa Rica

Changes must be done steadily and slowly

This week’s parashah is Mishpatim, in Spanish, “laws”.  Its name is representative of its content, since it indeed contains a long list of social and civil laws, known in rabbinic language as mitzvot ben adam l’chaveiro, “obligations between people”.

In order to understand the text, it is important that we place ourselves in the context of the Torah: the people had just departed from Egypt and witnessed the great divine revelation at Mount Sinai, which as is well-known, includes the Ten Commandments.  It is immediately after this event that the regulation of the laws appears in our parashah.

Interestingly, the first law that the people receive is that of the eved ivri, the Hebrew slave. This law sets forth the conditions required to possess slaves, clearly favoring them and defending their rights. In fact, our sages explained that ha-koneh eved ivri koneh adon le’atzmo, that is to say, “anyone who acquires a slave, acquires for himself a master.”  This statement means that slaves have so many rights and masters have so many duties that, in the end, the slave turns out to be “as the master of his master.”

Well then, I’d like to reflect upon the following:  the people of Israel had just got out of Egypt, after suffering centuries of slavery. They had been horrible years, steeped in extreme physical and spiritual pain. Our people had just recovered their freedom; now they were free men and women…  Was it logical, then, that the first law they received established the rules of slavery?  Were they not supposed to be a free nation, once and for all?  Isn’t this a little bit contradictory?

A very interesting explanation says that , in truth, the Torah’s ultimate purpose was to abolish slavery, but for a people who had lived for hundreds of years as slaves, the possibility of thinking of having a society without slaves was unacceptable.  Furthermore, the institution of slavery was so firm and natural in biblical society that even to the free thinkers of those times, a society with no slaves was unimaginable.

Following this reasoning, if the Torah had prohibited slavery, the people could not have borne to live without it, and sooner or later, they would have transgressed that law and returned to owning slaves.  For this reason, what the Torah did was to tolerate the existence of slaves, but restricting much of the power of the masters and strongly defending the rights of slaves (anyway, just talking about the rights of slaves during those times was already an innovation).  In this manner, the Torah was able to develop, little by little, ideas of freedom, civil rights, human rights, etc., among a people used to slavery.  In fact, hundreds of years later, the rabbis finally abolished slavery for the people of Israel, a decree that became a reality after many centuries of fighting on behalf of the rights of slaves.  (See, for example, Babli Gittin 65a… although there are some who maintain that the law of slaves is still in force, even though it is not applied.  See, for example, Igrot Moshe Orach Chaim II:33.)

What can we learn from this idea?  In my opinion, one of its wisest lessons is that human beings need time to accept changes.  When something is established in a hurry, it is likely to fail.  In order to change and improve, we need to move slowly; that’s just the way we are.

On a daily basis, we hear people saying things such as, “I’ve been arriving late all my life, but from now on, I will never again be late “; “I used to eat 3000 calories per day, but from now on, I will not eat more than 1000”; for the past four years I’ve been behaving badly towards you; from now on, I’ll be like an angel”; “I haven’t come to the synagogue in three years, but from this day on, I will not miss a single service”.  We all know that in general, these kind of abrupt decisions break apart only a few days after they were taken.

Perhaps the Torah teaches us that if we really want to make long-lasting changes in our lives, in our conduct and in our relationships, we must go slowly.  With determination and perseverance, but slowly.  If we expect to change everything in just one blow, it is very likely that we will fail.

Just as the people of Israel, newly-freed, were unprepared to live in a society free of slaves, are we equally unprepared to implement, all of a sudden, many changes that we wish or should make in our lives.  The important thing is not to try and change everything in one go, but to move forward slowly but at a steady pace.

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky

B´nei Israel Congregation, Costa Rica