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EXODUS — 21:1 slave

EXOD518 So beloved was compassion in the eyes of the giver of the Torah that when he began to enumerate the laws that were to govern their life, with what did he begin?-"If you purchase a Hebrew slave" [this verse]. It is well known that the status of slaves in the ancient world was comparable to that of domestic animals, the ox and the donkey. They and their children were the property of the owner, who could beat and even kill them, as he pleased. The Torah begins its legislation by limiting the years of servitude of the Hebrew slave to six years. It then restricted the right of the owner to beat cruelly and to maim his Canaanite slave, so that if the slave died of the beating, the owner had to answer for it. And if the slave's eye or tooth is knocked out, he attains his freedom. The Torah also ordained that the slave must be allowed to rest on Sabbaths and festivals.

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EXODUS — 22:26 compassionate

EXOD724 Now, the feeling of compassion is alone sufficient to impel a man to choose good and to scorn evil. For he who feels the pain of others as if it were his own, will not only refrain from hurting others, but he will strive to favor all people and to lighten their burdens. His compassion will also lead him to love fairness and justice. For when I see two men, equally unknown to me, I have compassion equally for both of them, therefore, I shall not incline the scales of judgment to favor one against the other, but shall seek to equalize their lot. And if I see one robbing his fellow man, I am filled with the desire to compel the violator to restore his loot to his victim. Therefore, all effective moral education should consist in the cultivation and refinement of the natural feelings of compassion, either by way of verbal instruction or by way of actual practice. By means of training a child can be turned either into a ruthless and callous man, or into a righteous, gentle, honest and faithful person. Now, the Torah which Moses put before the children of Israel guides us into the path of gentleness and kindness, by its commands concerning the obligatory gifts to the poor, the strangers, the orphans and the widows. [leket--let him gather the fallen stalks, after the harvesters; shikha-whatever was forgotten in the fields belonged to the poor; peah-one corner of the field was to be left for them.] So, too, the Torah prohibited the charging of interest on loans, enjoining the lender from entering the house of the borrower and from taking the garments of the poor or that which they needed for their livelihood. If you do take a blanket of the debtor, you must return it to him before the setting of the sun. "For it is his only garment, the covering of the skin, with what will he sleep?" [this verse].

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EXODUS — 34:6 compassionate

EXOD1023 God is apprehended in truthfulness and envisioned as the ethical Ideal. To love God is to build His Kingdom and seek His "nearness." "Thus, the attributes of action [as in Exodus 34:6,7] are not so much the qualities of God (as He is in Himself), but rather in accordance with their concept, the ideal for human action. ... The relations between man and man form the lower, or rather, the inner correlation within the one of Man and God." Hermann Cohen (1842-1918).

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LEVITICUS — 19:2 holy

LEV287 The maxim, "To love the neighbor as thyself, I am thy Lord," (Leviticus 19:18) lays down a positive command that is unattainable in practice. The conclusion of the order, "I am the Lord," indicates that it must remain a goal, even if it cannot be reached. We are called upon to "walk in His ways," and to act as He does, though we shall never achieve that consummation, "Holy shall ye become, for I the Lord am holy." [this verse].

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LEVITICUS — 19:2 holy

LEV284 The commandment, "Be ye holy, for I am holy," [this verse] articulates one of the basic motivations in the Jewish tradition. We are to become that which God is. Since God is beyond and above all our experience, we can fulfill ourselves only in the striving to transcend our own being. Creatures that we are, we are bidden to become like the Creator. Our "accidental" situation as children of nature is somewhat insufficient--we must rise above ourselves, as it were. Indeed, nothing is so characteristic of human nature at its best as our many-sided endeavor to push back the existential boundaries that hem us in. We rebel against the finality of death and seek to grasp Eternity; we realize that human satisfactions are illusions, and we yearn for the delight that we will not sour; we resent the bitter and manifold evils of life and we long for the realm of perfection. All these longings are blended together by the Psalmist in the one affirmation, "and I, the nearness of God is my good." Psalm 73:28.

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LEVITICUS — 19:18 love

LEV687 Since we are to love our neighbors as ourselves [this verse], but no more than ourselves, is a person allowed to insult another person on the ground that he himself does not mind if other people insult him?--The Torah refers only to a situation where two people share the same attitude. If the other person feels hurt when he is insulted, you must remember not to insult him.… In a case of this kind, they said, "Ignore your will because of the will of your friend, and your friend's will because of God's Will. But, don't you rely entirely on your own understanding. Sefer Hassidim 349.

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LEVITICUS — 19:18 love

LEV688 The call to love God is almost as pervasive in our ethical literature as the command to obey Him. And the love of God is regularly interpreted to mean the acceptance of a pattern of human relations conceived as a response to Divine love: [Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, I am the Lord." [This verse]. The affirmation of the unity of the Lord is followed up by the command to love Him with all one's heart, all one's soul, and all one's might. In turn, this command is spelled out to mean the education of children in the spirit, the molding of one's thought and action to accord with this purpose, and the inscription of this theme on the market places and courthouses of the community. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).

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LEVITICUS — 23:40 hadar

LEV931 The greatest sacrifice is told of a certain Rabbi who used to save the whole of the year enough money to enable him to buy an Ethrog for the Feast of Tabernacles [this verse]. When he was in possession of six rubles he made a special journey from his village to Brody, to buy the Ethrog. But on the way he met a poor man who made a livelihood by means of his horse-cart, on which he carried water for the neighborhood. Unfortunately, the horse died on the way. There upon the Rabbi gave him six rubles to buy another beast, saying, "What is the difference? Ethrog is a command of God, and to help this poor man is also a command of God." Naturally, a miracle happened afterwards. The Rabbi was presented by some rich man with a fine Ethrog for the feast. I will only remark that charity belongs, according to the mystics, to the Commandments that work a certain rebirth in man, or rather give a new soul to those who make strenuous efforts to fulfill them.

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