EXOD517 A teacher must make sure that his students understand what he teaches them. The Mechilta cited by Rashi states that this is what the Almighty told Moshe: "it should not enter into your mind to say, ' I will teach them the laws two or three times until they know them, but I won't try myself to make them understand the reasons for the laws and their explanations.' The Torah therefore states, 'Which you shall set before them,' as a set table which is ready for a person to eat from." Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Lubchanski said that from here or we learn how we are obligated to teach others. It is not sufficient to merely repeat a lesson two or three times. Rather, a teacher must relate the ideas to the student with their complete explanation. There are several reasons why a teacher might hesitate to delve into the explanations behind the laws. He might lack the patience to explain the matter properly; or he might prefer to spend his time increasing his own knowledge and therefore does not want to spend time explaining everything thoroughly; or perhaps he might be afraid that if he tells the students everything he knows, he will no longer be considered their teacher, since they will be his equals in knowledge. But, said Rav Yisroel Yaakov, we see from God's command to Moshe that: 1) A teacher must acquire the patience necessary to explain matters at length. 2) Although Moshe would have been able to attain greater heights if he would have devoted all his time to his own spiritual elevation, God commanded him to use his precious time to explain the laws to the people. 3) A teacher must have his students' best interest in mind, rather than his own. (Ohr Hamussar, vol. 1, pp. 56-60).

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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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EXOD519 Among the more weighty mitzvos [i.e. that the populace is not heedful of] is that of avoiding litigation in gentile courts of law (Gittin 88b), "'These are the laws that you shall present before them' [this verse] -- before them [i.e., the Jewish people,] and not before gentiles," [This follows the principle that a prohibition deduced from a positive commandment is a mitzvah asei] and sinners will stumble over them [Hoshea 14:10].

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EXOD520 The basis of Jewish social life being the family, Judaism has exercised a ceaseless vigil over its purity and stability. The relation between the sexes is based upon the ideal of tohorat ha'mishpachah, that is, upon chastity and purity which border on holiness. The Jew does not regard woman as his inferior but as his co--partner. The sole reason why she is exempt from certain precepts, the fulfillment of which is circumscribed by the occasion, is the fact that male and female have been cast into different physiques, making it biologically necessary for a division of labour between man and woman. It was never intended that the sphere of the home, delegated to the wisdom and tenderness of the wife and mother, should be considered as secondary to the study of the Torah or to the pursuit of a livelihood, occupations set aside for the programme of men. The Bible knows no such distinctions, for "male and female created He them" [Gen. i. 27]. When those who arranged the order (Siddur) of our daily prayers prescribed the blessing [Singer's Prayer Book, p. 6] thanking God "who hast not made me a woman", all they meant was, as can be seen from the context of the blessings, that the Jew is grateful to His Master for so conditioning him that he is not deprived, as a woman is by reason of her domestic responsibilities, from fulfilling such duties as Tsitsit, Tephilllin, Sukkah and similar duties which must be performed within a limited, stipulated time [Kidd.i.7; Men. 43b]. Apart from this category of commandments, known in the Talmud as "mitzvot aseh she'hazeman grama", no differentiation in our ethical codes exists between male and female. On the contrary; because the Fifth Commandment tells the child to honor her father and mother, the Lawgiver felt that he must remove the mistaken idea that the father is mentioned first because he is the more important partner in marriage by putting the mother first when he repeats the command elsewhere in the Torah. [Lev. xix. 3, "Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father". Redress could not be more noble, nor equity of the sexes more colorfully stressed. Moreover, when the Rabbis explain the verse "Now these are the ordinances which thou shalt set before them" [this verse], their comment was: "Scripture places men and women on an equality with regard to all the laws of the Torah" [B.K. 15a]. If woman is not encouraged to higher study, no qualms of conscience need assail her; her merit consists in the help she gives her menfolk to become learned in "The Word of God" [Ber. 17a]. Moreover, God endowed woman with more intuition and tact than man [Nid. 45b]. Biblical support for this statement was found in the word Vayiven ויבן [which is made a denominative from בינה "intelligence"] used when a woman was created from the rib of man. God used special intelligence (binah) before coming to the decision that the best material from which to shape woman was the rib, for that is that part of the body which was always covered [Gen R. xviii.2.].

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EXOD521 The legal and moral distinction between Israelites and others is also made in the case of slaves. The term of service of a Hebrew slave is limited to six years, and he is manumitted in the seventh (Exodus 21:2, Deuteronomy 15:12). This restriction of slavery is surely based on Israel's own experience of harsh servitude in Egypt. Leviticus 25:39-42 goes further and effectively abolishes slavery for the Israelite; his status is rather as "a hired or bound labor" who sells his capacity for labor, but not as person, and he is manumitted in the fiftieth year of a fixed cycle, the Jubilee year. (Continued at [[LEV1093]] Leviticus 25:45 property OXFORD 47) (By Elaine Adler Goodfriend, “Ethical Theory and Practice in the Hebrew Bible)

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EXOD522 Observe the laws of the Hebrew servant. Having made us His Chosen People, Hashem wants us to purify our deeds and to crown ourselves with refined character traits. By doing so, we will merit His blessings. Of all the desirable character traits, kindness and mercy are particularly important. So that we cultivate these traits, Hashem commands us to behave with kindness and mercy towards those who are subservient to us.

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EXOD1978 In the passages below, the Torah speaks of someone who has to sell himself into slavery to pay off debts. The verses from Exodus [21:2-6] make it clear that normally there is a six-year limit on such slavery, however large the debt is. Furthermore, if the slave voluntarily chooses to remain a slave after that time to stay with his wife and children, he undergoes what must have been a demeaning ritual of having his ear bored with an awl, indicating that one is not really supposed to choose to enslave oneself to other human beings, even for that understandable reason. In the verses from Leviticus [25:39-42], the Torah makes clear that the creditor may not treat the debtor as a slave but rather as an indentured servant. Furthermore, although Exodus imagines slavery for life, however unsavory that maybe, Leviticus puts a definite limit on it--namely, the Jubilee year--and demands that in the Jubilee year he is not only to be freed but also to regain the ancestral land he had to sell to pay off some of his debts. We no longer permit people to sell themselves into slavery. Nevertheless, these verses should ring true to us, especially if we have gained and lost property over time, for they assert that we should understand that everything we possess is ours only temporarily. Furthermore, because ultimately G-d owns everything, G-d morally can and does demand that we reapportion some of our own property to others in need.

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EXOD523 See [[DEUT1408]] Deuteronomy 24:18 slave DORFFDRAG 133-4

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EXOD524 R. Shimon said: He may have been sold, but was his wife sold! [i.e., Why even mention: "Then his wife shall go out with him"?] This teaches us that the master is obligated to feed his wife (Kiddushin 22a)

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EXOD525 He used to say: If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? and if not now, when? Pirkei Avot, Perek I, mishnah 14. We know the self is important: self-respect is basic, self-sufficiency and independence are essential for human dignity. It is this consideration which is evidently implied in the biblical law eved nirtzah [this and following verses]. The Jewish slave served his term of six years and then was released. During this period his master could give him a non-Jewish wife, and the progeny belonged to the master. If at the end of six years the man declared, "I love my master, my wife and my children; I do not wish to go free," then the Torah prescribes an elaborate and somewhat degrading ritual to be performed. The slave was taken to the door and a whole bored in his ear, and then he had to serve until the Jubilee Year. But what was his crime that he should be treated so? Surely his declaration of loyalty was suffused with love and a sense of service; why bore his ear? And why the title of opprobrium, eved nirtzah, "the servant with the bored earlobe"? But perhaps there is something radically wrong with the person who, offered freedom, prefers slavery. There is something unmanly and shameful about a choice which prefers dependence to independence. "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?"

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