EXOD400 See [[EXOD886]] Exodus 23:12 rest OXFORD 428-9

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EXOD404 See [[LEV795]] Leviticus 19:34 love OXFORD 46-7

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EXOD406 The Torah sets forth a time-tempered rhythmic process of economic, ecological, and political action that is intended to preserve abundance and that warns of utter disaster if the balance is undone. When we look for what we might call the "eco-Judaism" of biblical Israel, one of the most notable teachings about the relationship between the human community and the earth is the teaching of Shabbat (the Sabbath), the shmitah or Sabbatical year, and the Jubilee year. Every seventh day, every seventh year, and the year after every seventh cycle of seven years (the fiftieth year), the human community is to pause from work, not merely to rest from physical labor, but also to renew itself, to achieve "release" for "self-reflection" or "detachment" or "holiness."– And as the community rests, so does the earth--animals and vegetation are also released. Indeed, it is almost impossible to disentangle the implications of this whirling spiral of Shabbats for adamah, the earth, from its implications for adam, the human community. The Bible connects this rhythm both to revitalization of the earth and to human freedom and equality. As we have already seen, the Shabbat of the seventh day comes first into human ken, along with manna, just at the liberation of the Israelites from slavery. When the Torah describes the second revelation of Shabbat--the one at Sinai--it gives two different ways of understanding. One (Exod. 20:8-11) focuses on Shabbat as a reminder of God's Creation of the entire "natural" world, in which the cosmos itself needs and celebrates rest and renewal as an organic reality. In the second version (Deut 5:12-15), the main reason for the existence of Shabbat is said to be as a reminder of liberation from slavery in the Narrow Place, Mitzrayyim, Egypt. It is a way of making sure that even in a society where some become indentured servants, "Your male and female servants may rest as one-like-yourself." (By Arthur Waskow, "Jewish Environmental Ethics: Intertwining Adam with Adamah")

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EXOD438 See [[684]] Exodus 22:23 your OXFORD 39

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EXOD439 The biblical theology of reward and punishment (see chapter 1 of this volume) surely underwrites much of the rabbinic concept of obeying the law [E.g., M. Makkot 3:16, the homiletic end to a tractate on the application of the biblical punishment of forty lashings. "Rabbi Hananiah ben Akashiah said: The Holy One of Blessing wanted to provide an opportunity for merit to Israel, and therefore multiplied the Torah and its Commandments." We may also think of the rabbinic pleasure in detecting -- constructing, rather -- "measure for measure" relationships between an act and its perceived consequence, displayed in M. Sotah 1:6-7 et al. The rabbis add the notion of earning life in "the world to come" in the biblical notion of "reward," M. Pe'ah 1:1, also added to the morning blessings in traditional prayer books, and in many other places (e.g. Leviticus Rabbah 35:5-6)], but talmudic texts are all too aware that that equation is anything but easy to decode. Here we may think of the famous story of Elisha ben Abuya (B. Haggigah 14a-15a), who is one of "us" but then turned into Aher, the paradigmatic "Other," by abandoning the whole idea of Torah observance after watching a boy, following his father's command to get eggs from a bird's nest, climb up and shoo away the mother bird, but then he falls off and dies in contradiction to the Torah's promise of long life for honoring one's parents (Exodus 20:12) and for shooing away the mother bird (Deuteronomy 22:6–7) [Milton Steinberg's 1939 novel As A Driven Leaf, incorporates this story--AJL] -- all in all one of the central rabbinic narratives for the question of the odyssey], and it is not generally put forward as an incentive for observance. (By Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert, “Ethical Theories in Rabbinic Literature”)

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EXOD467 See [[LEV355]] Leviticus 19:13 defraud OXFORD 478-9

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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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EXOD539 Sex … is not exclusively for procreation; it is also for the mutual bonding of the couple, emotionally as well as physically. The Rabbis derived this notion from [this verse], according to which a man owes his wife "her food, clothing, and her conjugal rights." [M. Ketubbot 5:6]. As they usually do with regard to any commandment, they then define exactly how this commandment may be fulfilled by determining how often a man must offer to engage in sexual relations with his wife. They maintained that it depends on the degree to which his job enables him to be home at night, and that consequently a man may not change his job to one that will bring him home at night less often without his wife's permission. Conversely, men also have rights to sex in marriage, but, remarkably, the Talmud already prohibits marital rape [B. Eruvin 100b; Leviticus Rabbah 9:6; Numbers Rabbah 13:2; M.T. Laws of Ethics 5:4; M.T. Laws of Marriage 14;15; M.T. Laws of Forbidden Intercourse 21:11; S.A. Orah Hayim 240:10; S.A. Even Ha-Ezer 25:2, gloss], which was not prohibited in any American state until 1975 and not in all American states until 1993. If his wife repeatedly refused to engage in conjugal relations, then, the Mishnah's remedy was that he could diminish what he owed her in divorce by a certain amount each week until he could divorce her without paying her anything and marry someone else [M. Ketubbot 5:7], for he too has a right to sexual satisfaction in marriage. This recognition of the role of sex in a couple's physical satisfaction and emotional bonding, together with their respect for medicine, has made Jews quite willing to use medical and psychological interventions to overcome sexual dysfunctions, and to use artificial reproductive techniques to overcome infertility. (By Elliot N. Dorff)

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EXOD542 Judaism's effort to individualize justice applies not only to punishment, but to defining crimes in the first place. The clearest example maybe the laws of homicide. The shedding of blood is the subject of the first admonition of a criminal nature in the Bible: "Whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed; for in His image did God make men." (Genesis 9:6. The term is first used in Genesis 4:8). Murder is prohibited by the Ten Commandments (Exod 20:13; Deut 5:17), and is marked as a capital offense in [this verse]. However, long before secular systems sought to differentiate among offenders, Jewish law had already done so. Not all homicides are treated the same. Distinctions are made according to the crucial element of the defendant's intent. In Judaism, the death penalty is prescribed for murder only if it is willful [this verse, Exod 21:14; Leviticus 24:17, 21]. The Torah articulates a distinction between premeditated murder and accidental killings. Today we might speak of the difference between deliberate killings (murder) and accidental killings (manslaughter or negligent homicide). Both are deserving of punishment, but they are not deserving of the same punishment. The Torah provides for Cities of Refuge, to which an offender could flee if he accidentally kills another human being. (Exod 21:13; Numbers 35:30-34; Deut 19:1-13). In those cities, the accidental killer would be safe from the avengers, at least pending an assessment of whether he had killed intentionally. The unintentional killer would then have to reside there until the current High Priest died, at which point he could leave the city and be legally protected from avengers for the rest of his life. (By Laurie L. Levenson, "Judaism and CriminalJustice"

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EXOD560 See [[LEV355]] Leviticus 19:13 defraud OXFORD 478-9

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