EXOD142 According to Rabbi Soloveitchik (Reflections of the Rav, ed. Abraham Besdin, Jerusalem: World Zionist Organization, 1979, pp. 198-99), the reason that a slave cannot testify in a Jewish court (Maimonides, Hilchut Edut 9:7) is that a slave has no real sense of time, an essential aspect of testimony. Since each day for the slave is precisely the same and there is little hope anticipation for the future, time is not dynamic and special for this person. A free individual is uniquely conscious of the concept of time. That is why, in transforming the Jewish people from the slave mentality in Egypt into a free nation, God had to make the Jews keenly aware of time in the commandments He gave them prior to leaving Egypt. The first mitzvah given to the people in Egypt, as noted earlier, was the setting up of the Jewish calendar (this verse). The lamb taken for the Paschal sacrifice had to be selected on a specific date, the 10th of the month of Nisan, (Exodus 12:3) sensitizing the Jews to that specific time. The people were also commanded to sacrifice a lamb at a specific time during the day, in the afternoon (Exodus 12:6). Even the actual eating of the sacrifice was related to time, as God commanded the people to eat the Pascal lamb in a state of haste and in readiness--loins girded, shoes on the feet, and staff in hand.(Exodus 12:11) Only a free person could have this sense of anticipation to leave, expectation related to time. Finally, the Jew had be to be sensitive to complete the eating before morning (Exodus 12:10) Thus, the entire preparation and eating of the Pascal sacrifice sensitized to the Jewish people to time and help them attain a sense of freedom.
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