An article in the New York Times last week reported a case in Pakistan of a poor young girl who had come to work as a servant for a rich family and been cruelly treated to the point of death. This young girl and others like her have no one to aid them. They are at the mercy of their masters.
How can a society be created in which the powerful do not abuse the powerless? What is to stop those in power from treating with great cruelty those have no power, whether for reasons of poverty, class, gender, or race?
The Torah’s answer is empathy. The Torah’s answer is to create a nation that is born in a state of poverty, born as foreigners in a foreign land, as slaves to a cruel master. Such a nation knows injustice and suffering from the inside, and this knowledge serves as a constant reminder not to treat others with such cruelty.
It is no accident that this week’s parsha, Mishpatim, “Laws,” begins with laws to protect the debt slave from permanent bondage, spelling out his rights and those of the female maid-servant. The Israelites have just come from Egyptian bondage; their own unjust treatment must be turned to empathy; they must learn to be, like God, “freers” of slaves.
The Ibn Ezra argues that the central principle of many of the laws in Mishpatim is not to mistreat those who have less power. In addition to these slavery laws, there are also laws concerning the treatment of the ger, the “stranger,” as well as the poor person, the widow, the orphan and one’s animals. The Torah is particularly elaborate here and elsewhere concerning the protection of the ger. According to the Talmud (Baba Metzia 59b) the Torah contains 36 injunctions (or according to some, 46) concerning the ger!
The Torah explicitly says that one may not harm a ger “because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt,” and because “you know the nefesh hager, the soul of the stranger.” You know in a very intimate way what it feels like to be treated as an outsider; remember that feeling when you come to deal with others who are now outsiders. The root of justice is our own experience of injustice. The root of compassion is the memory of our own pain.
Rashi adds another twist to this idea of empathy. Based on the midrash Mekhilta, he says that we must not tease or belittle the ger because he can easily turn around and say the same thing to us: “You are also a descendant of foreigners.” We are all outsiders in one way or another. Remembering this truth about ourselves keeps us humble enough to be welcoming and not hurtful to other outsiders.
As a people, the Jews have seen much suffering. As individuals each of us has had his or her own measure of trouble -- some more, some less. We also watch our children suffer the (mostly small) pains of life. The challenge is to turn such troubles into opportunities for growth, for growth in empathy and understanding of others’ pain. Upon leaving Egypt, the Israelites are called to precisely this task of turning suffering into empathy.
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This is great. I would add that often those who have suffered cruelty become cruel themselves. Suffering alone is not enough -- there needs to be some kind of redemptive experience -- "Yetzias Mitzrayim". An empowering, redemptive experience makes room for the empathy.
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ReplyDeletePart of the purpose behind the laws spelled out in this week’s parsha is surely to prevent what Mordechai writes about in his comment. The community and the individual are given specified ways of behaving towards outsiders or less fortunate people. These laws apply both to those who have not personally suffered and to those who have and are to be passed on to future generations. Sarna (JPS Exodus Commentary, p. 137) points out that “The Torah here enjoins sensitivity to their condition not simply out of humanitarian considerations but as a divine imperative. ...........Social evil is thus a sin against humanity and God.” Thus an individual who has suffered cruelty would be going against the divine imperative if he behaved cruelly to others and would be sanctioned by the community.