Truth and Peace

Protesting child slavery, 1909 labor parade, NYC The Torah portion opens with a set of laws about the treatment of Hebrew slaves: How long does a slave stay with you before he goes free? What happens if he's married when he comes into servitude? What if a man sells his daughter into slavery? (Ex 21:2-11) And further on: What happens to a slave-owner if he strikes his slave and the slave dies, or doesn't die? What if the slave's eye is blinded or tooth gets knocked out? (Ex 21:20-21, 26-27) This is all part of what scholars refer to as the Covenant Code, the laws given to Moses at Sinai. There are other collections of laws in the Torah pertaining to slavery. One is Lev 25:39-46, another is Deut 15:12-18. I'm not getting into the issue of comparing these codes. (If you're interested, here's one analysis .) Instead, I want to talk about the fact of the Torah containing laws about slavery at all. Though before I even go there, I might pose the question: Do w...

If you're reading the text of Exodus 20 straight, without any preconceptions and without thinking you had to divide verses 2-13 into ten distinct laws, you'd most likely never assume that "I am YHVH your God" is, by many people's interpretations, a command. First off, in the traditional parsing of verses, it's not even a separate verse: I am the YHVH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the home of slavery; you should have no other gods before me. (Ex 20:2) Though to be fair, verse 12 contains 4 commandments. And verses 7-10 encompass one commandment. So you can't look to the verse as a unit of measure for a commandment here. But even in the traditional paragraph spacing ( petuchot and setumot ), "I am YHVH" is grouped with the commands relating to idolatry, i.e. with no break in between, whereas there is a space between all the other commandments. (Interestingly though, there's also a space between "Do n...

Visual development art from “The Prince of Egypt” When it comes to evaluating truth claims, I admit to being a fan of rational scientific skepticism. It strikes me as the best methodology at our disposal for ascertaining factual reality. But what does that mean then for evaluating Biblical narratives like the Parting of the Red Sea? Well, as enamored as I am of skepticism, it occurs to me that it's hopelessly out of place here. It's the wrong paradigm, the wrong set of glasses to be looking through. Because it views the Red Sea episode first and foremost as a "claim" to be scrutinized, instead of a narrative to immerse oneself in, to visualize, experience, and comprehend for its content . Here I am ready to get into the story... A nation enslaved. A Pharaoh so obsessed with maintaining the subjugation that he lets his own nation absorb blow after destructive blow and refuses to release his grip. He finally relents just long enough for the fledgling Israelite...

Moses speaks to the people, "Remember this day when you exited Egypt," and then goes on to actually name the month: הַיּוֹם אַתֶּם יֹצְאִים בְּחֹדֶשׁ הָאָבִיב Today you are exiting, in the month of Aviv. (Ex 13:4) Why is this unusual? Because in the Torah, months are only ever referred to by number, except on occasion for the month of "Aviv." But Aviv is not just a name like "March" (named after Mars, the Roman god of war) - it's a descriptive term which pertains to the agricultural season. We actually encounter the word aviv a few chapters earlier, in the plague of hail: וְהַפִּשְׁתָּה וְהַשְּׂעֹרָה נֻכָּתָה כִּי הַשְּׂעֹרָה אָבִיב וְהַפִּשְׁתָּה גִּבְעֹל And the flax and the barley were struck down, because the barley was a fresh ear (aviv) and the flax was budding. (Ex 9:31) Meaning, the crops were devastated because they had already started to bloom. An aviv is a fresh, green ear, appearing in late winter or early spring (depending ...