A real nuisance in life is when we experience a “joy killer.” For example, you may be on a high and someone comes and tells you something that is so irrelevant in life, to the point that it can – and does – make you feel depressed. Why would they want to do that? Even if that information were important, we would ask ourselves: Can’t it wait? Isn’t there a better time to share it, other than now?
Yet, this is exactly what G-d does at the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Mishpatim. One of the first laws that we read is about a Jew who must sell themselves into servitude. This comes about when a person becomes so destitute and impoverished that the only way they can see themselves getting out of their financial difficulties is by becoming an indentured servant. The verse spells out the details: A Jew can only serve a master until the end of the Sabbatical cycle, and at the time are set free. If they insist on staying on to serve longer, they may do so but only until the Jubilee year. However, there is a ritual that needs to be performed if that is the case: The indentured servant’s ear is pierced at the door posts, near the Mezuzah, as a sign that instead of listening to G-d and being a servant to Him, he choose to serve a human being instead.
This information is so irrelevant to the Jewish people at this moment in their lives that they simply cannot relate. They are all wealthy people at this point in their lives, as the Torah tells us that the Jewish people left Egypt with much wealth. Shouldn’t G-d teach the Jewish people then about jealousy and about charity, and other more relatable topics? Hopefully, the reality of someone becoming so poor will not affect the Jewish people for many years to come. Especially since we know that these laws were not even put to the test of time often. So why the need to teach such an obscure law now? Why kill the joy of the moment, the high that they were experiencing at Mount Sinai?
On the surface, we are right, this law seems out of place. However, let us not stop here. Let’s look deeper into the details. What happens if a person gives themselves up as an indentured servant, putting aside the reason why they did so. What is the deeper message here?
This person got caught up in the materialistic world too much, to the extent that they lost everything they had, and the only way they see to get out of their mess was to become an indentured servant to another human being. To make matters worse, they are now selling their soul to another human being instead of to trusting in G-d. There is a conclusion to be drawn here: Too much focus on the physical pleasures of the world leads to paying even less attention on G-d.
How can this be resolved?
When this person brings physical, pleasurable items to their new “master,” they are given the opportunity to elevate the mundane of this world and use it for a higher purpose. At this moment, that might not happen, since they are just a servant to another human being. However, the goal is to not remain there, but to become free again. Even so, the lesson will be relearnt at that moment.
This lesson that Judaism is not meant to remain in the spiritual realm but to be brought down and integrated into the physical mundane world, is an integral principal of Judaism, hence, the reason why this law is specifically taught now, right after the Torah is given. It’s not a joy killer, but a joy enhancer.
Shabbat Shalom.