Slavery and Sanctity

          Naḥmanides quotes Midrash Rabba which says: “all of Torah depends upon mishpatim, therefore God presented the social laws following the Ten Commandments”, to explain the juxtaposition of our parasha to the previous parasha.

          Further, Naḥmanides comments that the Torah begins the presentation of social laws with the Hebrew slave because freeing the slave in the seventh year is a reminder of the Exodus from Egypt, mentioned in the first commandment.           Naḥmanides quotes Deuteronomy [15:15]: “You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and God your God redeemed you, therefore I command you to do these things” as explicit support of this connection.

          Additionally, notes Naḥmanides, the law of the Hebrew servant is a reminder of the work of creation, as is Shabbat. “The seventh year for a (Hebrew) slave suspends working for his master, as Shabbat does. For the seventh is choicest among days, years and shemittot (Yovel, the Jubilee year follows a cycle of seven shemittot, Sabbatical years). And all is a single matter, which is the secret of the days of the World”.

          In summary, Naḥmanides asserts that the law of the Hebrew slave is worthy of opening the corpus of social laws because of the emancipation of the seventh year, which evokes memories of creation and of Shabbat.

          My father explained the point thus: the sanctity of time, of man and of place (the Land) all flow from the same source: God’s sanctity. God endowed His entire creation with sanctity, and took His people out of Egypt in order for them to be aware of the sanctity of the three spheres. Being aware of the concept of sanctity, the People of Israel are to realize it in their daily lives by applying sanctity to their relations to time, to fellow man and to the Land.