Haftorah Mishpatim

This week’s reading is Mishpatim, the first of the non-narrative readings concerned almost entirely with the Law. The Haftorah is Jeremiah 34:8-22 & 33:25-26.

[This is] the word that came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which [were] at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them; That every man should let his manservant, and every man his maidservant, [being] an Hebrew or an Hebrewess, go free; that none should serve himself of them, [to wit], of a Jew his brother. Now when all the princes, and all the people, which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let [them] go. But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.

Therefore the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondmen, saying, At the end of seven years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear. And ye were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour; and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name: But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom ye had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids.

Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof, The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf; I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth. And Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes will I give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which are gone up from you. Behold, I will command, saith the LORD, and cause them to return to this city; and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without an inhabitant.

Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant [be] not with day and night, [and if] I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, [so] that I will not take [any] of his seed [to be] rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.

Whew. Harsh, but fair. One thing that comes to mind is that the Jews are being held to a high standard, for the time. They have a jubilee to release their servants, and they are expected to swallow that loss without recompense. They are allowed to hold foreign slaves, true, but not Jewish slaves, which goes beyond the Levitical law we read in the parshah this week.

Another is, I’m afraid, the contemporary prophetic stance that Liberty is a Gift from Gd. Did I say prophetic? I meant political. But really prophetic, yes? Anyway, if you take out places where liberty clearly means libertinism or license, that is, negatively-connoted violation of social norms, there are very few places where you could make any argument that liberty is a Divine gift. There is Second Corinthians 3:17, which speaks (to YHB’s ears) more of liberty from Mosaic Law than political liberty. There’s Psalm 199:44-45 So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever. And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts. I like that, but it doesn’t seem to work with the political theme.

In fact, I think today’s reading most clearly addresses the idea. Liberty is something that people should give each other; the liberty that comes from the Divine is release from Divine protection, liberty to freeze, to drown, to starve, to be killed in war. Those are the inevitable consequences of our refusing (civil) liberty to others. Neither is this a call to liberate the stranger from his oppressor—this is a call for us to liberate our servants, to make each man a brother. That is the gift from the Divine; that responsibility and that relationship and that retribution.

Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.