Behar (Part 3) - Leviticus 25:1-26:2

But It Wasn't REAL Slavery!

In this week's Torah portion (Behar), it begins by explaining that God owns everything, and that He permits you to use what He provides for you, but certain things which have a special holiness, you don't own, you cannot sell, but He will permit you to use them.

I am talking about shmittah, the produce that you can eat from every seven years, but you cannot sell it, and you must treat with a special kedushah, holiness.

That portion then transitions into the discussion about the poor, who may also partake of this food.

We read in 25:39-43 about an impoverished Jew who sells his services as an indentured servant. At no point is this person called a slave (eved - עבד). He is a sakir (שכיר) a "hired worker" and a toshav (תושב), one who will reside with the master of the house (see verse 25:40).

It then goes to emphasize that they, like the produce of shmittah, are not property of the master, nor can they be sold like slaves, because, as Jews, Yahweh is their only master, and they are His slaves alone (25:42).

The Hebrew who was an indentured servant was not a slave, except to Yahweh, as were all Hebrews.

Scripture then goes on to tell us (25:44-46) that gentiles can be purchased and sold, for they are slaves and they can be passed down from generation to generation as an inheritance in perpetuity (25:45), meaning, not freed (there are some Rabbinical leniencies that were later applied, such as if the master amputates his slave's hand, for example, then he is freed after he is forced to convert to Judaism, since, according to Yahweh, only Jews go free).

So, when an apologist says, "But it wasn't REAL slavery!", he or she is a moral and ethical person trying to have the text reflect his or her moral foundations. But the truth is that not all Biblical slavery was defined as becoming an indentured servant for a limited period of time, especially if you were a gentile, about whom, to use the shmittah comparison, Yahweh didn't see as being His, and could be sold to others.