Original Torah: Ancient Words in a Modern Light

This week’s parashah continues last week’s theme of creating a legal system. The laws here are organized in three categories: Criminal (Exodus 21:2-22:19), Societal/Ethical (Exodus 22:20-23:9), Divine Service/Agricultural (23:10-23:14). The criminal section includes crime whose punishment is death, damages, or other. However, the list begins with a devaluation of life that isn’t a crime: slavery (21:2-11). Yes, even though slaves’ lives are valued less than their owners’, before the Torah lays down the top four capital crimes, it lists slavery. Given that the laws here protect slaves rights, it would not be inappropriate to see the Torah as saying that as all Men are created in the image of God(???? ?????, Gen 9:10, 1:27); slavery is wrong (cf. Leviticus 25:42, God is our only master, see Sifra).

Ex 21:12-22:5
           similar        different
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| death || murder,  | strike parents, kidnap, |
|       ||kill slave|insult parents, ox warned|
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|damages||injury,   |kill fetus,              |
|       || ox gore  |       eye for eye       |
|       ||ox warned |seducing a virgin        |
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|other  ||ox injure | homicide->banished      |
|       || ox ->    |                         |
|       ||divide    |                         |
----------------------------------------------

The Torah sees parents as God-figures, which makes assaulting them akin to assaulting and devaluing God. So, you forfeit your life for rejecting God. Kidnapping a man and making him a slave (Olam haTanakh p. 134) is a capital crime because it devalues human life, an image of God. And the Torah sees the ox as your responsibility once you’ve been warned, so you are guilty of manslaughter, but still put to death. Bestiality, idol worship, and sorcery are also capital crimes because they devalue God or Man.

Slavery bad. Murder bad. Devaluing human life bad. Punishment: Death

However, if your ox kills another ox, the punishment is either damages or dividing the value. If you kill a freeman on accident, you can flee the avenger of blood. He has the right to kill you, but you have the right to hide in a safe place. Human life is valued, but here the punishment is compromised where the killing is accidental.

Lastly, damages to property such as slaves, fields, or stealing are settled with financial compensation as expected. The seduction of a virgin is seen to be a crime of damage to property, by decreasing the woman’s value to a husband. Today, we see rape as a crime of assault punishable by prison, not damages. Why prison? Because we see the devaluing of life as something that money cannot compensate. (See Numbers 15:32-34 for imprisonment until punishment for gathering sticks on Shabbat, though they may just have not known how to kill him, Olam haTanakh p95).

Now, for the controversial part. This is one of my favorite passages to point out to Bible-thumping pro-lifers:

?? ???????????????? ?????????? ??????????? ???????? ?????? ??????????? ?????????? ?????? ????????? ??????? ???????? ?????????? ??????????? ???????? ??????? ??????? ??????????? ???????? ????????????? ?? ????????????? ????????? ???????????? ??????? ??????? ???????? ?? ?????? ??????? ?????? ????? ??????? ????? ???? ??????? ???? ?????? ??????? ??????? ?? ?????????? ??????? ?????????? ??????? ??????? ??????? ?????????? ??????? ???????????

Exodus 21:22 When men fight, and one of them pushes a pregnant woman and a miscarriage results, but no other damage ensues, the one responsible shall be fined according as the woman’s husband may exact from him, the payment to be based on reckoning. 23 But if other damage ensues, the penalty shall be life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

It’s clear from line 24 that the punishments are “measure for measure” and from 22 that the “payments are based on reckoning”, meaning the “value of an eye for an eye”. Thus, when causing a woman to abort her fetus is punished by damages, the punishment is the same as if he had injured her body(see ???? ??? ???, the fetus is the loin of his mother) In fact, in Jewish law, we don’t even mourn a dead baby unless it’s been alive 30 days (?? ?????). Clearly, the Jewish tradition begins in the Torah where a fetus does not have the rights of a free person until born. (see Rashi, Sanhedrin 72b on head coming out). In the Code of Hammurapi, a miscarriage is also covered as damages, but differs where killing the woman forfeits not your life but your daughter’s.

It should become clear now that the Torah has somewhat different values of life and property than we do in America today. This section, the ancient Sefer haBrit, sees denigrations of the dignity of God as capital crimes, whereas we might just give our children a time out if they insult us. The Torah also sees you as so responsible for your animals, that if they have a history of violence, your life is on the line to control them. Lastly, while the Sefer haBrit doesn’t discuss abortion, it does assert that a fetus is not an independent life with its own rights. Perhaps spreading knowledge of this Biblical fact will help to bring peace to our country.

Shabbat Shalom.

2og: If a seignior struck a(nother) seignior’s daughter and has caused her to have a miscarriage,”‘ he shall pay ten shekels of silver for her fetus. 2io: If that woman has died, they shall put his daughter to death. :2ii: If by a blow he has caused a commoner’s daughter to have a miscarriage, he shall pay five shekels of silver. 2i:z: If that woman has died, he shall pay one-half mina of silver. 213: If he struck a seignior’s female slave and has caused her to a have a miscarriage, he shall pay two shekels of silver. 2I4: If that female slave has died, he shall pay one-third mina of silver.

See Table of comparisons with Hammurapi at bottom of Chapter 13: J and the Law

See Myth: The Bible Forbids Abortion

An Explanation of Belief

Demolishing dumb arguments (The mass revelation argument for the Torah’s Historical Veracity)
I paraphrased my dvar and added

To clarify, the connection between what I wrote and what you wrote is that while the Bible offers many proofs of God’s presence and beneficence and sometimes notes that people believe, much of the Bible is the Narrarator or author/prophet railing against the majority of Israelites who are sinning by worshiping other gods as in “How long will you hop the fence? If YHWH is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him (1 Kgs. 18:21)

I think that the Torah as we know it became a popular text only in the Babylonian exile (which is why the Samaritans who never left have a slightly different, more edited version)

Encounter at Sinai
What did Moses teach us at Sinai? I offer below a radical understanding.

25 And Moses went down to the people and spoke to them. 20:1 God spoke all these words, saying:

This is the quote that precedes the Ten Statements. It seems cut off in the middle. Did Moses quote the Ten Statements or did God say them? Do we read it as “Moses spoke to the people saying “God said these things explicitly”". Or does the Torah not record what Moses said and go straight into the revelation. Either way, we have a problem in the text. I will below examine how the Ten Statements may be Moses teaching the judges God’s basic principles.

Who Does Moses Teach?
In this week’s parashah, Moses is having difficulty teaching all the Israelites God’s “laws and teachings, hukei haElohim veEt Torotav” (18:13-16). When the people seek God, Moses makes God’s “laws and teaching” known by deciding disputes (18:15-16), but there are too many disputes for him to solve. So, it seems that Moses might have spoken the Ten Statements to the people as a way of deciding case law. However, only half the commandments can decide laws between man and man “bein adam lehavero, ????? ???? ??? ?????“. The first five may be fundamental religious principles ( ????? ???? ??? ????? ).

In order to teach the “laws and teachings” to the people, Moses’s father-in-law, Yitro, recommends to

18:20 enjoin upon them the laws and the teachings, and make known to them the way they are to go and the practices they are to follow. 21 You shall also seek out from among all the people capable men who fear God, trustworthy men who spurn ill-gotten gain
? ??????????????? ???????? ??????????????? ???????????????? ?????????????? ?????? ??????????????? ???????? ????? ??????????????????? ??????? ???????????? ?? ????????? ????????? ????????????? ??????????????? ???????? ????????? ????????? ?????? ????????? ?????? ??????????? ???????? ??????? ????????? ??????? ??????? ??????? ??????????? ????????? ??????????

Qualities of a Teacher
We see that there are three categories of people fit to maintain a knowledge of the “laws and teachings, Torah”. These are people to whom Moses is to delegate his authority. The “Anshe Hayil Yir’ei Elohim” are the noble, capable people, assertive and charismatic who fear God, and hence are moral. The “Anshe Emet” are People of Truth, trustworthy people. The “Sonei Betsa” are Haters of Ill-Gotten Gain (see note). So, we see that the people that Moses delegates to decide the minor cases (18:22-26) are people capable of good, trusted to do good, and not corruptible.

Response to Ten Statements
However, the response to the Ten Statements was not philosophical, but visceral (20:15-16). They thought they would die. God had been answering Moses’s words with thunderclaps (19:19). And Moses reassures them that the Revelation is merely a test

20:17 “in order that the fear of Him may be ever with you, so that you do not go astray.”

Fear is not logical, and hence it is a dangerous means of organizing society. But, for the Torah, the Revelation at Sinai is meant to instill fear so that they understand the greatness of God on a basic level.

Who Spoke the Ten Statements?
Which brings us back to our original question: Did Moses speak the Ten Statements to the people, or did God, and how does this relate to the message at Sinai? If God spoke them, then the people were directly informed of God’s will, not a good model for future generations as it’s not repeatable. Plus, the text doesn’t account for what Moses said. However, if Moses spoke them, then prophesy remains the domain of the few with Moses being an accessible source of Torah for the many. This model makes more sense to me.

Most of us do not experience God in a directly manifest way. But we may still want to follow God’s/Godly teachings. If the Israelites at Sinai had an accessible source of information when they wanted to know God’s will, then we have that same source, because Moses commanded us the Torah which contains those teachings (Dt 33:4). We are a community centered around Torah, led by leaders who follow in the tradition of Moses (Avot 1:1) by being capable and moral, trustworthy, and proactive/incorruptible.

The Jewish tradition advocates living a good life, based on knowledge of the Torah, transmitted from generation to generation by noble leaders, who respect and love the Torah. What we heard at Sinai may have been a man speaking, but his words were truly divine.

Ten Statements

Rabbinically known as the Aseret Dibrot, ???? ???????, called the Aseret Devarim in the Torah are called the Decalogue in Greek. I am using the literal sense of Aseret haDevarim, Decalogue, in my translation as Ten Statements rather than Ten Utterances or Ten Commandments. The first commandment in the Jewish counting is “I am the Lord your God”, something difficult to see as a command. Hence, the literal Ten Statements.

hukei haElohim veEt Torotav

Hukim are laws on the books, Torot are teachings/Torahs. The verb leHorot means to show or teach. Hence, Moses is teaching both the legal laws and how to understand them.

Yitro

Jethro in English, has the same name as the Beverly Hillbilly. However, Zipporah’s father seems more culturally attuned.

Sonei Betsa

Interestingly, these three categories all begin with “Anshe, people” if the third category is seen as an anagram of Sonei. This particularly makes sense because the piel verb betsa ??? means someone who can executes, carries out, performs along with the noun betsa ??? which means profit, and may only have taken on the negative meaning of ill-gotten profit later. It would be a conservative emendation to just switch the two letters, shin and alef, to make anshei ???? into sonei ????. This would make the three qualities of people: capable and moral, trustworthy, and proactive. However, incorruptible still works well with the theme, even though it might be redundant with yire elohim/fear God.

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then let’s look at the following passage and see what perspectives we can bring in. What does the Narrarator see, God see, and Israel see?

Exodus 17:2 The people quarreled with Moses. “Give us water to drink,” they said; and Moses replied to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you try YHWH?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water; and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” 4 Moses cried out to YHWH, saying, “What shall I do with this people? Before long they will be stoning me!” 5 Then YHWH said to Moses, “Pass before the people; take with you some of the elders of Israel, and take along the rod with which you struck the Nile, and set out. 6 I will be standing there before you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock and water will issue from it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 The place was named Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and because they tried YHWH, saying, “Is YHWH present among us or not?“ ? ????????? ?????? ??????????? ????????????? ????????????? ?????? ???????????? ?????????? ?????? ??????? ??????????????? ????????? ??????????????? ???????????? ? ??????????? ????? ?????? ????????? ????????? ?????? ??????????? ?????????? ??????? ????? ?????????????? ????????????? ????????? ?????? ????????????? ?????????????? ???????????

17:8 Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim.

I could probably summarize the entire Biblical outlook in this verse. The people don’t see God around them, they demand a man to provide what God should, God provides through a man, but the people aren’t satisfied and still don’t see God. In this case, the story is followed by an attack by Amalek, implying a kind of divine punishment for the people’s lack of faith.

Even though the different books in the Tanakh were written by different authors, they all deal with the issue of seeing God or serving God. This phrasing of the stama, the Narrarator, of the text shows that the people did not have a legitimate complaint.

Perhaps the people were legitimately thirsty, but the stama believes that they fought with Moses (17:2) which Moses took as trying YHWH. And the people complained about Moses (17:3) and asked why he (Moses) took them out of Egypt.

The Torah wants us to learn something about the behavior of Israel. The thirst must have been a legitimate complaint because they did get water (17:6). So, the problem must be that they doubted that Moses and therefore God would provide it. The text wants us to see how the people wanted Moses to solve their problems and blamed Moses for bringing them out of Egypt.

Not trusting that God would provide for them (given a reasonable request) merited a serious attack by the ignoble Amalek (17:8), which though it looked like Moses won for them by raising his hands (17:11), the text says Moses couldn’t do it alone (17:12), and ultimately, “And Yehoshua (Joshua) wasted Amalek and his people by the sword”(17:13). All because they doubted God was in their midst (17:7).

God manipulates the situation to “gain glory through Pharaoh and all his host” (Exodus 14:1-4) so that the Egyptians know YHWH is God (Exodus 14:1-4)

Exodus 14:10-14 Upon seeing the Egyptians, the Israelites were “Greatly frightened,” and “cried out to YHWH.” They did not trust God to save them and preferred slavery to death in the wilderness. Moses reassured them to

“Have no fear! Stand by, and witness the deliverance which YHWH will work for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again. 14 The Lord will battle for you; you hold your peace!”

In the miraculous crossing of the Reed Sea (anciently identified as the Red Sea, probably the Suez Strait, see picture), we see Moses hold out his arm, causing YHWH to drive back the sea with a wind (14:21), the Moses hold out his arm, and YHWH hurls the Egyptians into the sea (14:27). The Narrarator shows God acting through Moses.
And finally, the miracle of the splitting of the Reed Sea was so magnificent that it was used as evidence of God’s working wonders for Israel for generations (See ps 66:6; 77:17-21; 78:13,53; 106:9-11,22; 114:3,5; 136:13-5, Josh 4:22-28, Isa 51:9-10, 63:11-13).

14:29 But the Israelites had marched through the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. 30 Thus the Lord delivered Israel that day from the Egyptians. Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore of the sea. 31 And when Israel saw the wondrous power which the Lord had wielded against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord; they had faith in the Lord and His servant Moses.

Israel’s faith and deeds don’t always reflect the absolute evidence of God’s manifestly saving Israel at the sea. The quote at the beginning “Is YHWH among us” is from after the crossing of the sea.

The Torah wants us to see God in history and believe in Him by engaging us with miracles. But as evidenced by the many times the Israelites stumble in their belief, especially so soon after the paradigmatic salvation at the sea, it seems that the Narrarator of the text has more faith in God than the people. It goes to show, that faith is truly in the eye of the beholder.

See my paper on Manna paper and writings from Be-Shalach 5762

14:17 And I will stiffen the hearts of the Egyptians so that they go in after them; and I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his warriors, his chariots and his horsemen. 18 Let the Egyptians know that I am Lord, when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”

14:23 The Egyptians came in pursuit after them into the sea, all of Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and horsemen. 24 At the morning watch, the Lord looked down upon the Egyptian army from a pillar of fire and cloud, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. 25 He locked the wheels of their chariots so that they moved forward with difficulty. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”