Parasha Mishpatim: Israel’s View of the World and of Itself

Quickly, list three words that immediately come to mind when you hear the word “power.”

Then, answer the question:

Have you ever felt powerful? Was it at someone's expense?

Cheryl E Czuba and Nanette Page, two extension educators at the University of Connecticut report that for most people, words that come to mind when thinking about power often revolve around control and domination, as something that one gets at the expense of another.

Power conceived in this manner, points Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, is less concerned with being powerful than with being “more powerful than.” For some this desire works as a substitute for meaning in life.

Israel’s moral law, set as it is in making life meaningful, is never violated more than when someone takes advantage of the weaker. This core Jewish position is enunciated in Exodus, chapter 22 verses 20 and 21

You shall not wrong the resident alien or oppress him, … you shall not ill- treat any widow or orphan

And in Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 19 ads:

Love the alien…

Surprisingly, however, enforcement of not taking advantage of the most vulnerable members of society is left to the individual conscience, not to political institutions.

This is because for these injunctions to work they have to be understood as being more than simply about social justice. In fact, in Judaism they are the classical example defining Israel’s project towards the whole humanity.

By internalizing the memory of Egyptian bondage, Israel builds a protective shield against the temptation of translating the meaning of life into one of lordship and dominion. The mnemonic rule, repeated some thirty-six times throughout Israel’s Foundational Literature: the TaNaKh, more than any other mitzvah, is:

You shall not wrong the alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

Few rules enunciate with such clarity the essence of Israel’s view of the world and of itself. Its imperative is not based on authority or revelation but on the appeal of history.