Miscellaneous Topics

The redemption from Egypt was not merely a private redemption in which one of the nations merited liberation from its cruel oppressors. In the Exodus from Egypt, the value of the people of Israel was revealed, as was the value of the Divine morality that Israel bequeaths to the world.

In the Exodus from Egypt, the value of freedom was revealed, which is one of the foundations of morality. For all the nations of the world, when they succeed in overpowering their oppressors, become arrogant and turn themselves into the oppressors of their former masters. Israel, by contrast, even after the Egyptians had been utterly struck down, did not try to overpower them and enslave them, but only to go out to freedom, as God commanded Moshe.

Likewise, we were commanded that even when we have slaves – for such is the way of the world: there are rich and there are poor, and when earning a living is very difficult, there are also slaves – nevertheless we were commanded not to work the slaves with rigorous labor, as it is stated (Vayikra 25:43): “You shall not rule over him with rigor, but you shall fear your God.” The idea is that a person should impose on his slave only tasks that he must have done, but he should not impose upon him work for which he has no need and whose only purpose is to afflict or humiliate him. For example, one who sees his slave idle should not say to him, “Please heat this water for me,” or “Cool it for me,” when he has no interest in drinking it. Likewise, he should not say to him, “Hoe in such-and-such a place,” when his whole intention is to keep him busy and make him work without any benefit to himself (Sifra ibid.). Likewise, one should not say to him, “Hoe in such-and-such a place until I come,” for when he gives him work without limit, he torments his soul. Rather, he should say to him, “Work here until such-and-such an hour” (and see Rambam, Laws of Slaves 1:6-7, 9, 8).

Although this mitzva applies to a slave, Sefer Ha-Ḥinukh (mitzva 346) writes that a person should also be very careful about this with respect to poor workers.

Similarly, Rabbeinu Yona writes in Sha’arei Teshuva (3:60): “A person should not make his fellows serve him. If they are in awe of him or ashamed to disregard his word, he should not command them to do anything, small or great, except for their own desire and benefit – even to heat a flask of water or to go on an errand for him to the town street to buy as little as a loaf of bread. But a person who does not behave properly may be commanded to do whatever one wishes,” because by making him work, one corrects his bad character and keeps him from the idleness that leads to sin.