This week's Torah portion, Mishpatim

This week's Torah portion, Mishpatim, contains the following verses: "If you buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve, and in the seventh he shall go free... And if the servant should say, 'I love my master...I will not go free,'...his master shall pierce his ear with an awl."
Why the ear and not another limb? Explains Rashi, the foremost Torah commentator: "Any ear that heard 'For the Children of Israel are servants to Me' at Mount Sinai, yet went and acquired for itself a [human] master, is deserving that it be pierced."


People who are extremely preoccupied with their jobs during the six days of the work-week are termed "servants of servants," that is, they are slaves to their own desires. Accordingly, they are likened to the Hebrew servant, a Jew who willingly sells himself to another and acquires a human master. A person so engrossed in the pursuit of a livelihood is enslaved to his appetite for material things and his lust for bodily pleasures. Thus he is equated with the Hebrew servant, who indentures himself for a period of six years.

The Hebrew servant is emancipated at the beginning of the seventh year, which is analogous to the seventh day, the holy Shabbat. On Shabbat every Jew is liberated, freed from the yoke of his weekday concerns and obligated to rest.

It sometimes happens, however, that a person will be so involved in his work that when Shabbat comes he is unwilling to let go. Uninterested in liberation, he prefers to continue his existence as a slave: "I love my master...I will not go free."

The antidote to such an attitude is "The Children of Israel are servants to Me." The Jew's true reason for existence is to worship G-d, to learn Torah and perform mitzvot (commandments); indeed, it is the sole purpose for which his soul descended into the physical world and mission in life.

Jews are "servants of G-d" and not "servants of servants." A Jew must never willingly indenture himself to his job. On the contrary, his business dealings must be utilized as just another means of bringing holiness into the world and serving G-d. When Shabbat arrives, the Jew is completely elevated above and beyond the mundane. Surrounded by an atmosphere of holiness, his entire being is devoted solely to the worship of G-d.

By commanding the Jewish people, "For the Children of Israel are servants to Me," G-d endows us with the strength and capability to fulfil our Divine mission. A Jew who remembers that he is a "servant to G-d" will be freed from his personal exile and elevated above the constraints of the physical world. At the same time, in the larger sense, he will hasten the departure of the entire Jewish people from exile, may it happen immediately.


Adapted from Likutei Sichot, Volume 11