by  Ariel Ben Avraham – Safed, Northern Galilee, Israel Art by Phillip Ratner

“And these are the laws (mishpatim) which you (Moses) shall set before them (the children of Israel)” (Exodus 21:1).

This portion is the immediate continuation of the giving of the Ten Commandments, and these laws remind us that everything in this material world is about how we relate to our fellow humans and G-d’s Creation. In the Oneness that He is, and we must comprehend, all in His Creation is connected and related to each aspect and dimension comprised by it. And complying with these laws is an essential part of our connection to the Creator. Indeed, there are inner meanings in how we relate to the material world that we may not grasp in their entirety, but it is essential to follow those laws as explained and taught by our Sages throughout Israel’s history.

“If you purchase a Hebrew slave (…).” (21:2). We have said many times that the children of Israel, in their multi-dimensional facets and qualities, form a unity that reflects the ultimate Unity that the Creator is. In this encompassing identity and spiritual unity we as Jews are not enslaved to anybody or anything different to our own common identity, meaning that we have to serve each other within our common reality and destiny. We are the image and likeness of the Creator, and our existence must reflect His attributes and deeds. Our Sages explain that the six years of servitude correspond to the six days of Creation, in which we also create goodness and abundance in the material world in order to achieve the ultimate awareness of G-d’s Love in the seventh day, the Shabbat. There were times of slavery or servitude within the people of Israel derived from circumstances in which our Sages say that not everyone was fulfilling his responsibility to themselves, to their fellow Jews, and to the laws of the Torah. This lack of commitment leads to transgressions that can only be corrected through “forced” guidance and education among the people, because it is for the well being of the people as a whole to maintain their united peace, love and harmony. Then we must understand Hebrew slavery or servitude within the people of Israel as a social and educational mechanism to guarantee the permanent Covenant with the Creator. According to our Sages, the intention of both the Written and the Oral Torah is to forge in every Jew (regardless of his/her social, economical or educational condition) the highest possible knowledge and awareness of the Creator, and their individual and collective attachment to His Love, His ways and His attributes.

In these laws or decrees, compensation is the primordial expression of care and protection that are demanded from any form of transgression from a person against the other. Any form of retaliation or vengeance is completely forbidden, considering that those are precisely the opposites of what compensation means. In the same vein, lending money without interest to a fellow Jew most also be understood beyond the material aspect of it. Lending money must be equated to manifest brotherly Love for those who have depleted their own self-love, self-esteem and self-appreciation. As we indicate in the book “God as Love”, living in the darkness of material fantasies and illusions is the most typical way to deplete Love in our lives, because it is Love what sustains all our spiritual and physical endeavors, including ego’s materialistic and potentially destructive desires. Love is the main “capital” that G-d entrusts us, because it is His Love that He gives us to sustain our life in this world; and such as we have to care for this “capital”, and expand it by investing it in Love’s ways and attributes: good deeds, enhancing tasks, positive works, uplifting thoughts, speech and actions for our individual and collective well being. This is the “capital” that we have to lend free of “strings attached”, because it is the Love that we are renewing in our fellow’s heart and Soul. And this Love is also returned as Love from the receiver to the giver, as the dynamic process that the Creator conceived for us; because we have to return to Him what belongs to Him: Love with which He created us. In this context, it is about being and doing Love’s attributes for our own sake and for the sake of our fellow humans who are in need under the darkness of their materialistic illusions. Hence, Love is our Redeemer, the One who liberates us from Egypt’s consciousness, and brings us from there with the richness of the awareness of G-d’s Love. Our Love for each other is the freedom from darkness, because Love is the strength and sustenance that keep our spiritual and material well being.

In this process we must not sale our consciousness to the idolatry of ego’s illusions, and instead we must live in Love’s ways and attributes, as the dynamic revitalizing forces that they are: “You shall not prostrate yourself before their gods, and you shall not worship them, and you shall not follow their practices, but you shall tear them down and you shall utterly shatter their monuments.” (23:24), and this is also reminded earlier: “Concerning all that I have said to you, you shall be aware, and the name of the gods of others you shall not mention; it shall not be heard through your mouth.” (23:13); because only G-d’s Love is our life and sustenance through His blessings: “And you shall worship the Lord, your G-d, and He will bless your food and your drink, and I will remove illness from your midst.” (23:25).

The portion ends with these two verses: “And the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses came within the cloud, and he went up to the mountain, and Moses was upon the mountain forty days and forty nights.” (24:17). Divine glory is described here as a devouring fire, because with G-d’s Love we are empowered to “devour” and shatter the illusions of the material world. This empowerment is achieved through the Divine awareness that Moses represents, that allows him to “go up” and be in permanent connection with G-d’s Love. Allegorically, we have to ascend to the top of the mountain, to our individual highest level of consciousness to be able to “see” and “know” what this Love is, and allow His fire to transform every aspect, level and dimension of our existence in order to fulfill our collective destiny: to create a place in this material world for our Creator to dwell among us.