Contemplating Slavery at the Time of Our Freedom

Harriet Jacobs, Life of a Slave Girl: An Autobiography, 1861

The degradation, the wrongs, the vices that grow out of slavery, are more than I can describe. They are greater than you would willingly believe.

My master met me at every turn, reminding me that I belonged to him. He told me I was his property; that I must be subject to his will in all things. My soul revolted against the mean tyranny. But where could I turn for protection? There is no shadow of law to protect the slave girl from insult, from violence, or even from death. All these are inflicted by fiends who bear the shape of men.

When they told me my new-born babe was a girl, my heart was heavier than it had ever been before. Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications specifically their own….

God gave me a soul that burned for freedom and a heart nerved with determination to suffer even unto death in pursuit of liberty.

Kadmoniot Ha-Halakha, Ed. Shmuel Rubinstein

"The gemara (Kiddushin 25a) teaches: 'There are twenty-four protruding limbs of a person, for all of which a slave is set free, and these are they: the tips of the fingers, toes, ears, nose, penis and breasts... Rabbi says: Also testicles. Ben Azzai says: Also the tongue.'

The situation of a slave in ancient times was truly awful. He was like an object owned by his master, who was free to do whatever he wanted in order to force the slave to perform hard labor day and night, and to use him for all kinds of perverted purposes. The master could beat his slave mercilessly for any major or minor wrongdoing; he could permanently maim his limbs without fear of any punishment. For any purpose desired by the master, the slave could be blinded. Herodotus writes (4:2) that the Scythians used to blind their captive slaves so that they would work in producing butter. And there were several other such purposes for which slaves would be struck with blindness, TO THE POINT WHERE PUTTING OUT EYES BECAME A SYMBOL OF SLAVERY. Likewise, prisoners taken in war were blinded as a sign of slavery, and this was done particularly to kings and officers of the defeated army, as a sign of revenge and enslavement. For the same reason Shimshon was blinded by the Philistines (Shoftim 16:21), and this is apparently also the meaning of the words of Nachash the Ammonite to the men of Yavesh Gil'ad: 'By this condition I will make a covenant with you: if you all put out your right eye' (Shemuel I 11:2), as if to say, 'in order that you will be slaves and prisoners of war to me.' For the same reason King Tzidkiyahu was blinded by Nevukhadnetzar (Melakhim II 28:7), and this is also the meaning of the words of Datan and Aviram to Moshe: 'Will you put out the eyes of those men?' - as if to say, 'Are we considered in your eyes as slaves, prisoners of war, that you will exert your power over us and to do us whatever you wish, to drag us wherever you decide?' This arrogance on the part of the enslavers seems to have lasted until much later times, explaining even Herod's blinding of Bava ben Buta (Bava Batra 4a).

For some wrongdoing in his work, or for breaking some vessel, the slave's fingers or hands could be cut off, and this was apparently also done to prisoners of war as a sign of enslavement. This explains the amputation of thumbs and big toes by Adoni Bezek, who testifies that 'Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes amputated [would gather food under my table].' This was practiced among the Romans, too: Seneca reports that 'For breakage of a small vessel, the slave's hands would be cut off, or he would be put to death.'

THE AMPUTATION OF A SLAVE'S EARS WAS SO COMMONLY PRACTICED THAT IT WAS ESTABLISHED AS A PUNISHMENT FOR SLAVES. The Hammurabi Code stipulates: 'If a slave strikes a free person on the cheek, his ear is to be cut off' (205); 'If a slave tells his master, "You are not my master," and it is proved that he is in fact his master, then his master is to cut off his ear.' (282)

Slaves were routinely castrated in order that thoughts of women would not interfere with their work, and eunuchs were also used to serve women. This was so common that the term 'eunuch' came to be used for all kinds of servants, even those not castrated, like Potiphar, 'the eunuch of Pharaoh' (Bereishit 39:1), and the royal winebearer and baker who are referred to as Pharaoh's 'eunuchs' (ibid. 40:2)…

In summary, there was nothing that prevented a master from doing any of this to his slave; it seems that they would even make the slaves deaf in order that they would not talk among themselves during their work, or for other purposes. AND THEY WOULD STRIKE OR KNOCK OUT THEIR TEETH so that they would not be able to eat much. Cicero describes how 'it was common among the Romans that if a slave knew some evidence against his master, the master would cut out his tongue in order that he would not be able to testify.' And the maiming of slaves, either by purposeless beating or for some purpose desired by the master, was so common that BLEMISHES WERE INFLICTED ON THE EXPOSED BODY PARTS OF THE SLAVE IN ORDER TO MARK HIM AS A SLAVE, AND THE BLEMISHES WERE A SIGN OF SLAVERY.

It was against all of this that the Torah came to improve the lot of the slaves and their worth, as much as was possible in those days. For beating to death the Torah prescribes, 'he shall surely be avenged' – which, in the view of the Sages (Sanhedrin 52b), refers to the death penalty.

For causing blemishes to the exposed body parts in order to thereby signify that he was a slave – or even without such express intent – the Torah prescribes that 'he shall send him free,' which is the opposite of the purpose of creating these blemishes. From this we derive the laws stipulating that the master must set the slave free for causing blemishes upon the 'exposed' body parts."

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Commentary on Shemos 12

The consideration of certain circumstances is necessary, correctly to understand the fact that the Torah presupposes and allows the possession and purchase of slaves from abroad to a nation itself just released from slavery. No Jew could make any other human being into a slave. He could only acquire by purchase people who, by then universally accepted international law, were already slaves. But this transference into the property of a Jew was the one and only salvation for anybody who, according to the prevailing laws of the nations, was stamped as a slave. The terribly sad experiences of even the last century (Union, Jamaica 1865) teach us how completely unprotected and liable to the most inhuman treatment was the slave who in accordance with the national law was not emancipated, and even when emancipated, wherever he was, looked upon as still belonging to the slave class, or as a freed slave."

David Einhorn, Sermon in Response to Raphall's "A Biblical View of Slavery"

Translated from German, in "Sinai," Vol. VI, p. 2-22, Baltimore 1861, by Mrs. Kaufmann Kohler

A religion which spares the feeling of the animal mother as the order regarding the bird's nest proves, certainly objects to having the human mother forcibly deprived of her child. The ten commandments, the first of which is: "I am the Lord, thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt,—out of the house of bondage" can by no means want to place slavery of any human-being under divine sanction, it being furthermore true, what all our prophets have proclaimed and around which Israel's fondest hopes center, that all human beings on the wide globe are entitled to admittance to the service of God, וישתחוו לפניך כל הברואים ויעשו כולם אגודה אחת that in time to come all created in the image of God will form one congregation of God.

Mordekhai Eliav, Ani Ma’amin

The Winter of 5605 [1945] was a difficult one in the Feihingen concentration camp in Germany. We suffered from arduous labor in the stone quarries, cold, and hunger; as well as an epidemic of typhus which killed many. To those who died of typhus were added the victims of the cruel murders of the SS men. The result was despair and apathy and indifference to our fate.

But in this death camp there were some who stubbornly held fast to their Judaism until the last moment. Passover was coming. How does one refrain from eating hametz? A few days before Pesah one of the SS men entered the foundry where I was working as a sign-maker. He asked if I could prepare some targets for rifle practice. At the moment an idea sprung into my mind and I proposed it to him. I would prepare targets with figures of soldiers affixed to them. But I would need a quantity of flour with which to prepare the paste. … Ultimately I received fifteen kilos of flour. When I got the flour to the foundry I told my friends of the miracle – and it is impossible to describe their joy. The will to live which was almost extinguished, was kindled anew.

We “liberated” some wood, scraped a table with glass, and “kashered” it with hot bricks…we began to bake the matzot…on the night of the first seder we gathered in the foundry as the marranos did in ancient Spain.

We started awesomely. “We were slaves.” Each of us had three matzot. In place of wine we used water sweetened with sugar. We had potatoes for karpas, and white beets for maror. Salt and water were not in short supply. We recited the Haggadah from some siddurim which we had succeeded in hiding all this time.

When we were about halfway through the Haggadah, Azriel began to preach to us not to despair and to withstand the test of affliction, for redemption was near…