The people just left Egypt to freedom and need rules on owning slaves! And if the male slave wants to leave but had a wife and children, they don't get to go free?
Are the leaders on par with God? Or is obeying leadership a holy trait? Is there a false equivalency here?
The Sages of the Talmud offered interpretation by noticing the verses adjacent to the words being interpreted. Here the law of the sabbatical year is mentioned for the first time, sandwiched between caring for the stranger and honoring shabbat. How do you understand the flow of these three verses of the Torah?
On the heels of caring for the stranger, the people are advised that God's angel will lead them forward so that they can annihilate seven tribes inhabiting the Holy Land. How can we square the two sentiments? Are there occasions in modern times when we are torn between kindness to the stranger and the need to advance our own interests?
Among the most perplexing of biblical verses, Moses and Aaron and his sons, and seventy elders, ascent the mountain high enough to see an image of the sapphire brickwork beneath God's feet. WAIT, WHAT? God has feet? There's sapphire bricks in heaven? Haven't the Hebrews had enough of brick building in Egypt? And why have a meal after seeing a reflection of God? Who would have an appetite?