[Avodah] Torah and Slavery

[Jonathan Baker]

From: "kennethgmiller at juno.com" <kennethgmiller at juno.com>
> R' Micha Berger wrote:

> > We really don't see that halakhah endorses slavery.
> > Rather, that HQBH saw fit to regulate it rather than
> > prohibit it. Certainly the need for such legislation
> > shows a dissatisfaction with the idea. So, why isn't
> > there an actual issur?
 
> HQBH also saw fit to regulate eating. Does the need for that 
> legislation show dissatisfaction with the idea? I don't think so.
 
> I think (hope?) we can all agree that Eishes Yefas To'ar *IS* an 
> example of something which the Torah allows but only grudgingly. I 
> really don't think that eating is an example of that. And this 
> discussion is about where the line is located, and on which side of 
> that line slavery falls.

Having a king is also something which seems to be grudging.  The Torah
uses "ki" referring to appointing a king, which can be conditional, 
rather than stating straight out "you shall appoint a king."

Certainly Shmuel haNavi is really against the idea of having a
king "like all the other nations".

Yet we all pray for the return of a (constitutional) monarchy.

Funny, though, I've been having the "slavery is inherently evil"
vs. "the Torah permits, even semi-approvingly, enslavement of 
non-Jews, albeit with restrictions beyond what the American 
South had", on another Jewish list.

I've been making arguments like "300 years ago, slavery was a fact
of life.  Now, it's not.  300 years from now, who knows what will be?"
Which has been taken by my correspondents to mean that I endorse slavery.

Of course I don't endorse slavery.  But rather than declaring "Slavery
is evil", and thereby implying the Torah is (in part) evil, it seems
more advisable to admit this exists in the Torah, and somehow deal 
with it.  The existence of hard questions is a reality.  Avoidance of
them can lead to people going off the derech.  Acknowledging them as
hard questions is more honest, and may not turn people off so easily.

--
        name: jon baker              web: http://www.panix.com/~jjbaker
     address: jjbaker at panix.com     blog: http://thanbook.blogspot.com