[Avodah] Slavery

[Zev Sero]

dfinch847 at aol.com wrote:

> Oy. I'd say that in a just society living by Torah rules there'd be no 
> slavery, but I figure Abe Lincoln settled this question 140 years ago.

Huh?  Lincoln was some sort of posek?  A rishon, an achron, a Rosh
Sanhedrin?  Why would the halacha change just because Lincoln won
a war?  And if he'd lost the war, would the halacha be different?

 
> It's a little late to be saying things like, "As I wouldn't be a slave, 
> I wouldn't be a master," in earnest debate, as if there's another side 
> to the question.

Why would one say anything like that?  Where is there even a hint
in the Torah at such a sentiment?  Did any of the Tana'im, Amora'im,
Rishonim or Achronim cavil at owning slaves, or utter even the
faintest word of criticism at it?


> Here's the problem: Contemporary Torah Judaism can engage in the same 
> Talmudic machlokes that sparked dispute eight centuries ago, and thus 
> help preserve Talmud as a living dialectical instrument of law and 
> reason. Torah Jews can even pine away for the reestablishment of the 
> Temple and its customs of priests and animal sacrifice, as a means of 
> distinguishing themselves from C's and R's

WHAT?  You think this is why we want the restoration of korbanos,
just to be different from Cs and Rs?  If the Cs and Rs were to
disappear, would we stop wanting it?  And before there were Cs and Rs,
why did we want it then?  I can't believe I'm reading this.


> who think the project to be 
> an anachronistic waste of time. But slavery, well, slavery is morally 
> and intellectually unthinkable, even for the O-est of the O. It can't 
> even be debated, not with a straight face.

Sure it can.  It's theoretical today, because there aren't any slaves
available, anywhere that Jews live.  The only countries where one can
still buy slaves aren't places we would want to live.  But that doesn't
change the way authentic Torah Jews think -- by which I mean Jews who
didn't grow up absorbing USAn culture and values and learning to
idolise people like Washington and Lincoln.  Believe it or not, such
people still exist.  The fact that we regard slavery as unthinkable
doesn't mean we're morally superior, it means that we have been so
infected with goyishe values that they have become part of us; that's
nothing to be proud of.

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas