Haftorah This Week
Welcome to Haftorah This Week, the place where you will find thoughts and reflections by CLAL faculty and associates on this week's Haftorah.
HAFTARAT MISHPATIM
(Jeremiah 34:8-22, 33:25-26)
The Torah portion opens with rules requiring Israelites to free their Hebrew slaves (i.e., fellow Israelites who have become indentured servants) after six years. The Haftarah describes an incident in which the men of Jerusalem agreed to free their slaves, then actually freed them, but afterwards reneged and forced (Jer.11, 16) the former slaves back into servitude. Jeremiah tells the people that God will punish them mercilessly (Jer. 17-22) for this breach of faith.
Why is this transgression singled out for special condemnation? The key may lie in the claim that the freed slaves were forced back into bondage. This sort of slavery was endured by one who could not pay a debt s/he had incurred. As such, once a slave had been freed, the only way for him/her to be re-enslaved was again to go into debt. But how can one be forced to incur debt? It seems that only by misleading the poor into willingly going into debt could the householders of Judea have "forced" them back into slavery. Perhaps the wealthy promised that they would extend credit to the poor without requiring them to pay it back in servitude. Or perhaps they convinced them that receiving the material goods proffered through loan was more important than remaining free.
In either case, it seems certain that the only way the "haves" of Jeremiah's time could have forced the "have nots" to re-enter slavery was to persuade them that freedom was not the most important value in their lives. Essentially, they were persuaded to reverse the route of the Exodus, voluntarily submitting to slavery once again. This amounts to no less than the rejection of the offer by God of a covenantal relationship, and thus well deserves the punishment promised by God: "I proclaim freedom for you--for sword, for pestilence, for famine" (Jer. 34:17).
(David Nelson)
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