Deuteronomy/Davarim 23: ‘Kindness must not be abused.’

[First posted  6 years ago, in 2013. Here’s the original Introduction:

‘Kindness must not be abused.’ This applies from fellowman to fellowman but even more so from us toward our gracious Creator from Whose Hands all FREE necessities flow: air we breathe, water we drink, food from the earth, sunshine so necessary for growth of all living things, and needless to say, our very life.  
How much of it do we take for granted? And what about the kindness experienced from benevolent persons who are mere conduits of the kindness, mercy and grace of God, for whom they do what they do? Surely they do so in loving appreciation of  God’s benevolence towards them, such that they pass it on to others in need. 
As for other regulations reiterated in this chapter, the translation says it like it is—‘a night accident’ and instruction on how to dispose of human waste. You will read about things that you might think have no place in the Word of God, but since the Creator and Revelator chooses to regulate every aspect of His chosen people’s life, there is no ‘censored’ part of living that is not dealt with in His instructions.
Still, some of the instructions might appear strange to us today — our society and culture and mores are so far removed from those days of antiquity, yet some things never change, namely one:  humankind. Let us not think that our modernized living makes us any different from people of past times, human nature is so predictable . . . in fact we read it in history like a cycle that repeats itself and why?  Who was it who said that when we don’t learn from history we are bound to repeat it? This chapter, as all the previous ones, is an eye-opener in terms of the Torah requirements in all areas of living.  
Commentary here is from the best of Jewish minds as collected in one resource book by Dr. J.H. Hertz, Pentateuch and Haftorahs; our translation of choice is EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.Admin1.]

Image from en.wikipedia.org

Deuteronomy/Davarim  23

1. PROHIBITION OF MARRIAGE WITH STEPMOTHER

This law was aimed at the ancient heathen custom of inheriting women in the same way as other possessions of the deceased.

 

1 A man is not to take-in-marriage the wife of his father,
 that he not expose the skirt of his father.

his father’s skirt.  Or, ‘his father’s bedcover’; a euphemism for marital relation; see Ruth, III,9.

2-9.  CLASSES EXCLUDED FROM CONGREGATION

2 One-wounded by crushing, or cut-off (in the) sperm-organ, is not to enter the assembly of YHVH.

enter into the assembly of the LORD.  He shall not therefore be permitted to marry an Israelite woman.  The first to be excluded are the self-mutilated or unsexed in the service of some heathen cult.  Isa. LVI,3 speaks of men whose mutilation was not voluntary.

3 A mamzer is not to enter the assembly of YHVH; 
even (to) the tenth generation 
no one from him is to enter the assembly of YHVH.

bastard. This does not mean a child born out of wedlock, but the child of an adulterous or incestuous marriage (i.e. one with the forbidden degrees of kinship as laid down in Lev. XVIII and XX).

tenth generation. i.e. never.  The numeral ‘ten’ here denotes an indefinitely large number; Gen. XXXI,7.

4 An Ammonite or a Moabite is not to enter the assembly of YHVH; 
even to the tenth generation 
no one from them is to enter the assembly of YHVH, for the ages,

Ammonite or a Moabite. From the use of the masculine and not the feminine, the Talmud deduces that it is only the male Ammonite and the male Moabite that are excluded.  But the females could, after proselytization, marry male Israelites; e.g. Ruth, who was a Moabitess, entered the Jewish fold and became the ancestress of King David.

According to the Rabbis this prohibition in regard to the admission of Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Egypt into the community ceased with Assyrian conquest, which drove the inhabitants from their original homes and led to a commingling of tribes and races.

5 on account that they did not greet you with food and with water 
on the way, at your going-out from Egypt, 
and because he hired against you Bil’am son of Be’or
 from Petor, (in) Aram Of-the-Two-Rivers, to curse you.

with bread. In Deut. II,29, the Moabites sold the bread and water to the Israelites.  As for the Ammonites, there is no record of their willingness to do even as much for them.

they hired. In the Heb. the singular is used, because Moab alone hired Balaam against Israel; Num. XXIII,5.

6 But YHVH your God was not willing to hearken to Bil’am,
 and YHVH your God turned for you the curse into a blessing, 
for YHVH your God loves you.

turned the curse. See Num. XXIII,11,25, and XXIV,10.

7 You are not to seek their peace or their well-being, all your days, for the ages!

nor seek their place. i.e. thou shall not invite them to be on terms of amity with thee; as a punishment for their inhuman treatment of Israel. ‘Not hatred, but indifference, is commanded here'(Oettli).

8 You are not to abominate an Edomite,
 for he is your brother; 
you are not to abominate an Egyptian,
 for you were a sojourner in his land.

thy brother. Thy blood-brother, therefore must not be placed under a ban of exclusion.

an Egyptian. The oppression of the Egyptians was the act of the Pharaohs rather than the will of the people.  Israel had found a home in Egypt, and the Israelites were ‘guests’ in that land.  For this the Egyptians must be remembered with gratitude. National gratitude is as rare as national self-criticism: Israel is the classical example of both.

stranger. here in the meaning of ‘guest’.

9 Children that are born to them, in the third generation,
 may enter from them the assembly of YHVH.

10-25. MISCELLANEOUS LAWS – A Second Group

10-15.  HOLINESS OF THE CAMP

10 When you go out as a camp against your enemies, 
take-you-care against anything evil.

every evil thing. This refers to both personal and moral pollution.  The camp was hallowed by the Divine Presence, and must therefore be a place of purity.  Uncleanliness leads to ungodliness. Morals, religion, and even the elementary rules of sanitation, were absent in ancient camps.  It was to be otherwise in Israel.

11 If there should be among you a man 
who is not ritually-pure, (because of) a night accident, 
he is to go outside the camp;
 he is not to come into the midst of the camp.

chanceth him by night. See Lev. XV,16.

12 Now it shall be toward the turn of sunset:
 he is to wash with water,
 and when the sun has come in, 
he may come (back) into the midst of the camp.
13 An area you should have, outside the camp,
 where you may go, outside:

a place.  ‘A prepared place’ (Targum).  Sanitation is of vital importance in a camp. In this respect also, the Mosaic Law is thousands of years in advance of its age.

14 a spike you should have, along with your weapon; 
and it shall be, when you sit outside (to relieve yourself), 
you are to dig with it, 
and when you return, you are to cover up your excrement.
15 For YHVH your God walks about amid your camp, 
to rescue you, to give your enemies before you; 
so the camp is to be holy, 
so that he does not see among you anything of “nakedness” 
and turn away from you.

unseemly thing. lit. ‘nakedness of anything’; i.e. anything that one would be ashamed of.

turn away from thee. The camp must be ‘holy’, otherwise there is no place in it for God.

 

16-17.  FUGITIVE SLAVES

The number of slaves was comparatively small in Israel; and the slave-trade could not have been extensive, since no slave-markets are mentioned in Scripture.  Slaves had human rights in Jewish law, and were generally well-treated.  In all Jewish history, there is no record of a servile insurrection, nor of runaway slaves.  In the latter case, he was not to be restored to his master. ‘What an honourable contrast to the law of Hammurabi, which condemned to death anyone who sheltered a runaway slave!’ (McFadyen).  Among the Greeks and Romans the runaway bondman was, on recapture, branded with a red-hot iron.  Readers of Uncle Tom’s Cabin will remember that, as late as the middle of the last century, fugitive slaves were tracked and pursued by bloodhounds.  In this Mosaic law, however, we have the same legislation which it is the peculiar boast of England to have introduced into the modern world: ‘Slaves cannot breathe in England . . . they touch our country, and their shackles fall’ (Cowper).

 

On the position of the slave in Greece and Rome:

Wayyiqrah XXV.46.  SLAVERY

[The system of slavery, which is tolerated by the Torah was fundamentally different from the cruel systems of the ancient world, and even of Western countries down to the middle of the last century.  The Code of Hammurabi has penalties only for the master who destroys the tooth or eye of another man’s slave.  It orders that a slave’s ear be cut off, if he desires freedom; while to harbour a runaway slave was considered a capital offence.  As to Greece, a slave was deemed ‘an animated tool’, and he could claim no more rights in his relationship to his master than a beast of burden.  Agricultural labourers were chained.  If at any time it was thought that there were too many slaves, they were exterminated, as wild beasts would be.  Athens was an important slave market, and the State profited from it by a tax on the sales.  So much for ‘the glory that was Greece’. The ‘grandeur that was Rome’ was even more detestable.  The slave was denied all human rights, and sentenced to horrible mutilation and even crucifixion at the whim of his master.  Sick slaves were exposed to die of starvation, and there was corporate responsibility for slaves:  “Tacitus records that as late as the Empire the 400 slaves of one household were all put to death because they had been under their master’s roof when he was murdered.  Worlds asunder from these inhumanities and barbarities was the treatment accorded to the Hebrew slave.  The position of Eliezer in Abraham’s household (Gen. XXIV) enables us to realize the nature of servitude in the ancient Hebrew home.  Kidnapping a man or selling him as a slave was a capital offence. Cruelty on the part of the master that resulted in injury to an organ of the body secured the slave’s freedom (Exod. XXI,26); and if a slave ran away he must not be surrendered to his master (Deut. XXIII,16).  A Fugitive Slave Law, such as existed in America, with the tracking of runaway slaves by bloodhounds would have been unthinkable to the Israelite of old.]

 

Among the Greeks, slave-hunting was a not unfamiliar sport among them.  As to Rome, Seneca records that the most gruesome punishments—torture, crucifixion, being thrown to the wild beasts in the arena—were inflicted on the slave for slight misdoings. Even the Stoics debated whether in a shipwreck one should sacrifice a valuable horse to save a slave.  The Romans could not understand the humane treatment which the Judeans extended to their slaves.  During the Hadrianic persecutions, one of the grave counts against Rabbi Eleazar ben Perata was that he had set free his slaves.

16 You are not to hand over a serf to his lord
 who has sought-rescue by you from his lord.

a bondman. A fleeing non-Israelitish slave, seeking refuge in Palestine from the harsh treatment of an unjust master, Jew or non-Jew, outside Palestine.

17 Beside you let him dwell, among you, 
in the place that he chooses, within one of your gates (that) seems good for him; 
you are not to maltreat him!

with thee. He was not only free, but was to be protected and helped to earn his livelihood and lead a useful life.

within one of thy gates. In any city of Israel, in any part of the land.

not wrong him. Better, not vex him, by words; this forbids wounding his feelings by speaking mockingly of his past or his race; see Lv. XIX,33.

18-19  IMMORALITY

18 There is to be no holy-prostitute of the daughters of Israel,
 there is to be no holy-prostitute of the sons of Israel.

harlot. In Canaanite cults, there were males and females who committed acts of immorality as part of the idolatrous worship.

19 You are not to bring the fee of a whore or the price of a dog to the house of YHVH your God, for any vow;
 for an abomination to YHVH your God are the two-of-them!

hire of a harlot.  The profits, either in money or kind, earned in an infamous way must not be brought to the Sanctuary in fulfilment of a vow or for any other religious purpose.

a dog.  The Semitic term for a male person who practised immoral conduct as a religious rite. The Rabbis, however, took the phrase in its literal sense, as anything obtained in exchange for a dog.

abomination. We dishonour God with gifts secured by unrighteous and impure means.

20-21 INTEREST

Israel is a brotherhood whose sons are linked together by kindly feeling.  Hence, an Israelite must lend money to a necessitous brother without expectation of any profit whatsoever.  It is otherwise in the case of the alien merchant, who requires money not to relieve his poverty but as a business investment; Exod. XXII,24 and Lev. XXV,36,37.

20 You are not to charge interest to your brother,
 interest in silver, interest in food, interest
in anything for which you may charge-interest.

not lend upon interest.  lit. ‘not exact interest,’ moderate or excessive.

‘One of the great duties of charity is here prescribed—to assist persons in reduced circumstances with timely loans, so that they may be enabled to maintain themselves by their own industry, without resorting to the degrading necessity of accepting alms.  If the poor man was to derive any real assistance from the loan granted him, it was absolutely indispensable that no more was to be required of him than the actual amount that had been lent’ (H. Adler).

21 The foreigner you may charge-interest,
 but your brother you may not charge-interest, 
in order that YHVH your God may bless you 
in all the enterprises of your hand
 on the land that you are entering to possess.

unto a foreigner thou mayest lend upon interest.  In contrast to the resident alien, the ‘foreigner’ could not very well be expected, in a year which the Israelites celebrated as a Release Year, to remit the debt of his Israelitish debtor.  Nor could he be expected to lend money to his Israelitish customer without taking interest.  If an equal basis for trading between Israelites and foreigners was to be established, it could be attained onl in this way: that the restrictions of the Release Year and the law of interest that were not binding on the foreigner a priori were also void for the Israelite, in so far as trade with foreigners was concerned’ (Guttman).

 

This permission to exact interest from a foreigner applied only to sums borrowed for mercantile purposes.  When the Gentile needed the money for his subsistence, there was no longer any difference between Israelite and foreigner.  ‘And if thy brother be waxen poor, and his means fail with thee; then thou shalt uphold him: as a stranger and a settler shall he live with thee.  Take thou no interest of him or increase; but fear thy God’ (Lev. XXV,35,36).  The Talmud maintains the interest prohibition throughout, even in regard to foreigners; and nowhere do we find stronger condemnation of the usurer than in Rabbinical literature.  The Rabbis teach that the testimony of a usurer must not be accepted in a court of justice.  He is classed in the same category with thieves and professional gamblers.  These noble sentiments in regard to usury only deepen the moral tragedy of the Jew in the Middle Ages.  Debarred from normal means of livelihood, money dealings were forced upon him throughout Christian Europe.  ‘If we prohibit the Jews from following trades and other civil occupations, we compel them to become usurers,’ said Martin Luther.  When, on the eve of the French Revolution, the National Assembly hesitated in emancipating the Jews, because of the charge of usury, a noted delegate, the Abbe Gregoire, pleaded:  “O nations, if you record the past faults of the Jews, let it be to deplore your own work.’  However, if much may be brought forward in extenuation of the past, nothing can be said in defence of contemporary Jewish money-lender.  ‘No amount of money given in charity, nothing but the abandonment of this hateful trade, can atone for this great sin against God, Israel, and Humanity’ (H. Adler).

 

not lend. Rabbinic law forbids the Jewish lender to demand interest from Jew and non-Jew alike, and forbids the Jewish borrower from a Jew to pay it.

22-13.  VOWS

22 When you vow a vow to YHVH your God,
 you are not to delay paying it, 
indeed, YHVH your God will require, yes, require it of you, 
and it shall be (reckoned) a sin in you.

not be slack to pay it.  The sacred and binding character of the vow is given in Num. XXX,3.

No one is under any obligation to make a vow.  It is a purely voluntary act; but once made, it must be faithfully fulfilled.  Ecclesiastes (v,4) says, ‘Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.’

23 But if you hold-back-from vowing,
 it shall not be (considered) a sin in you.
24 What issues from your lips, you are to keep, 
and you are to do 
as you vowed to YHVH your God, willingly,
 as you promised with your mouth.

that which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt observe. ‘You must be careful to perform any promise you have made’ (Moffatt).  A much-needed warning as to he sacred duty of keeping one’s word.

25 When you come into the vineyard of your neighbor,
 you may eat (the) grapes, according to your appetite, until your being-satisfied,
 but in your vessel you may not put (any).

25-26. IN A NEIGHBOUR’S FIELD AND VINEYARD

as thine own pleasure.  The passerby may pick and eat as much as his appetite demands, but no more.  The Rabbis limit this privilege to the labourer who is engaged in gathering in the grapes.

vessel.  The bag or wallet into which field or garden produce was put.  Hunger, not greed, may be satisfied.  Kindness must not be abused.

26 When you come into the standing-grain of your neighbor,
you may pluck off ears with your hand, 
but a sickle you are not to swing above the grain of your neighbor.

 

 

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