We all depend on others. We may not think about it, but the fact that we have water, sewer, electrical power, and food in grocery stores show an endless web of interdependencies on other people. No man is an island. Indeed, this is a good thing: it is through interacting with others that we have an opportunity to learn and grow.
In the Torah the word for servant and office and slave is all the same word: eved. Eved speaks to a dependent relationship. And there is nothing wrong with being an eved, or having avadim (the plural form of eved). In the Torah there is no clear line between an arms-length relationship, an employer, or even a servant or a slave. The extent of the dependency is not the problem. The problem is the nature of the dependency.
The Egyptians put the Children of Israel to work. That, in itself, does not seem to present a problem. But the Torah adds a word, a single word that seems to make all the difference. That word is Farech. Here is the first verse: The Egyptians worked the Children of Israel with farech.
The normal translations suggest the word farech means something like “ruthlessly.” But what does this word actually mean in the text itself?
I suggest that the meaning is found in another biblical verse, that gives us the contrast:
You shall not rule over [your servants] with farech; you shall fear your G-d. (Lev. 25:43)
We can define farech quite easily, by just looking at what the Torah means by “fearing G-d.” Every single use of this phrase in the Torah falls within one of two meanings:
| Respect for Others / Not Impeding Their Growth | Obedience to G-d’s Will |
| Avraham said, “surely there is no fear of G-d in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.” | “Do not raise your hand against the boy, or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear G-d, since you have not withheld your son, your favored one, from Me.” |
| On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you shall live, for I fear G-d. [he has limits on what he will do to his brothers] | [Moses to Pharaoh] “And I know that you and your courtiers do not yet fear G-d.” |
| You shall not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind. You shall fear your G-d: I am G-d. | That thou mightest fear the Lord thy G-d, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. |
| You shall rise before the aged and show deference to the old; you shall fear your G-d: I am G-d. | Thou shalt fear the Lord thy G-d, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. |
| Do not wrong one another, but fear your G-d; for I G-d am your G-d. | Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy G-d, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. |
| Do not exact advance or accrued interest, but fear your G-d. | You shall walk after the Lord your G-d, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and you shall serve him, and hold fast to him. |
| Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt— how, undeterred by fear of G-d, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear. | And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy G-d, in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thy oil, and the firstlings of thy herds, and of thy flocks; that thou mayst learn to fear the Lord thy G-d always. |
| [the king] shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his G-d, to keep all the words of this Tora and these statutes, to do them: | |
| Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your G-d, and observe to do all the words of this Tora: and that their children, who have not known anything, may hear, and learn to fear the Lord your G-d, as long as you live in the land whither you go over the Jordan to possess it. | |
| You shall also seek out, from among all the people, capable individuals who fear G-d—trustworthy ones who spurn ill-gotten gain. [to be judges] | |
| Love therefore the stranger: for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy G-d; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou hold fast, and swear by his name. | |
(The last two examples encapsulate the dual meaning, as they deal with both treatment of individuals as well as seeking to fulfill G-d’s will.)
Because the phrase is used in both of these broad categories – abuse of people and respecting G-d’s wishes – the lesson is clear enough: Treating other people well is clearly also a way of fearing G-d. And why should this be? Perhaps it is because, as the Torah tells us, in this world, G-d’s divine spark is found in each human soul (that is, after all, how Adam is created). Mistreating others is the same as rejecting G-d Himself!
So, summarizing what acting toward others without fear of G-d means, using the above verses: Killing a man to steal his wife, murdering people for stealing from you, insulting the deaf, putting a stumbling block before the blind, insulting the old, wronging others, charging interest, and attacking the famished, weary and stragglers. The Torah is telling us that this is how, broadly speaking, the Egyptians converted mere service into oppressive and ruthless slavery. Put even more simply: treating a servant with farech, is not mere servitude or slavery. It is treating them as entirely separate from oneself, like a sub-human animal.
The text gives us another major support for this hypothesis: the letters that form farech are the very same letters that are used to describe the curtains used in the tabernacle. The function of those curtains was to divide, to separate areas into distinctly different zones. Here is the key verse:
I hereby take your fellow Levites from among the Israelites; they are assigned to you in dedication to G-d, to do the work of the Tent of Meeting; while you [Aharon] and your sons shall be careful to perform your priestly duties in everything pertaining to the altar and to what is behind the curtain (farech). I make your priesthood a service of dedication; any outsider who encroaches shall be put to death.
The curtain creates a permanent division between insiders and outsiders, a line that cannot be crossed. In the context of the Tabernacle, this makes perfectly good sense, as the gap between man and G-d must be maintained in order for humans to exist. But when it comes to service, creating an unbreachable gap is very much consistent with treating a slave as a sub-human animal. And that treatment, it seems, is what turned ordinary service into unacceptable slavery.