What the Doorway Represents

Parshat Mishpatim

by Rabbi Avi Billet

Those who study Mishpatim are well aware that the first mitzvah in the parsha is Eved Ivri. Rabbis often make this the topic of their sermon because of its “leading the pack” status, and it makes for good “Drasha material” because it bespeaks of the need to look out for our fellow man, ideally so that he not come to have the need to sell himself to be the “Hebrew slave” in the first place. 

As the old Chinese proverb goes “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.” [There are political jokes about if you give someone too much the person will vote for a certain political party for a lifetime…] 

The Torah’s instruction is that the Hebrew slave goes free after 6 years of service. However “if he says ‘I have come to love my master, my wife and my children, and I don’t wish to go free, then his master brings him to the court, and he is brought to the door and to the Mezuzah and hole is bored into his ear and he remains a slave forever.” The Rabbis teach us that “forever” means “until the Jubilee year.” 

There are many questions about this strange ritual. Rashi famously notes – based on the Gemara Kiddushin 22b - that the “ear that heard not to steal went ahead and stole, or the ear heard that you are to be slaves unto Me chose to be a slave to a person” and so it gets this treatment. But that hardly explains why it takes place at the door, or at the Mezuzah! 

Kli Yakar looks at the door and the word Mezuzah and takes them as literally as we all would when we think of the Mezuzah. Imagine you are letting your Hebrew slave free. How would you let him go? Perhaps you’d give him a parting gift, perhaps a care package, perhaps you’d make sure he has his suitcase packed and maybe you’ve even called an Uber for him, and as you’re opening the door for him to leave, he looks around at the doorway and decides, “You know what? I’m not going through that door. I am going to stay right here.” Contemplating his own “doorway to freedom,” and rejecting it has him placed at that very same door for the ritual committing him to stay. After all, the Torah does not really WANT a Jew to be your slave. It is a concession to human weakness, either because he stole, or because he was so destitute that he needed to sell himself. 

 But the Torah wants him to be free! This is why he is not supposed to be in this position forever. He is supposed to have his own life, with his own responsibilities, and he is not supposed to be someone else’s burden, even if he is essentially working to earn his keep! 

Kli Yakar takes it to the next step as he zeroes in on the Mezuzah. Written inside the Mezuzah is ואהבת את ה' א-לקיך – that you shall love Hashem your God. This slave, at the critical juncture when he could leave his personal house of bondage to be free, is choosing to declare that he wants to stay on account of the love he has for his master, for the wife his master gave him (a non-Jewish slave/maid), and for his non-Jewish slave children. This love, it seems, trumps the love he has for Hashem who told him this is not the life intended for him as a servant of God. And so because on the one hand he ignored the door to freedom, and he also ignored that which is written in the scroll of the Mezuzah, the ritual takes place at that spot, so he be reminded at the moment that his slavery becomes more long-lasting, that this was the choice he made when all options were otherwise before him as to the path his life could take. 

 It’s a simple lesson of remembering what our priorities ought to be. I once came across an interpretation of the last of the Dibrot – which commands against coveting one’s neighbors belongings including his wife, his house, his servants, his maidservants, certain animals, etc. – and it being so strict even in commanding thoughts because the person chose to go out of the zone of “you shall love Hashem your God with ALL of your heart” and made room to covet something with one’s heart. 

 And when it comes to the doorway – the door can be used as a metaphor to entering into new paths in life. We can contemplate what it means to open a door, to close a door, to see the opened door as an opportunity or as a hurdle, and to make decisions that will impact the respective trajectories of our lives. 

 Eved Ivri is thus an iconic example of the kinds of choices we have as servants of the Almighty. Will we choose to serve Him? Or will we choose to serve someone or something else? 

Let us walk through the open doors life presents to elevate our lives in the service of our Creator when we move on to whatever next stage lies before us.