From the Heights of Sinai to the Lowly Slave–Parshat Behar*

Is the quest for meaning and purpose an artificial product of Western life and is it unique to the modern era? Was Viktor Frankl the first to speak of the importance of meaning in our lives? Am I responsible only for my own meaning?

In explaining a verse in this week's parsha, Parshat Behar, Rashi, the great 11th century scholar, certainly thought that the need for meaning is inherent in all human beings. He argued that everybody, no matter what their position in society, has inherent meaning. The sentence reads, "you shall not lord over him(the slave) with rigor."1 The Torah shows how even a slave − holder of the lowest position on the social ladder - should be treated. Rashi expounds on the unusual use of the word "rigor": "He should not assign to him [the slave] unnecessary jobs, for the purpose of tormenting him. For example, do not say to him: “warm up this drink for me,” when you do not need it." Rashi describes the prohibition "You shall not work him with rigor", as assigning the slave useless tasks to perform.

When a slave experiences this form of treatment, then he feels that his efforts are meaningless. Even as a slave, he wants to know that his efforts have a positive effect on someone's life – directly or indirectly. This slave, this lowly slave, needs to feel meaning. Yet when he sees that his actions, though requested, provide no real benefit to anyone, this creates a sense of uselessness and meaninglessness. This treatment of a slave is so unfair that the Torah describes it as "rigorous". Even a slave needs meaning in his life. Without meaning, even a slave feels un-needed and quickly loses any motivation to serve.2

On Mount Sinai, there was concern for even the lowly slave.

It is true - how we treat others has a great impact on them. We are, at the very least, not to demean others or get in the way of their search for meaning. At a higher level, we are to be responsible to help them have a positive, meaning-filled attitude towards their task.

After all, even a slave has meaning.

Notes

* the term Behar refers to Mount Sinai.

  1. Vayikra 25:43
  2. The will to meaning, and the search for it, is the primary source of motivation according to Viktor Frankl and logotherapy. Depriving someone of meaning, or, worse even, creating the antithesis of a meaning experience for even one so lowly as a slave is an action that is foreign to and should be avoided by all.

 

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