Parashat Ki Teitzei
August 27, 2020
Rabbi Harry Pell, Associate of Head of School
I love that the Torah often teaches us lessons on multiple levels, requiring us to delve and drash, to find meaning through hints and even hidden messages. At the same time, the Torah can also be blunt and straightforward, and I appreciate that as well. In this week’s parashah, the Torah teaches us one such crystal clear lesson about the importance of individual survival and human dignity.
Included among the various laws taught in Ki Teitzei is a reference to an upper millstone: לֹא-יַחֲבֹל רֵחַיִם, וָרָכֶב, כִּי-נֶפֶשׁ, הוּא חֹבֵל. A handmill or an upper millstone shall not be taken in pawn, for that would be taking someone’s life in pawn.
In the situation the Torah envisions, an individual owes a debt to a creditor, and the creditor is entitled to seize the debtor’s property to compel the debtor to repay the loan, but only to a point.
In the ancient world, a set of millstones was essential to preparing flour in order to make and provide one’s family with bread, the staple of their diet. The lower millstone was generally very heavy, to the point of being immovable, but the upper stone was light enough to be seized. Taking the upper millstone, though, is like booting one wheel of an illegally parked car — it only impacts one wheel directly, but it makes the entire car unusable. So too with millstones; taking even just the smaller, upper stone renders the mill unusable and the family unable to provide for themselves.
Back then, the message of this pasuk would have been clear to all who read it. A creditor has every right to seek repayment and deserves to be made whole, ideally sooner than later. But not at the expense of the debtor’s dignity or the debtor’s ability to provide for her or his family. As important as repayment is, and the Torah makes it clear here and elsewhere that repayment is very important, the ability of every individual to provide for themselves is even more important. Human dignity is paramount.
Shabbat Shalom