Religion
In reply to the discussion: How Antebellum Christians Justified Slavery [View all]struggle4progress
(123,957 posts)Prof. James A. Diamond
... Although it sanctions the institution of slavery, biblical law begins the process toward abolition, a process still unresolved in various parts of the world, by regulating and restricting the absolute control a master could exercise over an Israelite slave ... Nahmanides creates a parallel between the Israelite owner freeing his slaves and God freeing the enslaved Israelites; thus by releasing the Hebrew slave, the Israelite owner follows in Gods ways ... In the final section of his Laws of Slavery, Maimonides, expresses moral discomfort with the idea, endorsed by the Torah, that an Israelite master is to work his non-Israelite slaves with harsh labor ... This codified recommendation represents the high water mark of Jewish law in expressing noble and equitable ideals ... Maimonides raises the stakes for the normative value of his advised treatment of slaves by transforming it into a bedrock of the entire Jewish legal framework ... No verse better captures what is perceived as the modern liberal ideal of all men are created equal than Psalms 145 in Maimonides reading ...
https://thetorah.com/the-treatment-of-non-israelite-slaves-from-moses-to-moses/
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