BAIS HAVAAD PARSHA PERSPECTIVES The Jewish Idea of Prison: Teaching the Thief a Thing or Two By: Rabbi Yehonoson Dovid Hool

Surprisingly, though Parshas Mishpatim is devoted almost exclusively to Mishptei HaTorah – the Torah’s laws of money and finance, it opens with the laws of Eved Ivri, the Jewish slave. Rashi points out that this Parshah is discussing the situation in which a thief is caught and no longer has the stolen object, nor does he have enough money to pay for that which he stole. In such a case, the Beis Din has no choice but to sell him into slavery for up to six years, using the money derived from the sale to pay back the thief’s victim. At first glance this seems an odd choice for an introduction to the Halachos of business and money. Rav Yisroel Salanter explains with a parable. Imagine a father who has five sons, four of whom are fine, honest upstanding members of the community. The fifth, however, has left the path of straight and narrow, is mixing with undesirables and is generally heading in a downward direction. Which of his sons is on the father’s mind continuously? This last son, the one who has gone bad, the father thinks about constantly, worrying and trying to think of a way to bring him back to the right path.