My Servant and Shabbat

By Yochanan Ben Emek

The verses quoted here are from the 1985 JPS Tanakh.

Today we have a thriving service industry. You can go most anywhere and be served. So how should view people who serve us and should they serve us on Shabbat. How far does this go. Is it just within our control or does it cover even those we are not in contact with.

We read in Deuteronomy (Devarim) 5:13-15

¹³Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁴but the seventh day is a sabbath of Yehovah Eloheykha; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male [slave] (av’dakha) or female slave (amatekha), your ox or your ass, or any of your cattle, or the stranger in your settlements, so that your male [slave] (av’dakha) and female slave (amat’kha)may rest as you do. ¹⁵Remember that you were a slave (eved) in the land of Egypt and Yehovah Eloheykha freed you from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore Yehovah Eloheykha has commanded you to observe the sabbath day.

From this we see if we have slaves we are to have them cease working as we cease working. What exactly is a slave as referenced here? What would this male or female do for us? Are we also slaves and whom do we serve? How does this verse apply to us today?

Lets start by looking at the words for Male and Female Slave and what do they mean in the Tanakh. The first word is amah (Aleph-Mem-Hey) which is reference number 519 in the BDB and is found on page 51. It is a Feminine Noun. BDB states it is translated as Maid, Handmaid. Let she how this fits with the verses in the Tanakh.

Genesis (Bere’shit) 30:3

³She said, “Here is my maid (amatiy) Bilhah. Consort with her, that she may bear on my knees and that through her I too may have children.”

Exodus (Shemot) 2:5

⁵The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the Nile, while her maidens walked along the Nile. She spied the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl (amatah) to fetch it.

Exodus (Shemot) 20:10

¹⁰but the seventh day is a sabbath of Yehovah Eloheykha: you shall not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave (amat’kha), or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements.

Exodus (Shemot) 21:20, 26, 27

²⁰When a man strikes his slave, male or female (et amato), with a rod, and he dies there and then, he must be avenged.

²⁶When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female (et amato), and destroys it, he shall let him go free on account of his eye.

²⁷If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female (et amato),, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth.

Leviticus (VaYikra) 25:6, 44-46

⁶But you may eat whatever the land during its sabbath will produce—you, your male and female slaves (amatekha), the hired and bound laborers who live with you,

⁴⁴Such male and female slaves (amat’kha) as you may have—it is from the nations round about you that you may acquire male and female slaves (amatah). ⁴⁵You may also buy them from among the children of aliens resident among you, or from their families that are among you, whom they begot in your land. These shall become your property: ⁴⁶you may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property for all time. Such you may treat as slaves.

Deuteronomy (Devarim) 5:18

¹⁸You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not crave your neighbor’s house, or his field, or his male or female slave (amato), or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

Genesis (Bere-shit) 20:17

¹⁷Abraham then prayed to Elohim, and Elohim healed Abimelech and his wife and his slave girls (am’hotayv), so that they bore children;

We can see from these that the word can mean a female slave (a person who is property). But it also can be used when speaking with humility or a maid (Female) servant.

I Samuel (Shemu’el Aleph) 1:11, 16

¹¹And she made this vow: “Yehovah Tzava’ot, if You will look upon the suffering of Your maidservant (amatekha) and will remember me and not forget Your maidservant (amatekha), and if You will grant Your maidservant (amat’kha) a male child, I will dedicate him to Yehovah for all the days of his life; and no razor shall ever touch his head.”

¹⁶Do not take your maidservant (amat’kha) for a worthless woman; I have only been speaking all this time out of my great anguish and distress.”

Psalms (Tehillim)116:16

¹⁶Yehovah, I am Your servant, Your servant, the son of Your maidservant (amatekha); You have undone the cords that bound me.

For the Male-Slave reference in Devarim 5:13-15 the word is ‘eved (Ayin-Vet-Dalet) which is found on pages 713-714 in the BDB. It is a noun masculine. Reference 5650.

Genesis (Bereshit) 39:17-19

¹⁷Then she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew slave (haEved haIv’riy) whom you brought into our house came to me to dally (laugh at/Mock at) with me; ¹⁸but when I screamed at the top of my voice, he left his garment with me and fled outside.” ¹⁹When his master heard the story that his wife told him, namely, “Thus and so your slave (av’dekha) did to me,” he was furious.

Genesis (Bereshit) 41:12

¹²A Hebrew youth was there with us, a servant (eved) of the chief steward; and when we told him our dreams, he interpreted them for us, telling each of the meaning of his dream.

Genesis (Bereshit) 50:2

²Then Joseph ordered the physicians in his service (avadyv) to embalm his father, and the physicians embalmed Israel.

Exodus (Shemot) 21:2

²When you acquire a Hebrew slave (eved), he shall serve six years; in the seventh year he shall go free, without payment.

Exodus (Shemot) 20:10

¹⁰but the seventh day is a sabbath of Yehovah Eloheykha: you shall not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male [slave/servant] (av’dekha) or female slave, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements.

Leviticus (VaYikra) 25:6, 44-46

⁶But you may eat whatever the land during its sabbath will produce—you, your male [slave/servant] (av’dekha) and female slaves, the hired and bound laborers who live with you,

⁴⁴Such [your] male [slave] (av’dekha) and female slaves as you may have—it is from the nations round about you that you may acquire male [slave/servants] (eved) and female slaves. ⁴⁵You may also buy them from among the children of aliens resident among you, or from their families that are among you, whom they begot in your land. These shall become your property: ⁴⁶you may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property for all time. Such you may treat as slaves.

Genesis (Bereshit) 12:16

¹⁶And because of her, it went well with Abram; he acquired sheep, oxen, asses, male [slaves] (avadim) and female slaves, she-asses, and camels.

Genesis (Bereshit) 9:25

²⁵he said, “Cursed be Canaan; The lowest of slaves [slave of slaves] (eved ‘avadim) Shall he be to his brothers.”

Exodus (Shemot) 13:3

³And Moses said to the people, “Remember this day, on which you went free from Egypt, the house of bondage [house of slaves] (mibeit ‘avadim), how Yehovah freed you from it with a mighty hand: no leavened bread shall be eaten.

Exodus (Shemot) 13:14

¹⁴And when, in time to come, your son asks you, saying, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘It was with a mighty hand that Yehovah brought us out from Egypt, the house of bondage [house of slaves] (mibeit ‘avadim).

Jeremiah (Yermiyahu) 25:9

⁹I am going to send for all the peoples of the north—declares Yehovah—and for My servant (av’diy), King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, and bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all those nations roundabout. I will exterminate them and make them a desolation, an object of hissing—ruins for all time.

Proverbs (Mishlei) 22:7

⁷The rich rule the poor, And the borrower is a slave [ or servant] (eved) to the lender.

Genesis (Bereshit) 47:19

¹⁹Let us not perish before your eyes, both we and our land. Take us and our land in exchange for bread, and we with our land will be serfs [slave/servants] (avadim) to Pharaoh; provide the seed, that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become a waste.”

Genesis (Bereshit) 26:12 –15

¹²Yitzak sowed in that land and reaped a hundredfold the same year. Yehovah blessed him, ¹³and the man grew richer and richer until he was very wealthy: ¹⁴he acquired flocks and herds, and a large household [slaves many] (avudah rabbah), so that the Philistines envied him. ¹⁵And the Philistines stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants (av’dey) had dug in the days of his father Abraham, filling them with earth.

Genesis (Shemot) 27:37

³⁷Yitzak answered, saying to Esau, “But I have made him master over you: I have given him all his brothers for servants (avadim), and sustained him with grain and wine. What, then, can I still do for you, my son?”

Soldiers of an Army – Servants/Subjects

I Samuel (Shemuel Aleph) 17:8

⁸He stopped and called out to the ranks of Israel and he said to them, “Why should you come out to engage in battle? I am the Philistine [champion], and you are Saul’s servants (avadim). Choose one of your men and let him come down against me.

I Samuel (Shemuel Aleph) 29:3

³The Philistine officers asked, “Who are those Hebrews?” “Why, that’s David, the servant (eved) of King Saul of Israel,” Achish answered the Philistine officers. “He has been with me for a year or more, and I have found no fault in him from the day he defected until now.”

Servants (worshippers of Elohim)

Genesis (Bereshit) 50:17

¹⁷So shall you say to Joseph, ‘Forgive, I urge you, the offense and guilt of your brothers who treated you so harshly.’ Therefore, please forgive the offense of the servants (ad’dey) of the Elohey of your father.”

Leviticus (VaYikra) 25:42, 55

⁴²For they are My servants (avaday), whom I freed from the land of Egypt; they may not give themselves over into servitude (aved).

⁵⁵For it is to Me that the Israelites are servants (avadim): they are My servants (avaday), whom I freed from the land of Egypt, I Yehovah Eloheykha.

Prophets as servants

2 Kings (Melakhim Bet) 9:7

⁷You shall strike down the House of Ahab your master; thus will I avenge on Jezebel the blood of My servants (avaday) the prophets, and the blood of the other servants (av’dey) of Yehovah.

2 Kings (Melakhim Bet) 17:13

¹³Yehovah warned Israel and Judah by every prophet [and] every seer, saying: “Turn back from your wicked ways, and observe My commandments (mitzvotay) and My laws (chuqotay), according to all the Teaching (hatorah) that I commanded your fathers and that I transmitted to you through My servants (avaday) the prophets.”

Jeremiah (Yermiyahu) 7:24-25

²⁴Yet they did not listen or give ear; they followed their own counsels, the willfulness of their evil hearts. They have gone backward, not forward, ²⁵from the day your fathers left the land of Egypt until today. And though I kept sending all My servants (avaday), the prophets, to them daily and persistently,

Israel as a nation is a servant

Isaiah (Yeshayahu) 41:8-9

⁸But you, Israel, My servant (av’diy), Jacob, whom I have chosen, Seed of Abraham My friend— ⁹You whom I drew from the ends of the earth And called from its far corners, To whom I said: You are My servant (ada’diy); I chose you, I have not rejected you—

Isaiah (Yeshayahu) 44:1-2

But hear, now, O Jacob My servant (av’diy), Israel whom I have chosen! ²Thus said Yehovah, your Maker, Your Creator who has helped you since birth: Fear not, My servant (av’diy) Jacob, Jeshurun whom I have chosen,

We can see also that this word can also describe either a servant or slave. So is there a difference in the Tanakh?

Leviticus (VaYikra)25:39-46

³⁹If your kinsman under you continues in straits and must give himself over to you, do not subject him to the treatment of a slave. ⁴⁰He shall remain with you as a hired or bound laborer; he shall serve with you only until the jubilee year. ⁴¹Then he and his children with him shall be free of your authority; he shall go back to his family and return to his ancestral holding.—⁴²For they are My servants, whom I freed from the land of Egypt; they may not give themselves over into servitude.—⁴³You shall not rule over him ruthlessly; you shall fear Eloheykha. ⁴⁴Such male and female slaves as you may have—it is from the nations round about you that you may acquire male and female slaves. ⁴⁵You may also buy them from among the children of aliens resident among you, or from their families that are among you, whom they begot in your land. These shall become your property: ⁴⁶you may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property for all time. Such you may treat as slaves. But as for your Israelite kinsmen, no one shall rule ruthlessly over the other.

Exodus (Shemot) 21:2-6

²When you acquire a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years; in the seventh year he shall go free, without payment. ³If he came single, he shall leave single; if he had a wife, his wife shall leave with him. ⁴If his master gave him a wife, and she has borne him children, the wife and her children shall belong to the master, and he shall leave alone. ⁵But if the slave declares, “I love my master, and my wife and children: I do not wish to go free,” ⁶his master shall take him before Elohim. He shall be brought to the door or the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall then remain his slave for life.

From these we see that a Slave is Property. In some cases it is lifetime or till the year of release (shemitah) or jubilee. Whereas, a servant is one who serves to pay a debt or serves one in service. But since the same word is used in Deuteronomy (Devarim) 5:13-15 then we must assume that both are referenced here.

What exactly does a slave or servant do that they should cease from doing it on Shabbat?

Genesis (Bereshit) 39:4-6

⁴he took a liking to Joseph. He made him his personal attendant and put him in charge of his household, placing in his hands all that he owned. ⁵And from the time that the Egyptian put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, Yehovah blessed his house for Joseph’s sake, so that the blessing of Yehovah was upon everything that he owned, in the house and outside. ⁶He left all that he had in Joseph’s hands and, with him there, he paid attention to nothing save the food that he ate. Now Joseph was well built and handsome.

Yosef was in charge of the household.

Genesis (Bereshit) 24:2-4

²And Abraham said to the senior servant of his household, who had charge of all that he owned, “Put your hand under my thigh ³and I will make you swear by Yehovah, Elohey of heaven and Elohey of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, ⁴but will go to the land of my birth and get a wife for my son Isaac.”

He was sent to fetch a wife for his master’s son.

The slave/servant could have duties that range from the very lowly to the managing of his master’s household.

Are we slaves/servants in this same sense? It does not indicate that they were paid for their services. So while we may feel we work like slaves. We don’t seem to have that same arrangement today. But what about if we borrow does not that make us slaves to those we owe. It does say in Proverbs 22:7 ⁷The rich rule the poor, And the borrower is a slave to the lender. But is it saying that we will have to pay those we owe a mortgage, car payment, gas bill, etc… The more debt you have the less freedom you have. So today the unpaid slave as property is not a reality us, instead we have servants in one form or another is like a hired laborer.

So who is my servant today that I should have them cease serving me on Shabbat?

It is a matter of control, whom does we control and act for us by extension. It is also how we look at the word gate.

Exodus (Shemot) 20:10

Bereshit 19:1 (gates of a city)

1 The two messengers arrived in Sodom in the evening, as Lot was sitting in the gate (sha’ar) of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to greet them and, bowing low with his face to the ground,

Exodus 20:10 (Gates of you dwelling)

¹⁰but the seventh day is a sabbath of Yehovah eloheykha: you shall not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male [slave/servant] (av’dekha) or female slave, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements (sha’areykha).

Duet 5:14 (Gates of your dwelling)

14 but the seventh day is a sabbath of Yehovah Eloheykha; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or your ass, or any of your cattle, or the stranger in your settlements (sha’areykha), so that your male and female slave may rest as you do.

Deut 6:9 (Figurative of your House Gates)

9 inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (sha’areykha).

We have to look around and see who serves us. The waiter or waitress at a restaurant serves us. Anyone taking money from us in a purchase serves us. A servant is one who we come into personal contact with who provides us a service. If we control whether the person serves us or not would seem to me the determination of whom our servant is today.

But how far do we take this. Do we apply this? …to machines …to automated services …etc Some would argue that using a computer on Shabbat is making your computer work. But does it need rest? We have a lot of machines today that do things automated today. Even today we have a human looking robot that can walk like a human. This is not clear in the Tanakh and so I have to leave the choice up to you.