From the poor hired worker to the stragglers at the back
The aliyah opens with the protection of the poor and needy hired worker. It is forbidden to oppress him, whether he is one of your brothers or a stranger. His wages must be given on their day, because he needs them and depends on them for his living. Immediately after that the Torah sets down a principle of personal responsibility: fathers are not put to death for the sins of their sons, and sons are not put to death for the sins of their fathers, but every person is judged for his own sin.
From here the Torah moves to protecting the weak within the system of justice and of the economy. It is forbidden to bend the judgment of a stranger or an orphan, and forbidden to take a widow’s garment as a pledge. The memory of slavery in Egypt becomes here a moral foundation: one who was himself in a place of weakness is required to build a society more sensitive to those who lack power.
This principle continues in the field as well. If a sheaf is forgotten at the time of harvest, one does not go back to take it, but leaves it for the stranger, the orphan and the widow. So too with the olives and the vineyard: one does not go back and gather down to the last fruit. The Torah creates a situation in which part of the crop deliberately remains for those who have no field of their own.
From here the aliyah moves to the laws of judgment and punishment. When there is a dispute between people, the judges are to justify the righteous and condemn the wicked. If a punishment of lashes is decreed, the Torah limits the number of blows so as not to degrade the person beyond the limit that was set. Even after a person has been convicted, he is still your brother, and the punishment must not be turned into unlimited humiliation.
After that comes the prohibition against muzzling an ox while it threshes, and immediately following it the laws of levirate marriage and chalitzah. When a man dies without a son, the Torah describes the possibility that the brother-in-law will raise up a continuation for his brother’s house by marrying the widow. If he does not wish to do so, a chalitzah ceremony takes place before the elders of the city, which ends the tie between them in a public and orderly way.
Further on there is a law concerning violent intervention in a quarrel between people, and after it the Torah moves to honesty in trade: it is forbidden to keep two different weighing stones or two different measures, one large and one small. A whole and just weight and a whole and just measure are required. The Torah ties economic honesty to length of days in the land.
The whole parashah closes with the memory of Amalek. The Torah recalls how Amalek struck at Israel on the way when they came out of Egypt, and especially at the stragglers who were at the back when the people were weary and faint. When a state of rest from the enemies in the land arrives, Israel is commanded to blot out the memory of Amalek and not to forget what he did.
Insights from the aliyah
A person’s wages are part of his life
The Torah does not treat wages as a technical matter that can be put off endlessly. When a poor person depends on this money for his living, delaying the payment becomes a real injury to him. The responsibility is to understand what the money means for the one who is waiting for it.
Personal responsibility prevents vengeance between generations
The principle that each person is judged for his own sin halts a dangerous tendency to punish whole families for the act of an individual. A just society examines who did what, and does not blur the boundaries of guilt.
The memory of slavery is meant to turn into sensitivity
The Torah returns to Egypt not only in order to tell history, but in order to demand conduct. One who knows what it means to be without power ought to be the first to protect the stranger, the orphan, the widow and the poor.
Do not take the last fruit
In the laws of the field, the olive tree and the vineyard, the Torah teaches that ownership is not absolute in the sense of taking everything one can. There is room to leave something for others. Generosity here is not only a one-time act, but part of the way the economy itself is built.
Punishment too must have a limit
When a person becomes liable to punishment, it is still forbidden to humiliate him beyond what was set. This is a deep principle: justice is not cruelty. Even one who has sinned remains a person, and even within the punishment the boundary of dignity is preserved.
Do not muzzle an ox while it threshes, sensitivity to the one who works
Even the animal that works among the grain is not meant to stand before food with no possibility of benefiting from it. On the level of the idea, there is here a basic sensitivity toward the one who carries the burden of the work.
Levirate marriage is about continuity, not only about marriage
The parashah stresses the wish that the name of the dead brother not be blotted out from Israel. The family bond receives here a dimension of memory and continuity, and not only of a tie between two living people.
Honest trade begins even with what is in your pocket
The Torah does not forbid only actual cheating. It forbids keeping a double set of measures and weights. The principle is that real honesty begins even before the transaction, in the very fact that a person does not have one instrument for himself and another for others.
Amalek strikes precisely at the stragglers
The end of the parashah turns the gaze back to the weak at the edges of the camp. Amalek is not described only as an enemy who came to make war, but as one who struck precisely at the stragglers at a time of weariness and exhaustion. In this the end of the parashah connects sharply to the whole aliyah: a decent society is tested by the way it treats the weak, while Amalek represents the complete opposite.
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