‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your ger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
What Does It Say?
We've already covered the first version of the Ten Commandments in this post, and the ger content in this passage is the same.
There is a difference between the Exodus version and the Deuteronomy version. Both versions give a reason for keeping the Sabbath day, but the reasons are different. Exodus says it is because the Lord rested on the seventh day of creation, while Deuteronomy says it is in remembrance of the Lord delivering them from slavery in Egypt.
That's interesting, because the slavery in Egypt is also frequently given as a reason for treating ger well: you were ger in Egypt, so you know what it's like to be in that situation. To my memory, there are three seperate laws or groups of laws that use the slavery and Exodus as their justification: First, the annual celebration of the Passover; second, The Sabbath; third, treating ger well. That's pretty good company for the laws concerning ger.
Next: Deuteronomy 10
So point out if I'm wrong, but doesn't this passage completely invalidate the practice of the shabbat goy? Any idea how various rabbis have addressed this?
ReplyDeleteThe short version is, yes, and the Rabbis generally acknowledge this. You're not supposed to have any gentile do creative work that benefits you in any way. You are allowed to hint "how nice it would be if someone would turn on the light" and then give them a "totally unrelated" gift of money. And why you can have a gentile, completely by coincidence, come by the Synagogue every Saturday and play the electric organ and, completely by coincidence, get some money.
DeleteThe funny thing is that all of this is only necessary because of the Rabbis' fetishistic legalism. You wouldn't need a shabbat goy if you went with a more reasonable definition of what constitutes work. Truly it was said, "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in."