Dear Friends,
Fairness is difficult to describe.
Unfairness is easier. We know, intuitively, when something which is inherently unfair. We feel it viscerally.
And, even when we read commands from 2500 years ago in the Torah describing life in agricultural, ancient Israel, though few of us today are agrarians, we can understand the core message.
Thus, when we read the following verse in this week’s Torah portion, it feels like unfairness, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing.” (Deuteronomy 25:4)
The ox was tethered to a pole and would walk in circles effectively stomping grain to separate chaff from the kernel. And, while it did so, the animal could become hungry and would want to chomp some of the corn below its hooves. If, however, the ox was muzzled, it would be restrained and presumably become frustrated. No one wants to confront an angry ox.
Thus, Torah dictates that the animal should not be muzzled. It is common sense. However, a skinflint landowner, perhaps renting the ox for a day of treading, might opt to muzzle the animal to prevent it from eating the product. It would result in an angry ox.
But more: it is patently unfair. The ox has no say in the matter and is vulnerable to decisions made outside of its control. It is powerless. Moreover, muzzling the ox renders it even more vulnerable, which is substantively unfair.
Torah’s immediate concern was with the conditions of the working animal. But more: it was – and is – conveying a lesson about recognizing and minimizing structural unfairness, which is a state of imbalance of power in which the powerful exerts harmful control over the powerless.
Essentially, imbalances of power happen all the time. But, they are not necessarily injurious. A schoolteacher retains power over his or her classroom – it is a coercive environment – but the teacher should use that power to benefit all of the children.
However, when one uses power to extort or harm the powerless, then it becomes a case of muzzling the ox. When employers, government, police, or others who bear authority, power or control assert that leverage harmfully, one intuits patent unfairness. This is what the Torah commanded not be done. Whether the object of the treatment is an ox, or a person of color walking down the street, we can understand the inherent unfairness in the situation.
So, Torah simply announces, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing.”
Shabbat Shalom and Shanah Tovah,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
Fairness is difficult to describe.
Unfairness is easier. We know, intuitively, when something which is inherently unfair. We feel it viscerally.
And, even when we read commands from 2500 years ago in the Torah describing life in agricultural, ancient Israel, though few of us today are agrarians, we can understand the core message.
Thus, when we read the following verse in this week’s Torah portion, it feels like unfairness, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing.” (Deuteronomy 25:4)
The ox was tethered to a pole and would walk in circles effectively stomping grain to separate chaff from the kernel. And, while it did so, the animal could become hungry and would want to chomp some of the corn below its hooves. If, however, the ox was muzzled, it would be restrained and presumably become frustrated. No one wants to confront an angry ox.
Thus, Torah dictates that the animal should not be muzzled. It is common sense. However, a skinflint landowner, perhaps renting the ox for a day of treading, might opt to muzzle the animal to prevent it from eating the product. It would result in an angry ox.
But more: it is patently unfair. The ox has no say in the matter and is vulnerable to decisions made outside of its control. It is powerless. Moreover, muzzling the ox renders it even more vulnerable, which is substantively unfair.
Torah’s immediate concern was with the conditions of the working animal. But more: it was – and is – conveying a lesson about recognizing and minimizing structural unfairness, which is a state of imbalance of power in which the powerful exerts harmful control over the powerless.
Essentially, imbalances of power happen all the time. But, they are not necessarily injurious. A schoolteacher retains power over his or her classroom – it is a coercive environment – but the teacher should use that power to benefit all of the children.
However, when one uses power to extort or harm the powerless, then it becomes a case of muzzling the ox. When employers, government, police, or others who bear authority, power or control assert that leverage harmfully, one intuits patent unfairness. This is what the Torah commanded not be done. Whether the object of the treatment is an ox, or a person of color walking down the street, we can understand the inherent unfairness in the situation.
So, Torah simply announces, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing.”
Shabbat Shalom and Shanah Tovah,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
