At the end of last week's parsha, we are told "You shall not ascend my altar by steps, lest you reveal your nakedness upon it." This demand generated a necessity to build a ramp upon which to ascend to the altar so that one's body not be exposed through climbing up via taking steps.Rashi mentions the comment of the rabbis that if the Torah was so careful about the dignity of inanimate stones, assuring that they should not be exposed to the nakedness of the people ascending them, how much more so is it important to guard the dignity of our fellow human being, who is made in the image of God.This verse,then, serves as the Biblical source for the requirement of 'kivod habriyos,' treating people with respect, because they are a reflection of the divine image which they bear.Rabbi Moshe Sofer, known as the Chasam Sofer, has pointed out that this week's parsha, Mishpatim, which begins with a presentation of the civil laws and judgments to be followed by the Jewish nation, immediately follows the prohibition of ascending the altar on steps, to bring out the point that these laws are grounded in a respect for human dignity and an appreciation of the fact that our fellow man is created in the image of God. Even if we need to adjudicate a case against someone, we must continue to treat him with the respect due him as a creation of God. With the comments of the Chasam Sofer in mind, we can understand why the first law included in the corpus of mishpatim, civil laws, is the treatment of the slave. Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra points out that the slave is the lowliest person in society, and therefore we must have before our eyes, as we begin to deal with civil law, the importance of maintaining the human dignity of even the lowest person on the social scale. We are all created in God's image, and must treat others accordingly, no matter what one's station in life is. This principle, lying behind the laws of the Hebrew slave, serves as a reference point for all the laws to follow.They all call upon us to respect the rights and dignity of our fellow man, as the Chasam Sofer explained.

Beyond the message to society, that it must accord the proper respect to all its members, the law of the Hebrew slave is a message to the slave himself. Not only must others not compromise his dignity, but he must not compromise his own value.The rabbis say that the Torah is speaking here of a Hebrew slave who attained that status because he stole and was not able to repay the theft, and, therefore, was sold as a slave by the Jewish court, the beis din. The other way of becoming a Hebrew slave is to sell oneself due to his impoverished state.In both situations, the person sold is apt to view himself in a very negative way, and, as a result, begin to neglect his duties to God. The abject state he is in may lead him to forget the divine image inherent within him.To counteract this tendency, Jewish law mandates that the slave's master treat him with the utmost respect.This requirement is encapsulated in the statement of the rabbis that whoever purchases a Hebrew slave is as if he purchased a master over himself.The Torah forbids the master from imposing undignified work upon the slave, and enjoins him to provide for all his needs in an optimum way, to the extent that if the master has only one pillow or blanket, he must give it to the slave. Besides the obvious need to assure that the master recognize and acknowledge the dignity of the slave, the slave himself needs to be reminded of his self-worth. Continued treatment in this fashion over a period of six years should serve to bolster the slave's self-image and prepare him to reenter society as a responsible, self-supporting individual. If the slave decides to remain with his master after the sixth year, the Torah allows him to do so, but he must undergo an operation in which his ear is pierced, to indicate his voluntary continued slave-status. It would seem that part of the message in this operation is to indicate that the slave would rather listen to someone else's orders than take charge of his own life. Even such a slave goes free at the time of the Yovel, the end of the fifty year cycle.Ultimately,he must come to the realization that it is up to him to actualize his inner self, the image of God within him, and that he cannot forever cast his destiny onto someone else's shoulders.

The haftarah usually read for parshas Mishpatim is taken from the book of Yirmiyahu, and deals with the requirement to free one's slaves upon the Yovel. The rabbis tell us that while the Jews were still in Egypt, God told Moshe to teach this commandment to the nation.What was the purpose of telling this to people who themselves were serving as slaves, and certainly did not have any slaves of their own at the time? Rabbi Meir Juzint of Chicago once explained to me that before the Jews could leave Egypt and assume the status of a free people, they had to be weaned away from the low self-image they had developed as slaves. In fact, Rav Kook, in his commentary to the Pesach Haggadah, explains the phrase 'and they acted badly towards us' to mean, that the Egyptians made the Jews themselves think that they were bad. Moshe had to convince the people that they had it within themselves to divest themselves of their slave status, and, therefore, he informed them that they were commanded by God to free their slaves. If they were commanded to free others, they must have the ability to free themselves. To become the nation of God, they had to realize that, ultimately, no human being could define their existence.Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi wrote in his celebrated poem that a servant of time is a servant of servants, and that only a servant of God is free. Someone who is under the jurisdiction of another human being, whose time is not his own, finds it very difficult to actualize his potential.Freedom,according to Rav Kook, is one's ability to actualize his inner self. The laws of the Torah, as commanded by our Creator, give us the blueprint to be truly free. The parsha of Mishpatim, according to Ramban, is an explanation of the Ten Commandments, more properly known as the decalogue, addressed to the nation at Mt.Sinai. The decalogue begins with and is grounded in the statement, "I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt." The freedom attained through the Exodus consists in the ability to realize the divine image within us by adhering to the commandments given at Sinai.Parshas Mishpatim, the explanation and development of those commandments, therefore, begins with a charge to maintain the human dignity of all segments of society, a dignity which is grounded in that divine image.