God’s Nudge: In Mishpatim, we read the details for the general principles of the Assert Hadibrot / “Ten Utterances”. Rabbi Sacks comments that the first full law code in the Torah begins with the law concerning treatment of a Hebrew servant, and asks, “why this law”? The Israelites have just escaped from centuries of slavery in Egypt; God knew it was going to happen, as it is written in Gen 15:12-13:
As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country that is not their own, and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there.