i
Jacob loves his son, Joseph, more than all the others.
Joseph's brothers know this. So Joseph's brothers cast Joseph down, into a pit.
From this pit, Joseph is sold into slavery in Egypt.
The Egyptians hold the Israelites slaves for hundreds of years.
*
Israel is a people, then, who are cursed by the notion of favorites: of favorite classes—Egyptians over slaves; of favored sons.
ii
This is the Law: a Jew who is a slave to another Jew goes free after six years.
So no Jew truly, permanently, owns another Jew.
No one is lord over anyone else.
*
This
Law is the opening Law of God's description of the society He demands
that Israel become. Which is a society He crafts out of Laws.
It is the Law, then, that undoes the scourge of favorites.
iii
You are children to the Lord your God, Moses says. Every one of you, equal and beloved.
Because God has given the Law to every Jew, this is so.
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