The Hebrew Servant and Israel's Six Kingdoms of Bondage

"When you acquire a Hebrew servant" (Exodus 21:2). Now it ought not to have been placed next to "And these are the rules," but rather "When men strive" or "When one strikes a man," which are matters of judgment. The expounders of hidden meanings say: because they were commanded at Marah concerning the laws, and He gave them the Ten Commandments, Moses said, "Master of the world, perhaps the evil inclination will lead Your children astray and they will transgress the commandments, and You will exile them from before You and sell them as servants" - therefore He opened with "When you acquire a Hebrew servant." When you provoke them under the kingdoms, let no kingdom subjugate them for more than six kingdoms. "Six years shall he serve" - Babylon, Media, Persia, Greece, Assyria, and Rome. "And in the seventh he shall go free without payment." He said before Him: "Master of the world, let them not be sunk forever in the hand of Rome; rather, by merit deal with them - free of charge - and in the seventh he shall go free without payment." "If he comes in by himself" (literally "with his wing") - Scripture should have said "if he comes in alone, alone he shall go out"; what is "by his wing"? He said: God forbid that, if sins cause it, enemies should come upon them on wings like eagles that fly in the heavens, as it is written, "Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of heaven" (Lamentations 4:19). Master of the world, give them wings of trust, like these, "Who are these that fly like a cloud, and like doves to their cotes" (Isaiah 60:8). ...[text uncertain] Rabbi Elazar ben Arakh was expounding until fire blazed all around him. When Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai saw that the fire blazed all around him, he descended from his donkey and kissed him and said to him, "Rabbi Elazar ben Arakh, happy is she who bore you, happy are you, Abraham our father, that this one came forth from your loins." He used to say: if all the sages of Israel were in one pan of a balance and Rabbi Elazar ben Arakh in the other, he would outweigh them all. Chapter on "When you acquire a Hebrew servant." From where that when you acquire, you may acquire only a Hebrew servant in this manner? Scripture teaches, "When you acquire a Hebrew servant." And from where that when he is sold, he is sold only to you? Scripture teaches, "and he is sold to you" (Leviticus 25:39). And from where that when the court sells him, they sell him only to you? Scripture teaches, "when your Hebrew brother is sold to you" (Deuteronomy 15:12). "When you acquire a Hebrew servant" - you acquire him from himself, but you do not acquire a Hebrew bondwoman from herself. For it would follow by reasoning: if a Hebrew servant, whose father may not sell him, may sell himself, then a Hebrew bondwoman, whom her father may sell, should surely be able to sell herself. Scripture teaches, "When you acquire a Hebrew servant" - a Hebrew servant you acquire from himself, but you do not acquire a Hebrew bondwoman from herself. "Hebrew" (Ivri) - these commandments were stated regarding the Hebrew servant in the merit of Eber. Another interpretation: in the merit of Abraham, who was from across the river (me-ever ha-nahar). Another interpretation: in the merit of Israel, who spoke in the Hebrew tongue, as it says, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us" (Exodus 3:18). "Six years he shall serve" - so too the son. One might think also the heir? Scripture teaches, "and he shall serve you six years" (Deuteronomy 15:12). "And in the seventh he shall go free" - one might think at the beginning of the year or at its end? You may reason: the seventh year releases servants and the Jubilee releases servants; just as we find the Jubilee acts at its beginning and not at its end, so this acts at its beginning and not at its end. "He shall go free without payment" - since it says, "And when you send him free from you" (Deuteronomy 15:13), it teaches that it is a commandment to say to him, "Go out." "Without payment" - one might think there is no severance gift? Scripture teaches, "you shall not send him away empty; you shall surely furnish him" (Deuteronomy 15:13-14). From here they said: a Hebrew servant is acquired by money and by document, and acquires his freedom in five ways: by years, by Jubilee, by deduction of money, by a document of release, and by the death of the master without a son.