Whom the Hebrew Servant Serves and Who Goes Free With Him

Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 311:3

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

It was taught: The "year" stated regarding sacrifices, the "year" stated regarding houses in walled cities, the "two years" of an ancestral field, the "six years" of the Hebrew servant and of a son and of a daughter [for valuation purposes] - all are reckoned from time to time [full calendar years, not from the new year]. Each is derived from its own verse, as set out [with the relevant proof-texts cited]. A Hebrew servant serves the son [of his deceased master], as it is written, "six years he shall serve." But he does not serve the brother, as it is said, "and he shall serve you six years" (Deuteronomy 15:12) - you, and not the brother. And why include the son and exclude the brother? I include the son, since he stands in his father's place regarding [the law of] designation [of a maidservant in marriage] and the ancestral field. On the contrary, I would include the brother, since he stands in his brother's place regarding levirate marriage. But there is levirate marriage only where there is no son, and so on. A Hebrew maidservant serves neither the son nor the brother, as it is written, "so too you shall do to your maidservant" (Deuteronomy 15:17) - Scripture compares her to the one whose ear is pierced; just as the pierced servant serves neither son nor brother, as it is written, "and his master shall pierce his ear, and he shall serve him forever" (Exodus 21:6) - him, and not the son or the brother. Rabbi Shimon says: "and he shall go out from you, he and his children" (Leviticus 25:41) - if he is sold, are his children sold? From here we learn that his master is obligated to feed his children. Likewise you say: "and his wife shall go out with him" - if he is sold, is his wife sold? From here we learn that his master is obligated to feed his wife. "If he comes in by himself [b'gappo]" (Exodus 21:3) - why is it said? Because it says, "If his master gives him a wife" (Exodus 21:4), this is permission, not obligation - the words of Rabbi Ishmael. Rabbi Akiva says: "If he comes in by himself" - if he entered whole [in his limbs], he goes out whole. As Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says: he entered alone, he goes out alone. Rava said: "by himself he goes out" means he does not go out by the loss of a limb-tip as a [Canaanite] slave does. Abaye said to him: that is derived from "she shall not go out as the slaves go out" (Exodus 21:7). If from there, I would have said we give him the value of his eye and he goes out; the verse therefore teaches us [otherwise]. And "he goes out alone" means: if he has no wife and children, his master does not assign him a Canaanite maidservant.

Themes

LawFamilyMarriage

Continue Reading

Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben YochaiDesignation, Redemption, and a Master Who Broke FaithThe verse imagines a master who took a Hebrew maidservant intending to marry her but who has not yet done so. The Torah calls his failure by a sharp word: he haMekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben YochaiIf He Designates Her for His Son He Treats Her as a DaughterA master may keep a maidservant for himself or pass the chance of marriage to his son. The Torah says he may designate her for his son and the sages immediatelyMekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben YochaiThe Seducer of a Maiden and the Bride-Price He Must Weigh OutThe law of the seducer opens with a hard observation about how desire moves in the world. Rabbi Eliezer would sigh when he reached this verse. It is the way of Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben YochaiThe Father Who May Refuse and the Fifty Shekels of the MaidenAfter the seducer's obligation comes the family's power to say no. The verse "if her father utterly refuses" hands the father real authority over whether the maYalkut Shimoni on TorahThe Three Ways a Woman Is Betrothed in Jewish LawOut of a single verse describing a married woman, the sages built the whole law of how a marriage begins. The Mishnah teaches that a woman enters betrothal in tYalkut Shimoni on TorahWhether a Woman Under the Canopy Yet Unconsummated Is a WifeSometimes the whole weight of a ruling rests on three words. Rabbi Chanina takes the biblical phrase that describes a wife as one "possessed by a husband" and d