Bringing Him to the Door and the Piercing of the Ear

"And his master shall bring him to the judges [Elohim]" (Exodus 21:6): to the court, that he may take counsel with those who sold him. Rabbi says: Scripture speaks of one sold by the court for his theft; but in this case [one who sold himself] he is pierced only by himself, between him and his own self. "And shall bring him to the door": he compared the door to the doorpost [mezuzah], teaching that as the doorpost is set upright, so the door must be upright. Do you say it came for this, or rather that he may pierce him at the doorpost? And logic would suggest so: if the door, which is not fit for the commandment [of the mezuzah scroll], is fit for piercing, then the doorpost, which is fit for the commandment, surely should be fit for piercing? Scripture therefore teaches, "and you shall put it into his ear and into the door" (Deuteronomy 15:17): into the door you put it, and you do not put it into the doorpost. "And his master shall pierce": why is this said? Because we find everywhere that a man's agent is like himself; but here, he and not his agent. "His ear": Scripture speaks of the right ear. Or is it only the left? You derive it by analogy: "ear" is said here and "ear" is said there regarding the leper (Leviticus 14:14); as there it is the right, so here it is the right. "His ear": from the soft lobe, the words of Rabbi Yehudah. Rabbi Meir says: even from the cartilage. For Rabbi Meir used to say, a priest is not pierced, but they say he is pierced; a priest is not sold, but they say he is sold. And why did the ear, of all his limbs, deserve to be pierced? Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai says: the limb that heard "You shall not steal" and went and stole, let it be pierced from among all his limbs. "With an awl": the Torah said with an awl, but the law said with anything.