The Torah describes a Hebrew bondsman who declares: "I love my master, my wife, and my children — I will not go free" (Exodus 21:5). This bondsman chooses to stay, and his ear is pierced as a mark of his continued service. But the Mekhilta investigates the precise conditions under which this ear-boring can take place.
The verse mentions three conditions: the bondsman has a wife and children, and his master also has certain characteristics. From this, the rabbis derived that the ear-boring ceremony occurs only when both the bondsman and the master have a wife and children. If the bondsman has a family but the master does not, the ceremony does not take place.
The source for this additional requirement is (Deuteronomy 15:16): "And it shall be, if he say to you, 'I will not go out from you,' because he loves you and your house, for it is good for him with you." The phrase "your house" implies that the master must also have a household — a family of his own.
The symmetry is striking. The bondsman's declaration of love encompasses his master, his wife, and his children. But the commitment to continued service is only valid when it reflects a genuinely good situation — one where both households are complete. A bondsman cannot choose permanent servitude out of desperation or lack of alternatives. The ear-boring marks a positive choice, and Jewish law ensured the conditions for that choice were genuinely positive on both sides.