The Mekhilta addresses the legal status of a Hebrew maid-servant in relation to the laws of bodily injury. The general rule in Torah law is that a servant who loses an "organ prominence" (a tooth, an eye, or similar visible body part) at the hands of his master goes free as compensation. But does this rule apply equally to a Hebrew maid-servant?
The answer is no, and the reasoning reveals an important legal distinction. A Hebrew maid-servant is not sold by the court for theft. Unlike a male Hebrew servant, who may be sold by the beth din when he cannot repay what he stole, a female servant is sold only by her father, and only under the specific conditions the Torah permits. Because she enters servitude through a different legal mechanism, the laws governing her exit from servitude also differ.
The maid-servant who suffers mutilation of an organ prominence does not go free through that injury. Her path to freedom follows different rules: she goes free when her term expires, when she reaches puberty, when she is redeemed, or when the Jubilee year arrives.
The Mekhilta then turns to a separate question embedded in the same passage. The verse states: "If she be evil in the eyes of her master" (Exodus 21:8). What does "evil" mean here? The word might suggest moral wickedness or bad behavior. But the Mekhilta interprets it differently. "Evil" here simply means she did not find favor in his eyes. She displeased him, not through any fault of her own, but because she did not appeal to him as a potential wife. The master who purchased her with the expectation of marriage found that he did not want to marry her after all. Her "evil" is nothing more than his disappointment.