The Mekhilta examines how the Torah's laws governing Hebrew servants apply equally to men and women. The verse states "the Hebrew man or the Hebrew woman" (Deuteronomy 15:12), and the rabbis use this pairing to establish a principle of legal equivalence: the first term is likened to the second.
The specific issue at stake involves the conditions under which a Hebrew servant goes free. One pathway to early freedom is the mutilation of "organ prominences," meaning if the master damages a visible body part like a tooth or an eye, the servant is immediately released. The Torah explicitly states this rule for a Canaanite servant in (Exodus 21:26-27), but what about a Hebrew maidservant? And what about a Hebrew manservant?
The Mekhilta reasons as follows. The Torah's pairing of "the Hebrew man or the Hebrew woman" creates a legal analogy. Just as the Hebrew maidservant does not go free through mutilation of organ prominences, meaning her release follows different rules tied to her age and her master's obligations, the same applies to the Hebrew manservant. Neither the male nor the female Hebrew servant uses the bodily-injury pathway to freedom that applies to Canaanite servants.
This distinction is legally significant. It means Hebrew servitude operates under fundamentally different rules than other forms of servitude. A Hebrew servant's term is limited by time, specifically six years or until the Jubilee, and the master-servant relationship carries obligations of dignified treatment. The Torah created separate legal tracks for Hebrew and non-Hebrew servants, and the Mekhilta here traces how the rabbis deduced the male servant's rules from those already established for the female.