In the last Mishnah, we spoke about how a husband acquires a wife. Here we’ll talk about how a Jewish servant is acquired. A Jew could sell himself into slavery in one of two ways. Either he doesn’t have any money, he’s poor, and he sells himself to somebody. Or the Beit Din, the court, could sell him because he stole something and doesn’t have the ability to repay it. That’s an Eved Ivri (Jewish servant), and there are certain laws that he is bound by. We’ll talk about how he’s acquired by his master and then how he goes free.
The Mishnah says: An Eved Ivri is acquired with money—the master pays for him—or with a shtar, with a document. If the servant was sold by the court, the master gives the money to the court, and they use it to pay back what he stole. If he sold it, if he sold himself, then the master gives the money to the slave, and he gets to keep that money. If the master acquires him through a document, he hands him a document that says, “You are acquired by me,” and then he owns him.
He acquires himself back from the master—that means he goes free—by Shanim, by completing the six years of service. An Eved Ivri is only a slave for six years maximum. He’s sold for six years, and at the end of that six-year term, he automatically goes free. Or by Yovel, at the beginning of the Yovel—the 50th year—after seven Shemitah (sabbatical year) cycles, we have the Yovel. At that point in time, all ancestral lands go back to their original owner, and all slaves go free as well. That’s the second way he would go free. And then thirdly, u-ve-gir'on kesef, by deducting money.
Let’s say the slave was sold for $6,000. That’s $1,000 per year, and he worked three of those years. So now, he worked off $3,000 of the dollars that he was paid. Let’s say he happens to have $3,000. He could pay his master $3,000, the balance of whatever his master evaluated him at and paid for him, and then he would go free by paying for his freedom: $3,000, based on the three years that he has left.
A Jewish girl is also allowed to be sold as a servant. She’s an Amah Ivriyah, a Hebrew maid servant. She’s acquired, as we said, like an Eved Ivri, through money or a document, but there’s one additional way that she would go free. Yeteirah alav ha-amah ha-ivriyah: A Hebrew maid servant has an advantage over the Hebrew male servant, because in addition to going free like the Hebrew servant, she also acquires herself back by developing signs of physical maturity, of puberty. If she was sold as a young girl and then develops those signs, and she’s now a physically mature adult, she would go free even if this falls within those six years of her term.
A servant goes free, like we said, after six years, but if a servant wants to stay with his master, he could. He becomes a nirtza (pierced servant). He would tell his master that he wants to stay. His master would then take his ear by a door or by a doorpost, and he would make a hole in the servant’s ear with a certain pointed tool. A common misconception is that people think it’s the low part of the ear, the hanging part where earrings usually are, but it’s not; it’s the top cartilage of the ear, the top of the ear that a hole is made into.
So we’re talking about that man, the nirtza, who took upon himself more time as a slave and then wants to go free. How does he go free? The nirtza, this person, wants to stay a slave to his master. He’s acquired for more time by making a hole in his ear. And he acquires himself back from the master. At the beginning of the Yovel, once that time hits, the 50th year, he goes free. Or with the death of his master. If his master dies, he doesn’t go into inheritance; rather, he goes free.
A regular Hebrew servant who does not go free if his master dies during a six-year term, if the master has sons, then he would go to them in inheritance, and he would have to finish up his six-year term. But when dealing with the nirtza, if the master dies, he isn’t inherited by the sons; rather, he goes free at that point, with the death of his master.