Different Strokes for Different Slaves

This Dvar Torah is taken from my father’s writings.

If you buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve and in the seventh year he shall go out into freedom for nothing.                          Exodus 21:2

          There are different criteria for emancipating slaves: a male Hebrew slave is set free after serving six years, a Jewish maidservant achieves her freedom at puberty, and a Hebrew servant who chose to stay enslaved after six years is set free with the onset of the Jubilee year, while a Canaanite servant achieves freedom if his master destroys his limb. Each of these criteria conveys a symbolic message concerning appreciation of freedom.

          The seventh year parallels Shabbat, the seventh day: Shabbat sanctifies time, and through that sanctification, man too is sanctified and achieves freedom. Indeed, the seventh is to God sanctified in days, years (shemitta) and in shmitot Yovel, the Jubilee year, in which land reverts to its original owner and all Hebrew slaves are freed, [Kli Yakar Exodus 20:8] teaching that the source of all sanctity, whether of time place or man, is the sanctity of God Himself.

          Reaching puberty symbolizes that through achieving maturity one should come to appreciate the value of freedom.

          There are those who must wait until the Jubilee year, when freedom is declared throughout the Land and for all, to appreciate their personal freedom.

          Others can appreciate freedom only when it costs them a limb.