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Dan Klein's avatar

If it is prohibited to free an eved Canaani, then why does Rambam give explicit instructions as to how to go about doing so? For instance, "How does a {Canaanite] slave achieve his freedom through the transfer of a legal document? The master must write to him on a paper or on a shard: 'Behold, you are a free man,' 'Behold, you are your own property,' 'I no longer have anything to do with you,' or other statements that share this theme. For this is the primary content of a bill of release. Afterwards, he gives him the document in the presence of two witnesses. Similarly, if witnesses have signed on the bill of release and he gives the slave the bill of release in private, he attains his freedom" (Avadim 5:3). Nowhere in Avadim ch. 5 is there any caution given that such a procedure, though enforceable, is forbidden. Nor does Rambam say that the procedure may be carried out only "to facilitate the observance of a mitzvah."

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