Behar: The Prohibition to Free a Canaanite Slave
The Torah permits slavery. Many (including myself) hold that Judaism is philosophically anti-slavery. If so, why are we prohibited to free an eved Canaani? Let me know what you think of my answer.
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Behar: The Prohibition to Free a Canaanite Slave
Parashas Behar raises a controversial topic: eved Canaani (the non-Jewish slave). My position accords with the view set forth by a number of recent authorities (Rav Hirsch, Rav Kook, R’ Nachum Rabinovitch, R’ Hayyim Angel, and others) which was summed up by R’ Jonathan Sacks (Covenant and Conversation: Behar 5779) as follows:
In miracles, God changes nature but never human nature. Were He to do so, the entire project of the Torah — the free worship [by] free human beings — would have been rendered null and void … God wanted mankind to abolish slavery but by their own choice, and that takes time. Ancient economies were dependent on slavery … Slavery as such was not abolished in Britain and America until the nineteenth century, and in America not without a civil war. The challenge to which Torah legislation was an answer is: how can one create a social structure in which, of their own accord, people will eventually come to see slavery as wrong and freely choose to abandon it?
I find this approach to be persuasive on the whole, but to my mind, there is one major problem: the mitzvas aseh (positive commandment) to keep an eved Canaani enslaved forever. The Torah says:
Your slave or your maidservant whom you may own, from the gentiles who surround you, from them you may purchase a slave or a maidservant … and they shall remain yours as an ancestral heritage. You shall hold them as a heritage for your children after you to inherit as a possession, you shall work them forever. (Vayikra 25:44-46)
The Sefer ha’Chinuch (#347) states that the substance of this mitzvah is “to uphold slavery of an eved Canaani forever – in other words, we should never liberate him” and “whoever sets his slave free transgresses a mitzvas aseh” (Gittin 38b). This only applies to an eved Canaani who has rejected avodah zarah (idolatry) and undergone milah (circumcision) and tevilah (ritual immersion). An eved Canaani who clings to his avodah zarah must be sold after a year. The Sefer ha’Chinuch explains that the reason for this mitzvah stems from Israel’s national mission:
[Since the Jewish people] were created to recognize their Creator and to serve before Him, [therefore,] they are worthy to have slaves to serve them, and if they had no slaves from the [gentile] nations, it would be necessary for them to enslave their brethren, who would then be unable to strive [in their own] service of [God], blessed is He. Therefore, we were commanded to maintain possession of these [non-Jewish slaves] for our own service.
Here’s the problem: If the Torah is, at its core, anti-slavery – as the aforementioned rabbis claim – why is it prohibited to free an eved Canaani? Not only should this be permitted; it should be lauded and encouraged!
A possible answer lies in the sole exception to this rule: we are permitted to free an eved Canaani to facilitate the observance of a mitzvah. And not just a Torah mitzvah, but even a Rabbinic mitzvah which benefits the community. For example, if there are only nine Jews who are trying to make a minyan, it is permissible to free an eved Canaani, thereby making him into a full Jew to complete the minyan. The Sefer ha’Chinuch elaborates:
Do not object by raising a difficulty, saying: “How can we push aside this positive Torah mitzvah for the sake of a Rabbinic mitzvah?” The answer is: because the foundational [reason] of this mitzvah is only to increase His service (blessed is He), and by setting [the eved Canaani] free now, a mitzvah will be done. Moreover, [the slave’s manumission] will increase the number of mitzvos in which he was obligated prior to being freed. For both reasons, Chazal said that it is permissible to free him, for such is [the law] they received [in the Oral Tradition].
This exception proves the philosophy behind the rule: the fact that we are only permitted to free an eved Canaani to increase avodas Hashem (the service of God) shows that the institution of slavery, as a whole, only exists for avodas Hashem. We may only own a slave for the sake of avodas Hashem and we may only free a slave for the sake of avodas Hashem. Slavery, as an ideal, is not endorsed by Torah. Avodas Hashem is. It is to that ideal which the Torah pushes humanity to aspire, so that one day, “they may all call in the Name of Hashem to serve Him together as one” (Zephaniah 3:9).
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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."