Or HaChaim on Exodus 21:4/אור החיים על שמות כ״א:ד׳

1 אם אדוניו יתן לו אשה, If his master gave him a wife, etc. Why did the Torah switch to indirect speech when it had commenced the paragraph with direct speech i.e. "when you buy a Jewish slave, etc.?" The balance of the whole paragraph is in the third person. At the very least the Torah should have concluded the paragraph in the manner it began, by addressing the people concerned directly. Perhaps the reason is that we have a tradition that marriages are made in Heaven, i.e. that G'd personally involves Himself to match the right man to the woman appropriate for him (compare Bereshit Rabbah 68). At first glance one is tempted to interpret the words אם אדוניו as a reference to his true Master, i.e. G'd. The Torah would then tell us that if G'd to whom we are all servants assigns a wife to this man then both she and her children belong to her Master, i.e. G'd. This interpretation is untenable, however; this is why the Torah adds that the wife and her children belong to her master (terrestrial master) whereas the husband (the slave) leaves without them. We also need to know why the Torah repeats the words אמור יאמר העבד in verse five.

2The true meaning of these verses is that G'd commands something which at first glance sounds irrational, i.e. that if the slave entered the employ of his master while single, he must remain so during the years of his service. His master cannot assign a female slave to him under circumstances other than those listed in Kiddushin 20. The average reader will question the meaning of this legislation asking what difference does it make if the slave had been married or not, seeeing the Torah permits his living together with a Gentile slave anyway? The Torah answers this question by writing: "if his master will give him a wife" (clearly a Gentile woman as one can see from the context) both she and her children will remain with the master, whereas the slave himself will leave as single as he entered the service of this master. This section of the verse speaks about a master who would (illegally) provide a single slave with a Gentile slave-woman as his partner. When such a situation arises it is natural that the slave will not want to leave the employ of his master ever, (after the six years have expired) for one of two reasons: 1) He loves his wife and children; 2) he will once again find himself unattached when leaving the employ of his master. In other words, leaving his master's employ will result in the slave suffering two blows of fate. In view of such considerations, nearly every slave will want to remain in the service of his master forever. The Torah wanted to head off such a situation. This is why the Torah forbade the master to assign a slave-woman to a slave who had entered his service as a single man. If the slave already had a Jewish wife, a free woman, he will find it much easier to abandon the woman assigned to him by his master while he was in such forced service. The conditional אם in verse four is merely a prelude to the word ואם in verse five in which the Torah describes the natural consequence of what would happen after the situation introduced by the first אם had become a reality.

3The reason for the repeated אמר יאמר is that if the slave adds another dimension of service to his service over and above the fact that G'd has made him His servant and he expresses his wish to also remain a slave to his terrestrial master, etc. then the Torah commands that such a person needs to have his ear pierced, etc. There is another dimension to this whole paragraph, a moral/ethical one. The Torah commands man to constantly have before his mental eye the implications of this wole legislation (even if he never contemplates buying a slave, etc.). The words כי תקנה עבד עברי introduce a reminder that a human being is composed of two major components, his soul i.e. his spiritual self, and his body. The spiritual part is his major component, the body having been provided only so that the spiritual part can fulfil the commandments that he is obligated to fulfil as a servant of his Master (G'd). G'd calls the body עבד, whereas He calls man's soul אדם. Baba Metzia 114, quoting Ezekiel 34,31, explains that only the Jewish people are called אדם, as only they have this kind of soul. This is why the Torah commands us that כי תקנה עבד עברי, meaning if you acquire עברי עובר, someone whose stay on earth is temporary seeing every human being is bound to die (Psalms 144,4), he shall be with you שש שנים. The Talmud Moed Katan 28 basing itself on Job 5,26, considers that man is entitled to expect to live 60 years. It says in Job: תבא בכלח אלי קבר, "you will come to the grave in a ripe old age." The numerical value of the word "in a ripe old age," בכלח =60. While it is true that the Torah here speaks about six years, not sixty, this may be understood as correponding to what is known as מספר קטן, i.e. ignoring the digit zero. The six years are in reality sixty years then. The same applies to when the Torah speaks about said עברי עובר going free in the seventh year. The seventh decade is considered the period during which man exits this life. The word חפשי is an allusion to death, man becoming truly free only in death as we know from Psalms 88,6, במתים חפשי, "freedom is found amongst the dead." The word חנם suggests that this freedom is actually attained via the the angel of death, through Samael. The Zohar second volume page 128 phrases it thus: "during life on earth the forces of Samael feed man with worthless things." [חנם, "for free," in the sense of "without value" Ed.] Leaving this earth then is an escape from false values. The only thing that Samael has no control over are the commandments a Jew performs at great expense to himself. This is not something חנם, without value. The message is that anything which comes for free is intrinsically something impure, rooted in the סטרא אחרא. The opposite is true of דבר שבקדושה; it possesses real value.

4When the Torah continues with אם בגפו יבא, we must examine this expression more closely. Why did the Torah choose this expression instead of the word לבדו normally used to describe someone as being alone, such as when the Torah describes Jacob as remaining alone (Genesis 32,25)?

5We have to remember that if a person was successful in acquiring merits for himself through having performed G'd's commandments and having performed deeds of loving kindness while on earth, such a person has acquired the strength to rise from his grave when the day of resurrection arrives. Psalms 72,16 describes such a period as "men sprouting up in towns like country grass." Ketuvot 111 understands Solomon (the author of this Psalm) as speaking of the time of resurrection. When the Torah speaks of the slave leaving בגפו, the meaning of the word גף is similar to Proverbs 9,3 where the word describes "on the wings of high places." Man's good deeds lift him up to the spiritually high places. Shabbat 49 compares Israel to the dove, i.e. it is like a winged bird thanks to its good deeds. When the Torah writes יבא, the meaning is the same as Onkelos's translation of Genesis 28,11, that "the sun had set." The words בגפו יצא on the other hand, refer to the wing in question being able to rise once again from earth at the time of the resurrection. The reverse will be true of people who have not made the effort to accumulate the required merits during their time on earth. Ketuvot 111 spells this out in connection with Proverbs 3,18 "that Torah is the tree of life for those who uphold and grasp her." The non-observant will not take part in the resurrection of the bodies.

6The Torah goes on to write אם בעל אשה הוא ויצאה אשתו עמו. The Torah alludes to a profound mystical element here. There are people who acquire their soul by dint of their good deeds so that such a person (personality) is transformed into the "owner" of its holy soul. In order to understand this concept one has to refer to the Zohar volume three page 91 on Leviticus 22,27 where the Torah discusses that when an ox or sheep is born it is to remain with its mother for seven days before it could be offered on the altar as a sacrifice. According to the Zohar animals acquire their intelligence at the moment of birth. [This is why the Torah refers to the ox as "ox" already at birth not as calf, for instance. The animal does not develop its personality, though it may develop its body. Ed.] Animals are different from human beings in this respect. Human beings acquire their souls only in ratio to the good deeds they have performed. The greater the number of good deeds performed by man the higher quality is his soul (or after having been alive at least for one Sabbath). The soul which such a מצוה -observant Jew acquires is called אשה in our context. Kabbalists such as the author of Tikkunyey Hazohar chapter 50 describe the soul as אשה. The Torah tells us here that if a person has acquired his "wife" i.e. soul, by reason of the performance of good deeds, his wife will remain with him also after death. Shabbat 152 tells an interesting story in this regard. There were certain grave-diggers who dug up the earth belonging to Rabbi Nachman. In the process they happened to disturb the grave of Rabbi Achai bar Yoshia. The latter protested that the diggers were disturbing his rest. The grave-diggers told Rabbi Nachman that they had been rebuked by a man. Rabbi Nachman went to investigate and asked the person in question who he was. He identified himself as Achai bar Yoshia. Thereupon Rabbi Nachman asked Rabbi Achai: "did not Rabbi Mori say that the truly righteous will turn to dust" [as opposed to decaying and becoming worm ridden Ed.], (so how come your body is intact)? Achai retorted: "Who is this Mori whom I have never heard of (that I should be concerned with his pronouncements)?" Thereupon Rabbi Nachman quoted a verse from Kohelet (inaccurately quoted and applied) according to which a body will return to the earth in the condition it had come from it. Rabbi Achai responded that whereas Rabbi Nachman appeared to be familiar with the verse composed by Solomon in Kohelet, he was apparently unfamiliar with a verse by the same Solomon in Proverbs 14,30 according to which "envy is like rottenness of the bones." The meaning of that verse is that people who harboured envy or jealousy in their hearts will experience that their bones decay and rot; those who did not harbour such feelings during their lives on earth will be spared this experience. Thereupon Rabbi Nachman touched Rabbi Achai and found that his body was indeed real. He suggested that Rabbi Achai get out of his grave and go home. Thereupon Rabbi Achai told Rabbi Nachman that he had just revealed that he had not even studied the Book of Prophets properly. We read in Ezekiel 37,13: "you will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, O My people." Rabbi Nachman countered that it is written in Genesis 3,19: "dust you are and to dust you will return!" Upon hearing this Rabbi Achai explained that the verse in Genesis was meant to apply only one hour before the arrival of the final resurrection. At that time all the dead would return to dust. The gist of the story is that the righteous are called alive even when they are in their graves (Berachot 18).

7Another lesson to be derived from the words אם בעל אשה הוא is that the only person who qualifies for the title בעל אשה is the one who makes sure that while on earth all his activities are performed for the spiritual advancement of his soul. Solomon alluded to this in Proverbs 13,25 where he described the eating of a צדיק as "the righteous man eats in order to satisfy his soul;" a person who strives to elevate his spiritual nature in such a way may truly be called a בעל אשה. After all, it is the duty of a husband to look after all the needs of his wife. If the soul is man's wife, it behooves the husband to look after its needs. When he has done so in the best manner he is capable of he can rest assured that the "wife" does not even abandon him in death.

8The Torah goes on in verse four: אם אדוניו יתן לו אשה, this means that if the בעל אשה mentioned previously did not acquire his pure soul by means of performing good deeds but was fortunate to have been born with such a soul as a gift from G'd Himself, and such a wife had born children for him then both the wife and the children belong to his Master, i.e. to G'd. The Torah revealed here that some people are indeed fortunate to be born with a a righteous soul; this may be due to the fact that the father of such an individual lived a righteous life and "bequeathed" such an inheritance to his offspring. When the Torah speaks of the "children" of such people this is a reference to Bereshit Rabbah 30 which describes the principal offspring of the righteous as their meritorious deeds. Since we have a tradition that each good deed performed creates a good angel known as an advocate (Avot 4,13), such a good deed is a descendant of the צדיק. The Torah describes these "children" as being born "for him," i.e. the husband. The reason that the Torah distinguishes between בנים או בנות, sons or daughters is that the good deeds which required a great deal of effort are described as בנים, whereas good deeds which did not require a battle with the evil urge before one performed them are described as בנות, daughters.

9The Torah says that the good deeds performed by such a person who had been endowed with all the advantages by G'd already at the time of birth, does not retain the "wife and her children." Rather, האשה וילדיה תהיה לאדוניה, the "wife and her children will belong to her Master (G'd) as distinct from the good deeds of the person who was not bequeathed a pure soul by his father, the צדיק. This son of the righteous father did not refine his body by means of his good deeds so that his soul will not depart from him after his death. As a result, his soul returns to G'd when his body dies. והוא יצא נגפו, whereas he leaves (dies) alone. Although such a person had been separated from "his wife and children" while in the grave, when the time comes for him to be resurrected, i.e. to leave his grave, he will find that those merits he had acquired during his lifetime on earth will once again stand him in good stead, i.e. he will recapture the status he enjoyed while he lived on earth. He will not forfeit resurrection because he had not been born without a pure soul.

10 ואם אמור יאמר העד, But if the slave keeps on saying, etc. The Torah here describes the eagerness of the Jew (slave) to serve his Master (G'd) even after his physical powers have diminished (after he has turned 60 as we mentioned earlier). This is why the Torah describes him as saying: "I love my Master, my wife and my children." The latter are his soul and the good deeds the "slave" has performed in this world. He does not wish to leave this world as it enables him to accumulate further merits. Seeing that death makes him חפשי, free, i.e. unable to accumulate more merits, he shuns death. The Torah promises this type of individual that he will indeed be called עבד השם, a true servant of the Lord. G'd will eventually fulfil his desire but not at this stage. ועבדו לעולם, he will be allowed to serve G'd in the Hereafter. When G'd will make a selection amongst the angels who will minister to Him, such individuals will be high on His list of priorities. We find that Moses was an example of such a person since he did not want to die prior to living in the Holy Land and performing there commandments which one cannot perform outside ארץ ישראל (compare Deut. 34,5 and Sotah 14). When the Torah speaks about this slave having his ear pierced with an awl, you will find that the word מרצע, awl, has a numerical value of 400. This is symbolic of the 400 worlds of aspirations mentioned in the Zohar volume 1 page 123. The words ועבדו לעולם may be perceived as the Torah considering such a slave as if he had served G'd for all the years the universe exists, as if he had been alive during all this time. The word לעולם has additional mystical connotations familiar to students of the Kabbalah.