[Avodah] Slavery

[T613K at aol.com]

RZS writes:
>> The fact that we regard slavery as unthinkable
doesn't  mean we're morally superior, it means that we have been so
infected with  goyishe values that they have become part of us; that's
nothing to be proud  of.<<




>>>>>
AFAIK the Torah does not have different words for "slave" and "servant"  -- 
the word eved is used for both.  I'm not sure the demarcation is so  clear-cut. 
 An eved ivri who works for six years for example, or a girl  "sold" into 
"slavery" by her father -- who must be married by her employer or  freed when she 
reaches puberty -- these seem to be more like indentured servants  than 
slaves.  The employer has so many responsibilities towards his slave,  and owns him 
for such a limited time.   What he seems to own is not  the eved but the 
right to the eved's labor.  I put "sold" and "slavery" in  quotes because what the 
father has really done -- and it would be a deeply  impoverished father who 
would do this -- is put his daughter in a situation  where she is housed, 
clothed, fed and perhaps trained for useful employment, and  in exchange for the 
work the girl will do, her father has received  payment, which he obviously 
desperately needs.   



--Toby  Katz
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