[Avodah] Torah and Slavery

[Michael Kopinsky]

> R' Akiva Miller wrote:
> > What I *don't* understand is RMB's comment that:
> >  > When the economy requires slavery to prevent failure, poverty, and
> >  > even worse ills, then Hashem says "this is how to do it".
> >
> > I don't get it. Could you describe to me which sort of economy
> > *requires* slavery? Which sort of economy *requires* kinyan haguf? In
> > which sort of economy is a sweatshop too expensive?
> >
> > Pay them however little you want. Deduct rent and meals and whatever
> > else from their salary, leaving only a few pennies left for their net
> > pay. Do whatever else you want, and whatever else the Torah requires
> > of a baal/eved. But stop short of actually owning them.

Why is kinyan haguf necessarily lacking in dignity?  The technical
halachic mechanisms behind slavery, if they don't reflect themselves in
actual treatment, are irrelevant to the average slave.  The fact that a
husband "owns" his wife does not make marriage inherently immoral.
(While feminists may be offended by halacha's considering marriage an
ownership, that is only because they misunderstand the significance and
meaning of "kinyan haguf".)

Interesting halacha I saw last night: (SA CM 267:33?)
If a person agrees to work for X number hours, and his employer rips him
off (ie by under/overpayment, not withholding wages), there is no din of
Ona'ah, because he has sold himself l'zman, and Ein Ona'ah l'avadim.  This
means that a Jew, by agreeing to work for a specified number of hours, has
assumed the din of an eved k'naani (as far as mamonus goes - he obviously
can't marry a shifcha just b/c of the job).  Is this immoral or lacking in
dignity?