[Avodah] Being an Eved to an Eved

[Zev Sero]

On 14/02/2012 4:05 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 01:12:47AM +0000, kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
> : My question is this: In the case where he voluntarily chose to sell
> : himself, why is the ear-piercing prescribed only at the end of the siz
> : years, and even then only when he prefers to stay on longer? Shouldn't
> : Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai's logic apply at the very beginning as well?
>
> Until then, he didn't sell himself, he only rented himself out.
>
> Just thinking out loud.


And now he's also renting himself out, but for a longer period, until
the yovel.

However, note that lechatchila one may not sign even an employment
contract for more than 3 years, because it's most of the term of a
6-year avdus and transgresses "ki li benei yisrael avadim".

-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon