[Avodah] For he is his property

[Akiva Miller]

(Introductory notes: Does the Torah allow a baal to physically discipline
his eved canaani? Does the Torah allow a baal to physically discipline his
eved ivri? If the answer to both is "yes", does this permission extend to
the same extent for both cases? I am not very familiar with these halachos,
and the answers to those questions will help me to understand the following
problem.)

We often try to avoid translating "eved" as "slave". We often prefer terms
like "servant" or "long-term employee", because "slave" tends to objectify
a person, it removes his humanity. We point out the many obligations that
the baal has towards his eved, and how the Torah stresses the care that the
baal must put into this relationship.

So I am surprised and confused by Shemos 21:20-21. (It's the first two
pesukim in the second aliyah of Mishpatim.) Isaac Levy's translation of RSR
Hirsch's translation is:

< And if a man smite his servant or his maid for discipline and he die
under his hand, he shall be avenged. Nevertheless if he remains up for one
or two days he shall not be avenged; for he is his property. >

I understand from various meforshim that these pesukim are talking
specifically about an eved canaani, and the situation is such that the baal
assaulted his eved specifically for purposes of discipline. In such cases,
the pesukim teach us that if the eved dies more than 24 hours after the
assault, then the baal is not held liable, "kee kaspo hoo" - for he is his
property.

I am very bothered by the final words here. "For he is his property." To
me, it is unconscionable that a Ben Adam could be the property of another
Ben Adam. But we have discussed here before that "property" does not mean
the same thing in Torah as in the rest of the world. In Torah, "property"
or "kinyan" does not mean that I have total control and can do as I wish,
but it means that a particular set of rules do govern the relationship.
This applies both when I make a kinyan on a piece  of wood in the hardware
store (for I now have a responsibility to avoid needlessly destroying it)
and when I make a kinyan on my wife under the chuppa (where I get a whole
bunch of responsibilities towards her).

So I am not really bothered by the Torah saying that the eved canaani is
"property". Rather, I am bothered by the ramifications of that relationship
in this specific case, namely, that the baal is authorized to physically
discipline his eved so severely that if the eved dies a few days later from
that assault, the baal is not held accountable.

RSR Hirsch writes on these words "for he is his property":

< This reason cannot be taken to mean that he is in some way of a lower
degree of humanity than an ordinary free man. For it only applies to the
master, to everybody else the full ordinary law of murder applies. The
reason can only lie in the relationship of the master to his personal
property. ... [I]f, for example, he belonged to two people, the concession
would not be made to either of them. >

And yet, it seems to me that this eved *IS* in some way of a lower degree
of humanity than an ordinary free man, because the baal has permission to
assault him in ways that other people do not. Such an eved cannot be called
a "servant" or a "long-term employee". He is exactly what the Torah calls
him in this pasuk: "kaspo" - property, finances, money. This Ben Adam has
been dehumanized to a certain degree, and that bothers me.

Akiva Miller

Postscript: My understanding is that the Torah allows a father to
physically discipline his son. How similar is that permission to the
baal's? Suppose we have two cases where one person physically disciplined
another, and the victim dies a few days later, and the only difference
between the two cases is that in one case a baal disciplined his eved
canaani, and in the other a father disciplined his son. Is the father
exempted from punishment to the same degree as the baal is? If the baal is
exempted to a greater degree than the father, that would seem to support my
contention that the eved canaani has been dehumanized.
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