Kiddushin, Daf Kaf Bet, Part 3
Introduction
Several more baraitot about how much support the master must offer his Hebrew slave.
ת"ר כי טוב לו עמך עמך במאכל עמך במשתה שלא תהא אתה אוכל פת נקיה והוא אוכל פת קיבר אתה שותה יין ישן והוא שותה יין חדש אתה ישן על גבי מוכין והוא ישן על גבי תבן מכאן אמרו כל הקונה עבד עברי כקונה אדון לעצמו
Our Rabbis taught: Because it goes well for him with you : he must be with [i.e., equal to] you in food and drink, that you should not eat white bread and he black bread, you should not drink old wine and he new wine, you should not sleep on a feather bed and he on straw. From here it was said: Whoever buys a Hebrew slave is like one who buys a master for himself.
A master must share the material benefits he enjoys with his Hebrew slave. Clearly, owning a Hebrew slave would be burdensome.
ת"ר (ויקרא כה, מא) ויצא מעמך הוא ובניו עמו א"ר שמעון אם הוא נמכר בניו ובנותיו מי נמכרים מכאן שרבו חייב במזונות בניו
Our Rabbis taught: Then he shall leave you, he and his children with him (Leviticus 25:41): R. Shimon said: If he is sold, are his sons and daughters sold?
From here [we learn] that the master is liable for his children’s sustenance.
The Torah says that when the slave goes free, his children go free with him. This can refer only to children born to the Jew before he became a slave, for we already know from Exodus that those born to him in servitude (children of the Canaanite slave given to him) do not go free. But the problem is that the children were not sold. Only the father was. So why state that they go free? To solve this problem R. Shimon rules that the master is responsible for the upkeep of the children while the father is a slave. Once the slave goes free, the master is no longer responsible for them. This would be yet another way the rabbis write this law out of existence why would anyone take on the responsibility of maintaining not only the slave but also his children? It would be far cheaper to hire a servant.
כיוצא בדבר אתה אומר אם בעל אשה הוא ויצאה אשתו עמו
א"ר שמעון אם הוא נמכר אשתו מי נמכרה מכאן שרבו חייב במזונות אשתו
Similar to this: If he is married, then his wife shall go out with him :
R. Shimon said: If he is sold, is then his wife sold? From here we learn that the master is responsible for his wife’s maintenance.
The same rule applies to his wife. Again, this can only refer to a wife he married before he was a servant. The Canaanite wife given to the Hebrew slave does not go free with him.
וצריכא דאי אשמועינן בניו משום דלא בני מיעבד ומיכל נינהו אבל אשתו דבת מיכל ומיעבד היא אימא תעביד ותיכול
ואי אשמעינן אשתו דלאו דירכה להדורי אבל בניו דדירכייהו להדורי אימא לא צריכא
Now, both are necessary. For if he taught us [this] with regard to his children, [I would say] that this is because they cannot work for to provide their food and drink; but as for his wife, who can work to provide her food and drink, I would say: Let her work for her food.
But if he taught us [this] with regard to his wife, that is because it is not her way to go begging; but as for his children, for whom it is the way to go begging, I might say: It is not so.
The Torah needed to teach us that the master must support the children, because the children cannot work to earn a living. It needed to teach us that he must support the wife because it would not be seemly for a woman to go begging.