על החוקים לפרטיהם, ספר ב י״חOn the Special Laws, Book II 18
א׳
1[79] After ordinances of this sort he follows them by laying down a law which breathes kindness and humanity throughout. “If,” he says, “one of your brethren is sold to you, let him continue in slavery for six years but in the seventh be set free without payment.”
ב׳
2[80] Here again he uses the term brother of a fellow-national, and by this name indirectly sows in the soul of the owner the thoughts of his close relationship to the person in his power. It bids him not despise him as a stranger who has no charm to win his affection, but allow the lesson which the holy word suggests to create a preliminary sense of kinship, and thus feel no resentment at his approaching liberation.
ג׳
3[81] For people in this position, though we find them called slaves, are in reality labourers who undertake the service just to procure themselves the necessaries of life, however much some may bluster about the rights of absolute power which they exercise over them.
ד׳
4[82] We must abate their truculence by repeating these excellent injunctions of the law. The man whom you call a slave, my friend, is a hired person, himself too a man, ultimately your kinsman, further of the same nation, perhaps also of the same tribe and ward, reduced to the guise which he now adopts by actual need.
ה׳
5[83] Expel, then, from your soul that evil and malignant thing, arrogance. Deal with him as your hired servant, both in what you give and what you take. As for the latter, he will render you his services without the slightest backwardness always and everywhere without procrastination, and anticipate your orders with zeal and rapidity. And you must give him in return food and raiment and take care for his other needs. Do not harness him like an unreasoning animal nor oppress him with weights too heavy and too numerous for his capacity, nor heap insults upon him, nor drag him down by threats and menaces into cruel despondency. Rather grant him time and places for respite according to some regular rule. For while “not too much of anything” is an excellent maxim in every case, it is particularly so as between masters and servants.
ו׳
6[84] When however you have received his services for the fullest term required, namely, six years, and when the truly sacred number of the seventh year is about to begin, grant his freedom to him who is naturally free and grant it without hesitation, my friend, and rejoice that you have found an opportunity of benefiting the highest of living creatures, man, in his chief interest. For a slave can have no greater boon than freedom.
ז׳
7[85] Be glad, too, to crown your benefaction by bestowing something of each of your various kinds of property to start him on his way. For it is a praise to you that he should not leave your home penniless but well stocked in resources to procure what is necessary. Otherwise the same thing may happen again. He may be reduced by need to his old unhappy plight and compelled to undertake slavery again through lack of the means of life, and the boon you bestowed upon him may be cancelled. So much for the poor.