Tafsiran Keluaran 21:26: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi, Chizkuni & Da'at Zekenim

“When a man strikes the eye of his slave” [21:26]. If a master knocks out the eye of his slave, or his female Canaanite slave, the master should let them go free. Bahya writes here that this is because Canaanites must serve because they committed a sin with their eye or tooth. Because Ham saw his father lying uncovered, he committed a sin with his eye, and did not cover his shame. Afterwards, he went and said with his mouth to his brothers how their father was uncovered. Thus, he committed a sin with his teeth. He uncovered his teeth with his talking. Therefore, when he knocks out a Canaanite’s eye or tooth, he must let the slave go free, because the slave has suffered travails in his eye or tooth. Thus, the sin that he had committed with his eye or tooth has been forgiven.²⁵Bahya, Exodus, 21:26.

את עין עבדו [AND IF A MAN SMITE] THE EYE OF HIS SERVANT — of a Canaanitish servant; but the Hebrew servant does not got free on account of his tooth or his eye having been knocked out by his master, as we have stated in our comment on the passage לא תצא כצאת העבדים (v. 7).

לחפשי ישלחנו, “he has to discharge him to freedom.” The Torah’s point here is that the slave does not have the option of accepting a financial settlement for the loss of his limb by his owner. The reason is that such a settlement would be useless to him, seeing that as long as he remains a slave all that he owns belongs to his master. Even a person who has sold himself into slavery with the express condition that his master cannot control his possessions, the master remains in a position that enables him by harassing his slave force him to hand over his belongings to him. The only way this can be avoided is by setting his slave free.