Commento su Deuteronomio 15:18

כי משנה שכר שכיר [IT SHALL NOT SEEM HARD UNTO THEE WHEN THOU LETTEST HIM GO FREE …] FOR [HE HATH BEEN WORTH] A DOUBLE HIRED SERVANT [UNTO THEE] — From here they (the Rabbis) derived the law that a Hebrew servant has to do service both by day and by night, and that is double as much as the labor of a man hired for day work only. And what is his service during the night? That his master gives him a Canaanite maid-servant with the object of raising children, and the children belong to the master (Sifrei Devarim 123:1; Kiddushin 15a).

לא יקשה בעיניך, to furnish him with some of your wealth upon his departure, seeing that he has served you faithfully and you will not become poor by doing so.

כי משנה שכר שכיר, "for twice as much as a hired hand, etc." Our initial reaction to these words would be that if the servant was sick for only three out of the six years he would not have to make up any time. Kidushin 15 derives from this verse that whereas a hired hand works only by day, a servant, i.e. עבד, works both by day and by night. Our verse alludes to this ruling.

לא יקשה בעיניך, when you dismiss her from your service having given him money, etc. משנה, double שכר שכיר, the wages paid to a hired hand, (the Torah knows that you paid him 6 years’ wages in advance, and with what you are giving when he leaves he has in effect received twice what a hired hand would have received.) In recognition of how you have treated him, G’d will bless you in all your undertakings. The meaning of this paragraph is similar to the admonition of the Torah in verse 10 and the use of the term רע בעיניך occurs also in such a sense in Deut. 28,56 when the reaction of even a mother and wife to the pressures of famine are described. רועת עין, describes envy and jealousy in matters financial. The same is true of the expression קשיות הלב, being hard-hearted. Both expressions refer to the feelings of a person when he has to give of his money to others who he does not feel have a claim on his money, on his generosity. Those commentators who understand our verse as speaking of the employer feeling put out at having to release their worker and the Torah telling the employer that he had no cause for the worker had worked diligently for six years are in error. The master knew in advance that after six years the contract was complete and the worker would be free to go. What possible reason could the employer have of being jealous of that arrangement?
Furthermore, the Torah should not have written משנה שכר שכיר, but merely משנה שכיר. Some commentators take the view that the words משנה שכיר refer to the six years, seeing that the average period for which a labourer was hired used to be 3 years, so that the word משנה would refer to the fact that this labourer worked for twice that period. The idea that the standard period was three years is reflected in Isaiah 16,14 This is also senseless, seeing that in Isaiah 21,16 we are told that the average period of hire was precisely a year, no longer. It follows that the words כשני שכיר (as the years of a hired hand) mean precisely 3 years just as when he is hired for a year it means precisely a year.

כי משנה שכר שכיר עבדך שש שנים, “seeing that for six years he served you twice as much as a hired hand would have done.” Normally a person does not hire himself out for more than three years (compare Choshen Mishpat 333,14: it is forbidden to hire himself out for more than three years). We have an allusion to this in Isaiah 16,14: “in three years, fixed like the years of a hired laborer.” Our sages derive from our verse that the Hebrew servant serves his master both by day and by night, seeing the master is allowed to give him his gentile slave-woman for him to sire children by her [a form of service, seeing the children will not be his. Ed.]. This is why the Torah described him as having performed double duty (compare Sifri Re'ey 123).

His master gives him [a Gentile maidservant], etc. I.e., The Hebrew slave may even be forced to take her. Otherwise [if the meaning is that he is merely allowed to take her], it is already written (Shmos 21:4), “If his master gives him a [maidservant] wife, etc.”

V. 18. לא יקשה וגו׳ kann sich nicht auf die Freilassung an sich beziehen; denn diese ist ja eine reine Rechtsfolge, er war ja nur auf sechs Jahre erworben und wäre ein jedes längere Behalten pure Gewalt. Es bezieht sich vielmehr auf die unmittelbar zuvor in תעשה כן erwähnte, bei der Entlassung geforderte הענקה-Bestimmung. Diese Forderung, welche das Gesetz an den Herrn bei Entlassung des Knechtes stellt, soll ihm nicht etwas Schweres, Hartes, dünken. ׳שכר שכיר .כי משנה וגו ist nicht die Leistung, sondern der Lohn eines Tagelöhners, und משנה שכר שכיר wie ומשנֶה כסף Bereschit 43, 15) das Doppelte an Geld, so: das Doppelte an Lohn, den doppelten Lohn eines Tagelöhners. עבדך, zu welchem משנה שכר das Objekt bildet, kann dann wohl nur in der Bedeutung: durch Dienst verdienen, erarbeiten stehen, wie Ezech. 29, 20. פעלתו אשר עבד בה נתתי לו, wo פעלה wie פעלת שכיר den erarbeiteten Lohn und עבד: durch Dienst verdienen bedeutet. Vielleicht ist auch משנה von שכר zu trennen, und es heißt: er hat doppelt dir für einen Tagelöhnerlohn gedient. Wajikra 25, 40 wird hinsichtlich der Behandlung eines עבד עברי die Weisung gegehen: כשכיר כתושב יהיה עמך, es kann der Herr nur Tagelöhnerleistung von ihm fordern, er wird daher bei Eingehung des sechsjährigen Dienstverhältnisses den Kaufpreis nur nach dem sechsjährigen Lohn eines Tagelöhners bemessen haben, von dem er nur während der Tageszeit Arbeit zu fordern berechtigt ist. Gleichwohl wird er von ihm größeren Nutzen gehabt haben. Er wird ihm auch nachts treue Dienste geleistet haben. Haben wir doch bereits (Schmot S. 225) nach dem Worte des ספרא auf das sittlich Große dieses ganzen Verhältnisses hingewiesen, in welchem der Herr den Knecht als Bruder behandeln, der Knecht sich gleichwohl als Knecht benehmen soll. Daher heißt es hier: Wenn du ihn bei seinem Austritt noch mit einem kleinen Gütervorrat ausstatten sollst und du dies etwa als etwas Übertriebenes ansehen wolltest, so bedenke, dass das, was er dir geleistet hat, auch weit über das hinausgeht, was du durch deine Zahlung bei seinem Kauf vergütet hast. Kiduschin 15 a wird dieses משנה שכר שכיר durch die Schmot 21, 4 dem Herrn eingeräumte Befugnis erläutert.

כי משנה שכר שכיר עבדך, “for he has worked for you twice as long as the wages that he received,“ a hired hand usually hires himself out for a period of three years. We know this from Isaiah 16,14: בשלש שנים כשני שכיר ונקלה כבוד מואב, “in three years, fixed like the years of a hired labourer, the glory of Moav shall shrink;” it follows that someone who has served his master for six years has actually served twice the length of a hired hand. The reason they hired such labourers for a period of three years was that if they had hired such a person for a term of a year or two years, sometimes the years are longer and sometimes they are shorter, depending it had more than one month of Adar. By making the term three years there could not be a dispute about how many days of labour this included.

לא יקשה בעיניך, “it shall not appear an unreasonably hard rule to you;” (that you have to give him so much for “free”) The Torah reminds the owner that he had obtained far more value in labour from this “slave” than he would have had from an ordinary hired labourer working for him as he had been at his disposal not only during the daylight hours, etc. [Our author suggests a different comparison, one found in Isaiah 16,14, according to which fixed labour is hired only for three years and this man has served six years. Ed.] Different calculations are made by different commentators; the basic common denominator agreed is that the Torah reminds the employer/owner, that this servant/slave has done more for him than a hired hand would have done. Ed.]

יברכך ה' אלוקיך, “the Lord your G-d will bless you.” Whenever the Torah asks members of the Jewish people to give up something they considered as belonging to them, we find a verse where G-d promises them that they will enjoy His blessing, i.e. that in the end instead of becoming poorer through sharing material blessings with the less fortunate members of society, they will become wealthier. They will experience beyond question that G-d will make all their undertakings successful.