Commento su Levitico 25:47

יד גר ותושב [AND IF] A גר ותושב WAX RICH — This means a stranger, he being at the same time a sojourner with thee, as the Targum renders it: ערל תותב an uncircumcised sojourner (the phrase is hendiadys). The end of the verse proves this, for it states: “and he sells himself unto a strange sojourner” (גר תושב, without the copulative ו before the second word).

AND IF A STRANGER WHO IS A SETTLER WITH THEE BE WAXEN RICH, AND THY BROTHER BE WAXEN POOR BESIDE HIM, AND SELL HIMSELF UNTO THE STRANGER WHO IS A SETTLER WITH THEE, OR ‘L’EIKER’ (TO THE STOCK OF) THE FAMILY OF ‘GEIR’ (A STRANGER). “The family of ‘geir’ — this means an idolater. Since Scripture [also] stated l’eiker (‘to the stock of’ the idolater), it refers to one who sold himself to the idol itself — to be its servant; not to worship it as a deity, but to hew wood and draw water for its service.” This is Rashi’s language derived from the Torath Kohanim.²²⁰Torath Kohanim, Behar 5:1. And if so, the verse is saying: l’eiker ‘u’mishpachath geir [“to the stock of ‘and’ to the family of the stranger,” — since according to Rashi the verse speaks of two different people — and omits the conjunctive “and” and merely says, l’eiker mishpachath geir — literally “to the stock of the family of a stranger”]. Scripture calls the idol eiker [“plucking” or “uprooting”] because a person is dutybound to uproot thoroughly an object of idol-worship and to extirpate it.
But Onkelos translated l’eiker — l’armai (“to a gentile”), and this is the correct interpretation. Scripture is thus mentioning [the case of a Hebrew who] sold himself to a stranger who dwells with us, or who sold himself ‘l’eiker mishpachath geir’ (to the stock of the stranger’s family), who is himself a gentile, the word eiker thus being related to the expression ‘ikar sharshohi’ (the stump of its roots).²²¹Daniel 4:12. Scripture states ‘mishpachath geir’ (the family of the stranger) [in order to indicate that] the stranger or the settler who became rich with us brought it about that the brother [i.e., the Israelite] become poor beside him [because he had emulated his ways] and thus be sold to the stock of the family of the stranger. Scripture commanded that he must be redeemed,²²²Verse 48. this being a positive commandment upon all Israel that we are to redeem him, and then it commanded his kinsmen that they are the first [in this duty].²²³Verse 49. The purpose of the commandment is clear, that he should not become assimilated and learn from the ways [of his purchasers]. For in the case of [all] other sales, the redemption by kinsmen is a matter of choice [but here it is an obligation]. Therefore He said here, For unto Me the children of Israel are servants; they are My servants,²²⁴Verse 55. meaning to say that “although the stranger who settled [with us] and the stock of his family do not have to observe the commandment of the Jubilee, they cannot buy My servants to be their [permanent] servants.”

או לעקר, who was uprooted from that kingdom, far from your homeland. He is neither a resident stranger (someone committed to keep the Noachide laws) nor a convert to Judaism, nor a resident pagan.

משפחת גר, “the family of a total stranger.” According to Rashi the Torah refers to a real idolator (non Jew), the word עקר meaning the idolatrous cult itself. The reason why the Torah uses the term עקר, “something to be uprooted, eradicated,” is that the Torah had charged us with eradicating all kinds of symbols and cults in our land. (Nachmanides) Onkelos translates the word עקר as an Aramaic word, a correct interpretation, the word literally meaning “root.” The Torah in using this term here criticizes a community in which such cults had been tolerated and had taken root. The reason why the word משפחת, “family of,” had been added is to remind is that tolerating such aliens and allowing them to prosper in our land is the reason why some of our own people have fallen on hard times and are now facing the ultimate degradation of being sold into slavery to families of strangers in their own land. The Torah is adamant that such Jews must be redeemed, and that the cost of their redemption must be paid for by Jewish family members, who had allowed their own flesh and blood to be so demeaned. Although this duty falls upon the immediate family of the person so sold first, the entire Jewish community is called upon being the “redeemer” when the family of the party concerned is either unable or unwilling to perform its duty. In order to make this point crystal clear, the duty of the Jewish community at large is mentioned before the next of kin of the victim of such a sale. The principal reason of the legislation is to prevent a situation from arising in which the victim will prefer the religion of his new masters who may by then have shown him more compassion than his own people. When a Jew has been sold into service to a fellow Jew, the redemption by members of his family prior to the sh’mittah year is something of a voluntary nature, as there is no fear that he will become estranged to his people and to his religion. In the situation discussed here it is an absolute duty. Jews are to be servants (in a contractual relationship) only of their Creator, not servants of servants.

וכי תשיג יד גר, “if an alien settler has grown wealthy, etc.” the word גר here is a veiled reference to the Persian-Medes Empire.

או לעקר, this term is the reverse of a תושב, settler. The literal meaning is “someone uprooted;” such people have been uprooted from their land, their people, and they are literally “rootless.”

וכי תשיג יד גר ותושב עמך AND IF A STRANGE SOJOURNER WAX RICH BY THEE — The last word suggests: What was the cause that he has waxen rich? His close connection with thee (עמך) (Sifra, Behar, Chapter 8 1).

או לעקר משפחת גר, “or to the offshoot of a stranger’s family.” This is a euphemism for the Roman Empire, which in due course, will be uprooted,” אחרי נמכר גאולה תהיה לו, “after it has been sold, it is subject to redemption.” This is based on Isaiah 63,4: כי יום נקם בלבי ושנת גאולי תהיה לי, “for I had planned a day of vengeance, and my year of redemption has arrived.”

ומך אחיך עמו AND THY BROTHER WAX POOR BY HIM — Here again the last word suggests: What was the cause that he has waxen poor? His intimacy with him (Sifra, Behar, Chapter 8 1), — because of the fact that he learned evil from his (the stranger’s) evil doings.

משפחת גר — itself denotes a heathen; since, however, Scripture adds the word לעקר “to the stock of the heathen’s family” it thereby refers to one who sells himself to the idol itself — to be its servant; not to worship it as a deity, but e. g., to chop wood or to draw water which are to be used in connection with this idol worship (cf. Sifra, Behar, Chapter 8 1; Bava Kamma 113b; Arakhin 30b; Kiddushin 20a).