Commento su Esodo 21:8

אם רעה בעיני אדניה IF SHE BE EVIL IN THE EYES OF HER LORD — i. e. that she did not find favour in his eyes so that he might be induced to marry her (cf. Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 21:8:1).

L’AM NOCHRI’ HE SHALL HAVE NO POWER TO SELL HER. “Neither her master nor her father has the right to sell her to another [Hebrew man].⁷³Rashi thus interprets l’am nochri [literally: “unto a foreign people”] as signifying “unto a strange man,” i.e., to another Israelite. Thus the verse is stating that neither the father nor the master has a right to resell her. Ramban will question this interpretation. Seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her — if he [i.e. the master] intends to act deceitfully towards her and not to fulfill the commandment of designating her as his wife [or his son’s]. So also did her father act deceitfully towards her, by selling her to this master.” Thus far Rashi’s language. And if so, l’am nochri would be like l’ish nochri (to a strange man), but we find in all Scripture no parallel to such a usage [that am (people) should be understood in the sense of “man”]. Perhaps the letter lamed in the word l’am draws along with it a similar letter in the next word, thus making it: ‘l’am l’nochri’ he shall have no power to sell her, and the explanation thereof would be similar to the verse, Thou gavest him to be food ‘l’am l’tziyim’ (to the folk inhabiting the wilderness)⁷⁴Psalms 74:14. where the second word l’tziyim explains: who is the folk? — the men who inhabit the wilderness; so here too He says, he shall have no power to sell her ‘l’am’, and He explains: who is l’am? — l’nochri, that is to say, to any stranger from the whole people [i.e., to another Israelite]. The term nochri here will then be similar in usage to the expressions: and thy labors in the house of a ‘nochri’ (stranger),⁷⁵Proverbs 5:10. which means in the house of another man; even from the ‘nochriyah’ (the strange woman) that maketh smooth her words,⁷⁶Ibid., 2:16. meaning the woman who is not his wife. All this I have written in order to uphold the words of the Sages⁷⁷Rabbi Eleazar and Rabbi Shimon — in Kiddushin 18a. who say that a man is not permitted to sell his daughter twice into the status of a handmaid, thus holding to the explanation: since he has once dealt deceitfully with her [by selling her to such a status of a handmaid], he has no more the right to sell her.
But I have seen in the Mechilta:⁶⁰Mechilta here on the Verse. “‘L’am nochri’ he shall have no power to sell her, — this is a warning to the court that he [i.e., the father] should not sell her to an alien [i.e., a non-Israelite].” It would thus appear from their language that this verse is not meant as an admonition against the father reselling her to this Israelite master or to another one, but is a prohibition against her being sold altogether [even the first time] to a non-Israelite, so that a man may not sell his minor daughter to an idolator as a handmaid. [It was necessary for this to be stated] because in the case of a Hebrew servant He said, and he sell himself unto the stranger who is a settler with thee, or to the offshoot of a stranger’s family,⁷⁸Leviticus 25:47. therefore it had to say that this should not be done to a woman. The reason for it is obvious.⁷⁹“That she not be exposed to the dangers of immorality.” (Bachya). This surely is the plain meaning of Scripture, that after the father — the vendor — redeemed her from her first master, he cannot sell her to an idolator, and the same law applies to the original sale. Scripture, however, [had to state this prohibition in the case of a re-sale], because sometimes a man may very much want to redeem his daughter from a master who did not take her as his wife, and will want to sell her to an idolator for a year or two with the intention of then taking her out from him; therefore Scripture warned him against doing this. Or it may be that this expression [i.e., ‘l’am nochri’ he shall have no power to sell her] refers back to the beginning of this subject: And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant⁸⁰Verse 7. — he shall have no power to sell her to a foreign man. If so, then the Rabbis’ interpretation in the Talmud⁷⁷Rabbi Eleazar and Rabbi Shimon — in Kiddushin 18a. that a man may not resell his daughter into the status of a handmaid, [even to an Israelite], is derived [not from ‘l’am nochri’ he shall have no power to sell her, but] from the [apparently] superfluous expression: seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. For to a non-Israelite he never has power to sell her; so why did G-d say: seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her, [since he cannot sell her even once to a foreign man], and the meaning of that expression is that since he acted once deceitfully with her by selling her into a status of a handmaid, he cannot do so another time? Therefore the Rabbis interpreted the verse thus: “to a foreign people he shall have no power to sell her [altogether], and when he hath dealt deceitfully with her [he also has no power to sell her];” that is to say, he shall have no power to sell her if he dealt deceitfully with her, for after he sold her once [to an Israelite], he cannot sell her again. There are many instances where the Rabbis interpreted the verses in such a manner. [Thus we find: Unto the stranger that is within thy gates thou shalt give it that he may eat it, or thou mayest sell it unto a foreigner⁸¹Deuteronomy 14:21. — which Rabbi Meir interpreted]:⁸²Pesachim 21b. “Read the verse thus: unto the stranger that is within thy gates thou shalt give it that he may eat it, or thou mayest sell it; thou shalt give it that he may eat it or thou mayest sell it unto a foreigner.” Similarly they interpreted here⁸³Kiddushin 4a. then shall she go out for nothing, without money,⁸⁴Verse 11. which, on account of the redundant language, [“for nothing,” “without money”] they made the basis for two additional ways of the Hebrew maidservant regaining her freedom: “she shall go out for nothing, and she shall go out without money;” thus establishing that she goes out to freedom when she produces signs of puberty, or signs of fuller development if she had no signs of puberty — this being that maturity of the barren woman, [who is incapable of conception], as is stated in the beginning of Tractate Kiddushin.⁸³Kiddushin 4a.
The plain meaning of Scripture in this section is as follows: If a man sell his minor daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as these menservants, [i.e., the Hebrew menservants] mentioned [above in Verses 2-6,] who go out to freedom in the seventh year and in the jubilee year: for the master⁸⁵In the Tur who quotes Ramban: “the father.” That is to say, if the maiden pleased the master and he wishes to marry her, the father cannot take her out from his house. can never send her away from his house if the maiden pleases him and she obtains kindness of him,⁸⁶See Esther 2:9. but he is to take her for a wife as is his will. But if she pleaseth not her master, who has not espoused her to be his wife — for he who buys an Israelite’s daughter does so with the intention of taking her as his wife, thus she is under ordinary conditions designated for him; but now if her master does not desire her, then shall the father mentioned redeem her, for as soon as the master says: “I do not want to marry her,” it is forbidden for the father to leave her any longer under his authority, nor may he sell her to a foreign people in case he comes to deal deceitfully with her, for it is deceit for a man to sell his daughter except to someone who can marry her. Or the meaning thereof may be that anyone who sells his daughter [even to an Israelite], deals deceitfully with her.

אם רעה בעיני אדוניה, even though the normal procedure is what we outlined in verse seven, her “master” does not have to marry her if he finds her incompatible, as otherwise he would eventually come to hate her. However, in such a situation the father and the master have to cooperate in releasing her from her obligation as servant.