Halakhah su Levitico 25:55

If individuals fall from the status of free men and women and, forgetting their inherent nobility, are made into servants—“the ear that heard the words at Sinai, ‘the children of Israel are My servants’³²Lev. 25:55.—My servants, and not the servants of My servants”—and yet in spite of this he went and acquired a human master for himself³³Talmud Bavli, Kiddushin 22b. The Talmud here censures the Hebrew slave referred to in Exod. 21:6, who elects to remain a slave beyond the mandatory period. His choice shows that he has not internalized the innate freedom and dignity that attaches to being a servant of God, not of man. Rav Kook understands the return of each person to his ancestral land as the remedy for the indignity of selling oneself as a slave.—now his freedom and self-respect are returned to him. Holiness flows into our lives from the highest source, the place from which the nation’s soul suckles light and “freedom is proclaimed throughout the land to all its inhabitants.”³⁴Lev. 25:10. Inequality in landed property, which resulted from bodily and spiritual weakness and error, sapped his strength, until he was forced to sell his ancestral patrimony. Now, however, restitution comes, corresponding to the people’s status at the beginning of its journey. The original property returns to those who have suffered from the vicissitudes of life, distorting their sense of their true value: “In this Jubilee, everyone shall return to his original holdings.”³⁵Lev. 25:13.

The Torah looks upon the institution of slavery with disfavor and permits a Jew to become an indentured servant only when he has no other means of earning a livelihood. Quoting the verse "For unto Me are the children of Israel slaves …" (Lev. 25:55), the Gemara, Baba Meiz'a 10a, declares that Jews are the servants of God and hence are not permitted to become "the servants of servants." Taking the view that any form of involuntary labor is a form of servitude, the Talmud states that a workingman may withdraw from employment "even in the middle of the day." In a gloss upon the citation of this halakhah in Hoshen Mishpat 333:3, Rema quotes definitive authorities who assert that a laborer, or even a teacher or scribe, may not bind himself to an employer for a period greater than three years if the terms of his employment require him to live in the employer's domicile and to accept the employer's board. Permanent employment under such conditions resembles servitude. Service of this type for a period not exceeding three years is sanctioned on the basis of the verse "Within three years, as the years of a hireling …" (Isa. 16:14). The individual accepting such service for a period of three years or less is deemed a "hireling"; if he accepts such employment for a period in excess of three years he has entered into a proscribed form of "slavery." Hatam Sofer, in his collected responsa, Oraḥ Hayyim, no. 206, indicates that according to some authorities it may be permissible to enter into such contracts for a period of time up to six years in length rather than three.⁷See also Ḥavot Ya’ir, no. 140.