The nirẓa‘ should not have his ear pierced until he declares and repeats [his desire to remain in servitude], as it is stated, But if the servant shall plainly say.¹ If the slave has a wife and children but the master has no wife and children, or if the master has a wife and children and the slave has no wife and children, he should not have his ear pierced. That is the view of R. Ishmael; R. ‘Aḳiba said: In either case he should have his ear pierced. Anything may be used for the piercing, even a scissors,² but [the proper instrument for] the command to pierce is an awl, as it is stated, And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl.³ 6. He should only be pierced at the top of the ear according to R. Meir; but R. Judah said: He can be pierced also on the flap. He should be pierced only in the right ear in the presence of the Beth Din, as it is stated, Then his master shall bring him unto the Elohim.⁴ is understood as ‘judges’. Both door and doorpost are mentioned [in the verse]; why are they both mentioned? It is to compare the door to the doorpost: as the doorpost is upright, so the door must be upright.

footnotes: ¹ Ex. 21, 5. The Heb. is lit. ‘saying shall say’, i.e. say and say again. ² Another reading is ‘nail’. ³ ibid. ⁴ ibid. Elohim

A Canaanite slave⁵ is acquired by money payment, by written deed or by seizure, and he acquires his liberty with money which is paid [to his master] by others or with a written document which he receives [from him]. Such is the opinion of R. Meir; but the Sages said: [He acquires liberty] with money which he himself pays or with a deed received for him by others, provided only that the money belongs to others.⁶

footnotes: ⁵ Any heathen slave was called ‘Canaanite’ with reference to Gen. 9, 25. ⁶ Because everything possessed by a Canaanite slave belongs, to his master.

He goes free for loss of a limb⁷—for an eye or a tooth, for the tips of the ears, for the tips of the fingers and toes, for the tip of the nose, for the tip of the membrum and for the tips of the breasts in a woman. R. Simeon said: [The last-mentioned applies also] to a man.

footnotes: ⁷ Cf. Ex. 21, 26f.

If [the master] knocks out two of his teeth together, or blinds his two eyes together, he goes free but receives no compensation; if they were knocked out at different times, he gains his liberty for the first and receives monetary compensation for the second. If [the master] cut off some of his flesh or knocked out a tooth which was about to fall out, he does not go free.⁸ I, pp. 267f., and his Talmudische Archäologie II, p. 99) gives a detailed discussion of the reading in MS.K. and quotes the view that it enumerates the Roman methods of manumission and the terms correspond to the Latin manumissio per vindictam, per censum, per tabulas and manumissio in praesentia regis.]

footnotes: ⁸ Because the flesh would grow again and a slave was liberated only for losses which would not grow again like an ordinary tooth or an eye. MS.K. inserts the sentence: ‘[A slave] can be emancipated by an אנטוקטא or a board or a tablet, but not by a headgear [presented by] kings’. [This addition is a variant of what occurs in Giṭ. 20a (Sonc. ed., p. 77). See there n. 6. Krauss (Lenhwörter

A slave of whom an Israelite is part-owner⁹ is [reckoned as] a free man.¹⁰

footnotes: ⁹ While the other half is free. ¹⁰ i.e. his master must liberate him.

If one sells his slave after thirty days,¹¹ R. Meir says that [the first owner has the benefit of the law of] a day or two,¹² but not the second. [R. Judah says: The second also has the benefit.]¹³ R. Eliezer said: Neither has the benefit of a day or two.

footnotes: ¹¹ This is meaningless. Kirchheim emends, in accordance with B.Ḳ. 90a (Sonc. ed., p. 519): ‘If one sells his slave to another with the stipulation that he should still serve him for thirty days, R. Meir says’, etc. ¹² The law that if an owner strikes his slave and he survives a day or two days the owner is not punished. ¹³ The sentence in brackets is added in MS.K

Whoever sells his slave to a Gentile or [to an Israelite] outside the Land [of Israel], or one who goes free for the loss of a limb, [the slave] does not require a deed of manumission. R. ‘Aḳiba says that he does require a deed of manumission.