Day #287–Rambam DAILY Sefer HaMitzvos

it is day number 287 of our daily study and in the three chapters ofday study track of M Ma we're finishing the laws of servants as well as the entire safer Kenyon the book of Acquisitions which means that after this we will be studying and two more books two more volumes so we're really in the home stretch of finishing the entire cycle of all 613 Mitzvah in basically a year's time it's almost a year since we started this endeavor and we've been blessed with much success so we want to thank everyone who's been learning with us at whatever point you jumped aboard and um let's already start thinking about how we're going to celebrate the when we complete the entire safeer mitus okay here we go positive commandment 200 35 is the Mitzvah to follow the laws of the what we call evid canani the Canaanite slave so let me explain the difference between what we' learned before the evid I and what we're learning now the evid canani the evid I we translated as the Hebrew man servant that's a fellow Jew who was sold into a period of indentured servitude um basically because he was destitute the same thing by the way with the what was what we call Hebrew maid servant she was also sold because of basically a financial crisis a very tragic sad thing but somebody has no choice because they're absolutely destitute um can do that or um could be a case where one Jew stole from another and he can't repay the debt so the court can force him to work off the debt as an indentured servant but at any rate now we're talking about the evid Kanani those are slaves that were taken in Wars against other nations and it's a different type of servitude so that is positive commandment 235 and I should mention that there's no term limit like we had with the indentured servitude where it's uh six years and then seven seventh year uh go free type thing um with the Canaanite man servant or maid servant there is no term limit however I should mention I think people don't really understand the status of these uh Canaanite servants they're almost Jewish they're practically Jewish what I mean by that is they are obligated in Mitzvah specifically all negative Commandments this evid Kanani is bound by all of the prohibitions of the Torah so all the prohibitions that we've been studying all year long would be binding now upon this person previously they were only obligated to keep the seven noahide laws like any human being now they're obligated similar to a Jew to keep all of the negative prohibition so for instance they're not allowed to work on chabas and Avid canani cannot work on chabas okay plus all of the positive Commandments that are not time bound um the male Canaanite servants before they begin their servitude they have to undergo circumcision and they also toyal they immerse in a Mikvah like a gedc like a righteous convert and in fact and this is the part that is very important to understand and it's going to come up in our Mitzvah today when they are freed they immediately become a convert because they already had their circumcision they already had their their immersion in the Mikvah so when they're freed they become full-fledged Jews and there's actually there's a story in the talmud about rebbi elzar entered a synagogue once with his evid Kanani with his Canaanite servant and they were short for a minion so he freed him and on the spot he became Jewish and he was the tenth for the minion so it's it's a very interesting halic status okay negative commandment 254 is the prohibition against returning a runaway slave if an evid canani if a Canaanite servant ran away from his master and made it to the land of Israel we will not force him to leave the Holiness of the land you cannot um what would you call it um extradite him send him back you you can't do that and and in fact he becomes automatically freed and as I mentioned in the previous Mitzvah when in evid can he becomes free he retroactively converts his circumcision and his immersion in the Mikvah that he already did take effect and he becomes a full-fledged Jew Bound in all 613 Commandments Okay negative commandment 200 55 is the prohibition against speaking hurtful words to this escaped slave remember we had the prohibition against speaking hurtful words and then we said there's a special protection against speaking hurtful words to a g sadic to a convert a righteous convert somebody who became Jewish so similarly there's a Prohibition against speaking hurtful words against distressing or humiliating such a person although it's prohibited to to do this to anyone but there's special protection for this person because after all he's coming from a background which may be looked upon with certain stigma he's at a disadvantage he certainly doesn't have um a family he doesn't have uh a community he's a he's a he's a newcomer to the culture so the Torah gives him added protection you're not allowed to distress him okay those are Mitzvah that complete which completes safe Kenyan mazeltov we will see you for more tomorrow God willing