In Reply to: Observations, Questions posted by CB on October 13, 2006 at 16:24:35:
People must keep in mind that the Torah slavery system was designed as a welfare system for the abject poor, those most vulnerable to being exploited by others. Here, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook (1865-1935) points out how the Torah system provided the poor with more emotional and physical security than that provided by regular employment. The Torah system was designed to help protect vulnerable people from more powerful people.
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[Employers] will not feel constrained to concern themselves that [his employees] get enough to eat, nor that they come to rest sufficiently to maintain their health. This is for two reasons: First, the feeling of uprightness does not beat so solidly in their hearts to bring them to feel that they are transgressing, for they have no legal responsibility to provide for their employees food and other needs, since for the work they do they are compensated in accordance with what they have agreed upon to accept. Since he does not force them to work for him, he feels no obligation regarding their poverty - despite the fact that they are compelled to accept the onerous conditions, conditions they cannot actually stand up to, due to their poverty. Second, even should these people live shorter lives, or become ill, the master who subjugates doesn't lose a thing, for he can always find other workers. The law of slavery comes to defend against such a situation: since the slave is the owner's property, he will certainly concern himself over the welfare of that which he posseses.
Only if it turns out that the master is devious and cruel does slavery become a source of evil.
~ Rabbi Kook, Commentary on Ein Ya'akov, entitled Ein Ayah (vol. 2, pg. 214).
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Slavery, Rav Kook explained, is like any other natural phenomenon. It can be used properly and responsibly; or it can be abused. As long as some people are wealthy and powerful, while others are poor and weak, the wealthy will hire out the poor to do their labor and will control them. This is the basis of natural servitude, which exists even if slavery as a formal institution is outlawed.
For example, coal miners are de facto slaves to their employer, and in some ways worse off than legal slaves. The mine owner often cares more about his profits than his workers. He allows his miners to work without proper light and ventilation, in poorly built mines. It does not bother the owner that the workers' lives are shortened due to these abysmal working conditions. He is not overly troubled that the mine may collapse, burying alive thousands of miners — he can always hire more.
Yet, if these miners were his legal slaves, for whom he paid good money, then the owner would look out for their lives and welfare, just as he watches over his machines, animals, and the rest of his property. For this reason, the Torah emphasizes that a slave is his master's property. When it is in the master's self-interest to look after his slave's welfare, the servant can expect a better, more secure future.
Rabbi Kook makes the point that the Torah system of economic welfare (indenture servitude) has distinct advantages for the poor (i.e., the exact population who are helped by the Torah slavery system). For example, employers are generally not concerned about their poor employees beyond getting the most work out of them. Throughout history, poor people have had shorter life span due to illness, lack of food, and poor health care. Their employers couldn't care less, however, because they could always hire another poor person.
~ adapted from Rabbi Kook's Igrot HaRe'iyah vol. I p. 89
http://www.geocities.com/m_yericho/ravkook/MISHPATM58.htm
Student: Reminds me of the old coal mining song, "16 tons and what do you get, another day old and deeper in debt." I guess there are plenty of types of slavery. In this case, the employer used his employee like a slave. This is why we have laws in place nowadays to protect employees. Same idea.