The Land Of Israel: Dispersion And Assimilation, Part 1

He who buys a Hebrew slave, it is as though he buys a master for himself.

Comment: After entering the land of Israel, the nation managed for several thousands of years without a king or an acting army. There was a special way to treat women, children, and even slaves. According to law, one could keep a slave for up to six years, after which he had to be freed.

Most importantly, if a master had only one pillow, he had to let the slave use it. Such an attitude defies all logic.

Answer: This means that the life of a slave did not belong to the master. A slave could only be with him for a certain period of time. In a way, a master paid for his work within a strict framework of rules and could demand only a certain amount of effort in return. In everything else this person was not a slave but a partner for him, even a friend who lived with him, someone who the master had to care for.

As it is written: “He who buys a Hebrew slave, it is as though he buys a master for himself.” It means that a slave was not some kind of a “homeless animal” with which the master could do anything he wanted to, unlike the way the slaves or prisoners were treated in other countries.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel,” 7/8/19