Parshas Ki Setzei

“You shall not deliver a slave to his master!” (Devarim 23:16)

It is a negative commandment that one may not deliver a slave who has fled from outside Eretz Yisrael to Eretz Yisrael (even if the master is Jewish) back to his master. If such a slave flees to us we must free him and the slave himself will write a document affirming that he owes his original master the money for his own value, and when he will have money he will repay his value to his master as is written in the document. About this it says “You shall not deliver a slave to his master!”.

Amongst the roots of this commandment are that Hashem wanted to honor the holy land in that one who flees there will be saved from slavery so that we will consider and reflect upon the honor of the land, and that while we are there we will fix into our hearts the fear of Hashem. All of this He did to help His people and give them more merits as He only wants kindness.

This commandment applies even nowadays, both to men and to women, as all people are commanded not to deliver him to his master when he flees to the chosen land.