Sefer HaChinuch ספר החינוך

To endow him upon his leaving to freedom: To give from what we have to the Hebrew slave at the time that he leaves from under our hand to freedom, and we should not send him empty-handed. And about this is it stated (Deuteronomy 15:14), “You shall surely endow him; from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your vat that the Lord, your God, has blessed you, shall you give to him.”

It is from the roots of the commandment [that it is] in order that we acquire for our souls virtuous, dear and beautiful traits; [such that] with a dear and virtuous soul, we will merit the good — and the good God wants to do good for His people. And it is our glory and our splendor that we should have mercy upon the one who served us, and that we give from what is ours as a rite of kindness — besides that which we have stipulated with him to give him his wage. And it is a rational thing — there is no need to be lengthy about it.

From the laws of the commandment — that which they, may their memory be blessed, said (Kiddushin 16b) that it is one whether the male slave leaves at the end of six years or at the Jubilee year or with the death of the master, and so [too] a female slave that leaves from one of all these or from signs [of physical maturity], behold we endow these, but with the subtracting of money [that allows him to leave mid-term], we do not endow them, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 15:13), “When you send him free,” and this one he did not send, but rather the slave caused it with the giving of money that he should leave from under his hand; so [too,] that which they, may their memory be blessed, expounded (Kiddushin 17a) about that which the verse mentioned flock, threshing floor and vat, that it is with things that have blessing on their own that a man is obligated to endow them, but not [with] monies and clothing; that which they, may their memory be blessed, said (Kiddushin 17a) that we do not reduce [the endowment] below thirty sela; that he is obligated to endow him whether the homeowner was blessed on his account or not blessed; [that] the endowment of the slave is for himself, and that [the slave’s] creditor does not collect from it; and the rest of its details — are [all] elucidated in the first chapter of Kiddushin.

And this commandment is practiced by males and females at the time of the [Temple], as the law of a Hebrew slave is only practiced at the time that the Jubilee is practiced, as I have written in what preceded (Sefer HaChinukh 42). And nonetheless, even at this time, “the wise man listens and adds insight” — such that if he employed someone from the children of Israel and he served him for a long time or even a short time, he should endow him with that which God blessed him when he leaves him.