For the source text click/tap here: Kiddushin 24
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Our Gemara discusses this rule and distinguishes between a case where the master physically injured his slave, causing him to become blind or deaf – in which case the slave would go free – and cases where he did not actually hit his eye or his ear, but the trauma of a near-miss causes the slave to lose his sight or his hearing, in which case he would not go free.
We present Efraim Urbach’s master essay on Jewish slavery during talmudic times.