Chagigah 2B

תקנתם את רבו, ואת עצמו לא תקנתם. לישא שפחה אינו יכול, בת חורין אינו יכול.

You have remedied the situation of his master, who benefits fully from all his rights to the slave, but his own situation you have not remedied. How so? He is unable to marry a female slave, as half of him is already free, and a free Jew may not marry a Canaanite female slave. He is likewise unable to marry a free woman, as half of him is still a slave.

ליבטיל ⁠— והלא לא נברא העולם אלא לפריה ורביה, שנאמר: ״לא תהו בראה לשבת יצרה״. אלא מפני תיקון העולם, כופין את רבו ועושה אותו בן חורין, וכותב לו שטר על חצי דמיו. וחזרו בית הלל להורות כדברי בית שמאי.

And if you say he should be idle and not marry, but isn’t it true that the world was created only for procreation, as it is stated: “He did not create it to be a waste; He formed it to be inhabited” (Isaiah 45:18)? Rather, for the betterment of the world we force his master to make him a freeman, and the slave writes a bill to his master accepting his responsibility to pay half his value to him. And Beit Hillel ultimately retracted their opinion, to rule in accordance with the statement of Beit Shammai that a half-slave must be set free.

חוץ מחרש שוטה וקטן כו׳. קתני חרש דומיא דשוטה וקטן: מה שוטה וקטן ⁠— דלאו בני דעה, אף חרש ⁠— דלאו בר דעה הוא. וקא משמע לן כדתנן: חרש שדיברו חכמים בכל מקום, שאינו שומע ואינו מדבר. הא מדבר ואינו שומע, שומע ואינו מדבר ⁠— חייב.

§ The Mishnah taught: Except for a deaf-mute, an imbecile, and a minor. The Talmud notes: By listing these 3 cases together the Mishnah is teaching that a deaf-mute is similar to an imbecile and a minor: Just as an imbecile and a minor are among those who are not of sound mind, so too the deaf-mute [ḥeresh] mentioned here is one who is not of sound mind. And this teaches us as we learned in a Mishnah (Terumot 1:2): The ḥeresh, whom the rabbis discussed everywhere, is one who does not hear and does not speak, and therefore his mind is not lucid. It can be inferred from this that one who speaks but does not hear and one who hears but does not speak are obligated in mitzvot like any other person.