Kiddushin 20B

– זה הנמכר לעבודה זרה עצמה.

this is referring to one sold for idol worship itself, i.e., he is forced to sell himself as a slave to work in a temple of idol worship. The baraita teaches that it is only due to a person’s sins that he reaches a point where he has to sell himself as a slave. Therefore, one should be stringent with him with regard to his redemption and not allow him to be redeemed easily.

אמר ליה: התם, הא אהדריה קרא, דתני דבי רבי ישמעאל: הואיל והלך זה ונעשה כומר לעבודה זרה, אימא: לידחי אבן אחר הנופל ⁠– תלמוד לומר: ״אחרי נמכר גאלה תהיה לו אחד מאחיו יגאלנו״.

Abaye said to that Sage: There, the verse brings him back, i.e., one must strive to redeem a Jew who has been sold as a slave. As the school of R' Yishmael taught: Since this person who sold himself as a slave has gone and become a priest for idol worship, one might say: Let us throw a stone after the fallen, that is, since he has reached this nadir one should abandon him. Therefore, the verse states: “After he is sold he should be redeemed; one of his brothers may redeem him” (Leviticus 25:48).

ואימא: ״גאולה תהיה לו״⁠ – כי היכי דלא ליטמע בין הנכרים, הא לענין פדיון נחמיר עליה, מדרבי יוסי ברבי חנינא!

The Talmud further asks: But one can say as follows: “He should be redeemed,” so that he will not be assimilated among the non-Jews. But with regard to the matter of his redemption and freedom, let us act strictly with him, as derived from that which R' Yosei, son of R' Ḥanina, said, that one is sold as a slave due to his sins.

אמר רב נחמן בר יצחק: תרי קראי כתיבי. כתיב: ״אם עוד רבות בשנים״ וכתיב: ״ואם מעט נשאר בשנים״. וכי יש שנים מרובות ויש שנים מועטות? אלא, נתרבה כספו ⁠– ״מכסף מקנתו״, נתמעט כספו ⁠– ״כפי שניו״.

Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: Two verses are written with regard to the redemption of a slave sold to a non-Jew. It is written: “If there be yet many of the years, according to them he should give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for” (Leviticus 25:51), and it is written: “And if there remain but few of the years until the Jubilee Year, and he should reckon with him, according to his years” (Leviticus 25:52). But how can there be both many years and few years when, in any case, he will not serve for more than 6 years? Rather, this means that as the money of his value increased with the passage of time, he is redeemed “out of the money that he was bought for,” i.e., the price for which he was originally sold, which is the lower sum. And if his monetary value decreased over time, one determines his value “according to his years,” i.e., according to his current value.