Musar for Bava Metzia 146:2
א"ל אי הוה ידענא דהוה ממושכן ליה למר לא הוה זביננא ליה השתא כדיניהם עבדינן לך כל אימת דלא מסלקי בזוזי לא שקיל אגר ביתא אנא נמי לא שקילנא מינך אגר ביתא עד דמסלקנא לך בזוזי
and then sold it to Raba. Thereupon he [R. Mari] waited a full year, took the rent, and offered it to Raba.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' For the coming year, but not for the past. ');"><sup>3</sup></span> Said he to him: 'The reason that I have not offered you rent before this is that an unspecified pledge is a year. Had the heathen wished to make me quit [within the year], he would have been unable;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Therefore I was entitled to live rent-free in the house. V. supra 67b. ');"><sup>4</sup></span>
Shenei Luchot HaBerit
לעולם בהם תעבודו . This rule of owning Gentile slaves permanently (25,46) (as opposed to Jewish servants), is rooted in the status of Canaan as a slave since the days of Noach. The status was conferred upon him in retaliation for his having uncovered the nakedness of his grandfather. The curse is connected with the original pollutant introduced into Eve as a result of the serpent having mated with her. Israel are called אחיך, having been created in the צלם אלוקים, the image of G–d. When one does not behave like a "brother," אחיך, by such deeds as behooves a person created in the image of G–d, then the Torah will apply the epithet ובאחיך to such a person.
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