בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה׳ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶך הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לַעֲסוֹק בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָה
בְּרוּךֶ אַתֶה חֲוָיָה שְׁכִינּוּ רוּחַ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדַשְׁתַנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתֶיהֶ וְצִוְתָנוּ לַעֲסוֹק בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָה
בְּרוּכָה אַתְּ יָהּ אֱלֹהָתֵינוּ רוּחַ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קֵרְבָתְנוּ לַעֲבוֹדָתָהּ וְצִוְתָנוּ לַעֲסוֹק בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָה
Blessings for learning and studying Torah
Berakhot 11b:
Barukh atah Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha’olam asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu la’asok b’divrei Torah
Nonbinary Hebrew Project:
B’rucheh ateh Khavayah Shekhinu ruach ha’olam asher kidash’tanu b’mitzvotei’he v’tziv’tanu la’asok b’divrei Torah
Feminine God Language:
Brukhah at Ya Elohateinu ruach ha’olam asher keir’vat’nu la’avodatah v’tziv’tavnu la’asok b’divrei Torah
Tamara Cohn Eshkenazi and Andrea L. Weiss, "The Torah: A Women's Commentary," pg. 429
Whereas the Israelites were subject to coercive labor in Egypt, this passage describes a more restricted form of indentured service, also called debt-slavery. An Israelite might be reduced to indentured servitude because of extreme poverty, debt, or in restitution for theft; the individual was not chattel owned by the master.
Albert D. Friedberg, "Who Is the Eved Ivri?," https://www.thetorah.com/article/who-is-the-eved-ivri
The Rabbis identify the ivri (Hebrew) in Exodus and (the slightly variant laws) in Deuteronomy (15:12-18) slave as an Israelite free man who has been sold by the courts to make restitution for theft. This interpretation is based on the need to harmonize these laws of the Hebrew slave with those in Leviticus 25:39-55, which describe the process of debt servitude of one’s fellow, and declares that he must be freed at the jubilee year. [...]
The rabbis assume that two contradictory laws of Israelite servitude must be about two different types of servitude, one for debt (Leviticus) and the other for theft (Exodus and Deuteronomy).
Shmuel Rabinowitz, "Parshat Mishpatim: What does the Torah have to say about slavery?" https://www.jpost.com/magazine/parshat-mishpatim-what-does-the-torah-have-to-say-about-slavery-579315
The Torah indeed sees slavery as a problematic phenomenon. The Torah declares about the Jewish slave: “For they are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as a slave is sold” (Leviticus 25:42). Even the slavery the Torah allows is not standard slavery. A Jewish slave is only a long-term hired worker, not the property of the master, since he is the slave of God. And the enslavement of a Jew does not leave him devoid of human rights.
Actually, if we look at the laws of slavery in Mishpatim, we find that they try to make the conditions and status of the slave better. A Jewish slave is automatically freed after six years of slavery; even if he chooses of his own volition to remain in his master’s house, he is freed during the 50th year of jubilee. A Jewish maidservant must be freed by the master when she reaches adolescence, unless he or his son marries her and gives her all the rights of a legal wife. A master who hits a non-Jewish slave gets the death penalty. If a master causes his slave to lose a tooth or hurts his eye, the slave is freed, which stands in contrast to what was customary in the ancient world.
Jonathan Sacks, "The Slow End of Slavery," https://rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/mishpatim/the-slow-end-of-slavery/
What is fascinating is not only what it says but what it doesn’t say.
It doesn’t say: abolish slavery. Surely it should have done. Is that not the whole point of the story thus far? Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery. He, as the Egyptian viceroy Tzofenat Paneach, threatens them with slavery. Generations later, when a pharaoh arises who “knew not Joseph,” the entire Israelite people become Egypt’s slaves. Slavery, like vengeance, is a vicious circle that has no natural end. Why not, then, give it a supernatural end? Why did God not say: There shall be no more slavery?
The Torah has already given us an implicit answer. Change is possible in human nature but it takes time: time on a vast scale, centuries, even millennia. There is little doubt that in terms of the Torah’s value system the exercise of power by one person over another, without their consent, is a fundamental assault against human dignity.
Aviva Richman, "Undoing Slavery and Acquiring Ourselves," https://www.hadar.org/torah-tefillah/resources/undoing-slavery-and-acquiring-ourselves#1
The law of “when you acquire a Hebrew slave” signals to the recently redeemed Hebrew slaves that one day some of them will inhabit power over their own, and some of them will be subject to each other. While imaging this in the recent wake of Egyptian slavery should be horrifying (as we saw, the Torah writes this “against its will”), it would be wrong to pretend that the reality of power imbalance won’t reemerge. There is only one way to wield power to create a world without oppression. Power must be a means of empowerment, with a clear timeline and clear parameters along the way. When we acquire, we must acquire like God, not like Pharoah. This law comes as the climax of the extended narrative of God acquiring Hebrew slaves so as to free them, and God’s acquisition offers a radically different way to inhabit and experience power. Whether as the one who holds structural power, or one who feels bound by the structural power of others, there must be a shared vision of power that leads to greater freedom, and paves the way for the creative expression of a full self. We live this pattern weekly on Shabbat, experiencing how God lets go, allowing us to create ourselves anew. This mindset must inform every day of our lives.