Holding authority over another human being requires profound moral restraint. When a person employs a Hebrew slave, strict boundaries are placed on the power they can exercise, ensuring that the master does not exploit their position to break the worker's body or spirit. The prohibition against imposing oppressive labor is repeated several times throughout the Torah. This repetition highlights the severity of the matter, recognizing that the temptation to abuse power over a vulnerable subordinate is a very common human failing [בכור שור, חזקוני].
The authority granted to a master involves basic governance and control [אבן עזרא], which must never cross into oppressive physical force or beatings [ביאור יש"ר]. The primary approach among commentators is that the ban on oppressive labor is not merely about the physical difficulty of the tasks, but rather their underlying purpose. It forbids work that provides no actual benefit to the master and is assigned purely to torment, subdue, and humiliate the slave, ultimately breaking them down [רלב"ג, העמק דבר, רש"ר הירש, רד"צ הופמן].
Commentators divide this forbidden labor into two main categories. The first is entirely unnecessary work, such as ordering a slave to heat a drink when the master has no desire for it, simply to prevent the worker from sitting idle. The second is work with no defined endpoint or quota, such as commanding the slave to dig in the garden until the master returns. This open-ended demand leaves the worker in a state of helplessness and anxiety [תורה תמימה, מלבי"ם, פירושי רד"צ הופמן]. Additionally, oppressive labor includes assigning tasks that the slave is completely unsuited for or incapable of performing [העמק דבר], or imposing work that is simply exceptionally grueling [ביאור שטיינזלץ].
A different perspective suggests the prohibition also covers psychological manipulation. A master might use smooth, gentle language to coax a slave into performing degrading tasks, assuming that if the worker agrees out of shame or social discomfort, no wrong has been done. However, this type of psychological exploitation is strictly forbidden, as the Israelites are brothers who share a single spiritual root [אלשיך].
Enforcing these boundaries presents a practical challenge. Because the distinction between necessary labor and pointless, degrading work often hinges entirely on the master's inner thoughts, a master could easily invent a legitimate-sounding excuse for any task. Therefore, this relies entirely on personal conscience and inner transparency. While other people may not realize the truth, God examines the heart and knows the master's hidden intentions [רש"י, רלב"ג, תורה תמימה, פירושי רד"צ הופמן]. Furthermore, the demand to fear God serves as a powerful deterrent. Even if the slave is weak, submissive, and poses no earthly threat, the master must remember that God Himself will step in to fight on behalf of the oppressed [ביאור יש"ר].