Gittin 45a

גיטין מ״ה ע״א

Learn Gittin 45a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

Penalties in slave sales, a slave who flees into ארץ ישראל, and the limits on ransoming captives and helping them escape

Overview

The amud opens by explaining why רב ענן was unsure whether money comes back in a slave sale that does not take effect. He had not heard the ברייתא that settles it, and שמואל's ruling might mean the money is a gift, as in the case of a man who betroths his sister. Next, אביי asks רב יוסף why the buyer, and not the seller, is penalized when a slave is sold outside ארץ ישראל. After the mouse-and-hole parable is challenged, the answer is that we penalize whoever holds the forbidden thing. Then רבי אמי rules that a slave who fled into ארץ ישראל must be freed, based on רבי אחי ברבי יאשיה. The גמרא lays out several readings of "לא תסגיר עבד אל אדוניו" and shows רב חסדא using one of them with the כותים. After a short story about אביי's lost donkey, a new משנה limits ransom for captives and forbids helping them escape. The גמרא asks for the reasons behind both rules and tells the story of רב עילישׁ and רב נחמן's daughters in captivity. The amud ends as a new משנה begins about buying holy objects from non-Jews, and that sentence continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (44)

1. Resolutionרב ענן did not know the ברייתא
2. Rejectionשמואל's ruling does not prove the money is returned
3. ProofThe case of betrothing one's sister
4. Challengeאביי asks why the buyer is penalized
5. ResolutionNot the mouse steals but the hole
6. ChallengeWithout the mouse, how would the hole get anything
7. ConclusionPenalize where the forbidden thing is
8. StatementA runaway slave comes before רבי אמי
9. ProofThe ברייתא reads the פסוק as being about a גוי who leaves idol worship
10. Challengeרבי יאשיה: the word "his master" does not fit
11. Resolutionרבי יאשיה: the פסוק is about selling a slave to חוץ לארץ
12. Challengeרבי אחי: the words "escapes to you" do not fit
13. Conclusionרבי אחי: the פסוק is about a slave who runs into ארץ ישראל
14. Statementרבי reads the verse as being about a slave bought in order to be freed
15. QuestionWhat exactly is the case?
16. ResponseThe slave is freed the moment he is bought
17. Statementרב חסדא's slave runs away to the כותים
18. ChallengeThe כותים quote the verse to refuse
19. Proofרב חסדא answers with the מצוה of returning lost items
20. ChallengeThe כותים repeat: but the verse says not to hand him over
21. ResolutionThat verse is only about a slave running into ארץ ישראל
22. QuestionWhy did he use רבי אחי ברבי יאשיה's reading?
23. ResponseBecause that reading fits the plain words of the verse
24. Statementאביי's lost donkey and the sign he gave
25. RejectionA white belly is not a real sign
26. StatementThe משנה: no ransom above a captive's value
27. StatementThe משנה: no helping captives escape
28. Statementרבן שמעון בן גמליאל's different reason
29. QuestionWhat does 'betterment of the world' mean for ransom?
30. ProofProof from Levi bar Darga's huge ransom
31. Rejectionאביי: maybe he went against the Sages
32. QuestionWhat is the practical difference between the two reasons?
33. ResponseThe difference: when there is only one captive
34. Statementרב נחמן's daughters stir a boiling pot with their hands
35. Challengeרב עילישׁ's difficulty with a פסוק
36. StatementThe daughters and רב עילישׁ are taken captive
37. StatementThe raven says to escape, but רב עילישׁ does not trust it
38. StatementThe dove says to escape, and רב עילישׁ sees a sign of a miracle
39. Statementרב עילישׁ decides to check on רב נחמן's daughters
40. Statementרב עילישׁ plans to listen to the women in private
41. StatementThe daughters want to stay with their captors
42. Statementרב עילישׁ escapes by a miracle
43. ConclusionThe pot miracle was witchcraft, not righteousness
44. StatementDo not overpay non-Jews for holy objects