Kesubos 105b

כתובות ק״ה ע״ב

Ketubot 105b

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Topic

שוחד and a judge's fairness: borrowing, love and hate, bribes of words, and judges who stepped aside over small favors.

Overview

This amud is about שוחד and how careful a judge must be to stay fair. It opens by warning that even a צדיק גמור who takes a bribe will end up confused, and that a judge who needs nothing, like a king, builds the land, while one who depends on others ruins it. רבה בר רב שילא rules that a judge who borrows without lending back is פסול. The גמרא defends this ruling against the case of רבא, who borrowed only to honor the lenders. רבא explains that a bribe makes the judge feel the giver is like himself, and רב פפא adds that a judge should not judge someone he loves or hates. A ברייתא teaches that even a favor without money, a 'bribe of words', is forbidden. Stories follow about great judges who stepped aside over tiny favors, and two of them admit that even a refused gift bent their thinking. Finally רב ענן accepts a gift given as a מצוה, but still sends the man's case to רב נחמן. The story of what רב נחמן said continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (31)

1. StatementEven a righteous person who takes a bribe loses his clear mind
2. StatementA judge should be like a king, not like a priest collecting gifts
3. StatementA judge who borrows things is disqualified
4. StatementThe rule applies only if he never lends in return
5. ChallengeBut רבא borrowed without lending back
6. Resolutionרבא borrowed to give them honor
7. StatementWhy a bribe twists a judge's thinking
8. StatementThe word שוחד means 'he is one'
9. StatementDo not judge someone you love or hate
10. StatementWhy a whole town may love a scholar
11. Statementרבא learns that people's feelings do not follow his rulings
12. StatementEven a bribe of words is forbidden
13. QuestionWhat counts as a bribe of words?
14. Responseשמואל refuses to judge after a man helps him off a ferry
15. Statementאמימר refuses to judge after a man removes a feather from his head
16. Statementמר עוקבא refuses to judge after a man covers spit in front of him
17. Statementרבי ישמעאל refuses his sharecropper's early fruit basket
18. Statementרבי ישמעאל feels himself leaning toward the sharecropper
19. ConclusionHow much more are bribe-takers biased
20. Statementרבי ישמעאל בר אלישע refuses the first shearing
21. StatementHe appoints other judges but still finds himself leaning
22. ConclusionAn even stronger lesson about bribe-takers
23. Statementרב ענן refuses a basket of fish
24. StatementThe man asks רב ענן to take the gift anyway
25. ProofA פסוק about a gift brought to אלישע
26. Challengeאלישע could not eat ביכורים
27. ResolutionA gift to a Torah scholar is like first fruits
28. Statementרב ענן accepts the gift once he hears the reason
29. Statementרב ענן sends the man to רב נחמן
30. Statementרב נחמן concludes the man must be רב ענן's relative
31. StatementAn orphans' case is before רב נחמן, and he speaks