Talmud - Gittin 47a גיטין מ״ז א׳

Redeem me. Rabbi Ami said to him: We learned in a mishna: With regard to one who sells himself and his children as slaves to gentiles, he is not redeemed. However, his children are redeemed due to the harm of becoming assimilated among the gentiles, and all the more so here, where there is a concern that leaving him in bondage may lead to his death, he should be redeemed.

The Sages said to Rabbi Ami: This man is a Jewish apostate, as they saw him when he was eating unslaughtered animal carcasses and animals with a wound that will cause them to die within twelve months [tereifot]. He said to them: Say that he was eating them due to his appetite, not because he is an apostate, but because he was overcome by temptation.

They said to him: But there are times when there are permitted and forbidden foods before him, and he sets aside the permitted food and eats the forbidden food, indicating that it is not temptation alone that causes him to transgress. Once he heard this, Rabbi Ami said to that man: Go, because they do not allow me to redeem you.

The Gemara recounts a related incident: Reish Lakish sold himself to gladiators. He took a bag and a round stone inside of it with him. He said: There is a tradition that on the final day of a captive’s life, before his captors kill him, they do for him anything that he requests of them, so that he would forgive them for the spilling of his blood.

On the final day before they were set to kill him they said to him: What is amenable to you? He said to them: I want to tie you up and have you sit, and I will strike each one of you one and a half times. He tied them up and had each one of them sit. When he struck each of them with one strike with the stone in the bag, the one whom he struck died, because Reish Lakish was of great strength. Reish Lakish gritted his teeth in anger, and said to the one whom he killed, in order to prevent the others from realizing what was happening: Are you laughing at me? You still have half of a strike remaining with me, as I struck you only once. He killed them all, and Reish Lakish escaped his captors.

He left and came back home, and after some time had passed he was sitting, eating, and drinking, without concern for his livelihood. His daughter said to him: You don’t want something to lie upon? He said to her: My daughter, my belly is my pillow, and this is enough for me. When he died he left only a kav of saffron as an inheritance, and even so he recited this verse about himself: “And they leave their wealth for others” (Psalms 49:11), meaning that he was pained that he did not use all of his property. He exhibited his confidence that God would provide his needs by not saving money for the future.

MISHNA: One who sells his field to a gentile must purchase and bring the first fruits from the field that he sold, for the betterment of the world.

GEMARA: Rabba says: Even though a gentile has no capability of acquisition of land in Eretz Yisrael to cause the abrogation of the sanctity of the land, thereby removing it from the obligation to tithe its produce, as it is stated: “For the land is Mine” (Leviticus 25:23), which teaches: The sanctity of the land is Mine, and it is not abrogated when the land is sold to a gentile; a gentile does have, however, the capability of acquisition of land in Eretz Yisrael to allow him to dig pits, ditches, and caves in the land he has purchased, as it is stated: “The heavens are the heavens of the Lord; but the earth has He given to the children of men” (Psalms 115:16).

And Rabbi Elazar says: Even though a gentile has the capability of acquisition of land in Eretz Yisrael to cause the abrogation of the sanctity of the land, removing it from the obligation to tithe its produce, as it is stated with regard to tithes: “The tithe of your grain” (Deuteronomy 12:17), which teaches that it is only the grain of a Jew that is obligated in tithes and not the grain of a gentile; a gentile does not have, however, the capability of acquisition of land in Eretz Yisrael to allow him to dig pits, ditches, and caves, in the land he has purchased, as it is stated: “The earth is the Lord’s” (Psalms 24:1).

The Gemara asks: With regard to what principle do Rabba and Rabbi Elazar disagree? The Gemara answers: One Sage, Rabbi Elazar, holds that “your grain” teaches that only grain grown in the field of a Jew is obligated in tithes, but not the grain grown in the field of a gentile. And one Sage, Rabba, holds that “your grain” is not referring to the produce itself, but rather to your accumulation of the produce into a pile, which obligates the produce in tithes, and not the accumulation of the produce into a pile by a gentile, as Rabba holds that if a gentile harvests and gathers grain, the grain is not obligated in tithes.

Rabba said: From where do I say that a gentile’s acquisition of land in Eretz Yisrael does not cause the abrogation of the sanctity of the land with regard to tithes? As we learned in a mishna (Pe’a 4:9): With regard to the gleanings left for the poor, and the forgotten sheaves left for the poor, and the produce in the corner of the field, which is given to the poor [pe’a], of a gentile, one is obligated to tithe them unless the owner rendered them ownerless.

The Gemara discusses: What are the circumstances? If we say that this is referring to the gleanings, forgotten sheaves, and pe’a of a Jew, and a gentile collected them and sold them to a Jew, then how could the mishna write: Unless he rendered them ownerless? But they are already ownerless, since gleanings, forgotten sheaves, and pe’a are already ownerless, as anyone can take them. Rather, is it not the case that the mishna is referring to produce of a gentile, who then separated gleanings, forgotten sheaves, and pe’a, and declared them to be ownerless, and a Jew gathered them.

Rabba explains his inference: The reason that this produce is exempt from tithes is specifically because the gentile rendered it ownerless, but if he did not render it ownerless, then it would be obligated in tithes. One can infer from this mishna that the acquisition of land by a gentile does not cause the abrogation of the sanctity of the land with regard to tithes.

The Gemara rejects this: No, actually it may be that these were gleanings, forgotten sheaves, and pe’a of a Jew, and a gentile collected them. And that which you said: But they are already ownerless, is incorrect. Let it be that he rendered them ownerless with the intent that a Jew would collect them, but did he render them ownerless with the intent that a gentile would collect them? He did not in fact render them ownerless, as he expected only a Jew to collect them. Therefore, if a gentile collects them and sells them to a Jew, the Jew is obligated to tithe them.

The Gemara suggests: Come and hear another proof from a baraita: If there was a Jew who acquired a field from a gentile before its produce reached a third of its growth, at which point one is obligated to tithe the produce, and he then sold it to the gentile after its produce reached a third of its growth, then the owner is obligated to tithe the produce because the produce already became obligated in tithes when it reached a third of its growth while under Jewish ownership. The Gemara deduces from here: It is only when the produce became obligated in tithes while under Jewish ownership, that yes, the owner is obligated to tithe, but if the produce did not become obligated in tithes while under Jewish ownership, then no, the owner is not obligated to tithe. This teaches that produce that grows while the field is owned by a gentile is exempt from tithes, and a gentile’s acquisition in Eretz Yisrael abrogates the sanctity of the land with regard to tithes.

The Gemara rejects this: With what are we dealing here? We are not dealing with Eretz Yisrael proper, but with land in Syria, and this tanna holds that the conquest of an individual is not called a conquest. Since Syria was conquered in battle by King David, and not by the Jewish people as a whole, it is not bound by all the same halakhot that apply in Eretz Yisrael.

The Gemara suggests: Come and hear a proof from a baraita (Tosefta, Terumot 2:10): If there were a Jew and a gentile who purchased a field in partnership,

Traduction : The William Davidson digital edition of the Koren Noé Talmud, with commentary by Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz.

Gittin 47a explores the ethics of redeeming a Jewish apostate from captivity and recounts Reish Lakish's daring escape from gladiators through cunning deception.