Talmud - Ketubot 28b כתובות כ״ח ב׳

steward over his property, or who donned phylacteries in his master’s presence, or who read three verses from the Torah scroll in the synagogue, did not necessarily emerge to freedom. Apparently, there are slaves who learn Torah to the extent that they are capable of reading the Torah in the synagogue, and conceivably that Torah is learned in school. The Gemara answers that there is no proof from the baraita, as there it is a case where the slave read at his own initiative, and conceivably he taught himself to read the Torah as well. When we say in the mishna that it is proof that he is a priest, it is in a case where he treats him with treatment typical of children, not slaves, and sends him to school.

When the mishna states that he is deemed credible to testify that as a minor he saw that others went to immerse in order to partake of teruma, the Sages permit them only to partake of teruma by rabbinic law. And the mishna states that he is deemed credible to say that they saw that so-and-so would share teruma with us at the threshing floor, and therefore he is a priest. The Gemara asks: And perhaps he is the slave of a priest? The Gemara answers: We learned the mishna according to the one who says: One distributes teruma to a slave only if his master is with him. Therefore, it is clear that the one sharing teruma with them was a priest, not a slave, as it is taught in a baraita: In the case of the son of a priest’s wife and the son of a priest’s maidservant who were intermingled at birth, both mothers go to the threshing floor together based on the principle: One distributes teruma to a slave only if his master is with him; this is the statement of Rabbi Yehuda. Rabbi Yosei says: It is possible that each will say: If I am a priest, give me teruma for my own sake, and if I am the slave of a priest, give me teruma for the sake of my master.

The dispute in the baraita is based on the fact that in the place of Rabbi Yehuda, they would elevate one who eats teruma to the presumptive status of priesthood for the purpose of lineage. Therefore, he permitted distributing teruma to the slave of a priest only if his master is present, due to the concern that if he were given teruma directly, he would be elevated to priesthood. In the place of Rabbi Yosei, they would not elevate from teruma to lineage. Therefore, he permitted distributing teruma directly to the slave of a priest, as there is no concern that the slave would be mistaken for a priest.

It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Yosei, said: In all my days, I never had occasion to testify in court. One time I testified, and the court elevated a slave to priesthood on the basis of my testimony. The Gemara asks: Does it enter your mind that they actually elevated the slave to priesthood? Now, just as with regard to the animals of the righteous the Holy One, Blessed be He, does not engender a pitfall on their account, as the Gemara relates with regard to the donkey of Rabbi Pinḥas ben Yair that it would not eat untithed produce (Ḥullin 7a), all the more so will He not engender a pitfall on account of the righteous themselves.

Rather, the Gemara emends the statement of Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Yosei: They sought to elevate a slave to priesthood on the basis of my testimony, but ultimately they did not. Rabbi Elazar saw teruma distributed directly to the slave of a priest in the place of Rabbi Yosei, where one does not elevate from teruma to priesthood, and he went and testified about what he saw in the place of Rabbi Yehuda, where one elevates from teruma to priesthood.

And the mishna states that one is deemed credible to testify in his adulthood that as a minor he saw that this place is a beit haperas. The Gemara asks: What is the reason that he is deemed credible to testify what he witnessed as a minor? The Gemara answers: The ritual impurity of a beit haperas is by rabbinic law, as Rav Yehuda said that Shmuel said: A person who passes through a beit haperas may blow on the dust before taking each step, so that if there is a bone beneath the dust he will expose it, avoid it, and proceed. One may not rely on that method of examination with regard to impurity by Torah law. And Rav Yehuda bar Ami, in the name of Rav Yehuda, said: A beit haperas that has been trodden underfoot, creating a path, is pure. What is the reason? It is that it is impossible for a bone the size of a grain of barley, whose possible presence led to the decree of impurity, not to have been trodden underfoot and rendered smaller. This presumption is possible only in cases of impurity by rabbinic law.

And the mishna states that one is deemed credible to testify, in his adulthood, that he saw as a minor: Until here we would come on Shabbat. The Gemara explains: This tanna maintains that the Shabbat boundaries, beyond which one may not go outside the city on Shabbat, are mandated by rabbinic law, and the Sages deemed him credible in matters of rabbinic law.

And the mishna states that one is neither deemed credible to say: So-and-so had a path in this place; nor to say: So-and-so had a tract of land where they would perform the ritual of standing and sitting and deliver a eulogy in that place. The Gemara asks: What is the reason that he is not deemed credible? It is due to the fact that we do not remove money from the possession of its presumptive owner on the basis of testimony about a matter that he witnessed as a minor.

The Sages taught: A child is deemed credible to say when he reaches majority that this is what my father told me when I was a minor: This family is pure, that family is impure. The Gemara asks: Does it enter your mind that his father said pure and impure? What do those concepts mean with regard to a family? Rather, his father said to him: This family is of unflawed lineage, and this family is of flawed lineage.

And he is deemed credible to say that we ate at the ketzatza that took place to publicize that the marriage of the daughter of so-and-so to so-and-so was unsuitable; and to say that we would bring ḥalla and priestly gifts to so-and-so, who is a priest. In that case, he is deemed credible only to testify that he brought the ḥalla by himself, but not by means of another, as one is certain of matters that he performed himself, even as a minor. However, he is not deemed credible to testify about actions performed by others when he was a minor. And with regard to all these testimonies, if he was a gentile and he converted, or a slave and he was liberated, they are not deemed credible to testify after their conversion and liberation about matters that transpired beforehand when they were disqualified as witnesses. And one is neither deemed credible to say that he remembers that when he was a minor, so-and-so had a path in this place; nor that so-and-so had a tract of land where they would perform the ritual of standing and sitting and deliver a eulogy in that place. Rabbi Yoḥanan ben Beroka says: They are deemed credible.

The Gemara asks: With regard to which clause in the baraita is Rabbi Yoḥanan ben Beroka disputing? If we say he is disputing the last clause of the baraita, which concerns testimony about a path or a place for mourning, it is a case of removing money from the possession of its presumptive owner. How could his testimony be deemed credible? Rather, Rabbi Yoḥanan ben Beroka is certainly disagreeing with the former clause of the baraita: And with regard to all these testimonies, if he was a gentile and he converted, or a slave and he was liberated, they are not deemed credible. It is with regard to that halakha that Rabbi Yoḥanan ben Beroka says: They are deemed credible.

The Gemara asks: With regard to what principle do they disagree? The Gemara explains that the first tanna maintains: Since he was a gentile, he was not exacting in scrutinizing the matter, as it was irrelevant to him. Therefore, even after he converted he is not deemed credible. And Rabbi Yoḥanan ben Beroka maintains: Since it was his intention to convert, he took interest in Judaism and he was exacting in scrutinizing the matter, and he is deemed credible.

The Gemara asks about a term employed in the baraita: What is the meaning of ketzatza? It is as the Sages taught: How is ketzatza performed? If a situation where one of the brothers who married a woman who is unsuited for him, due to flawed lineage, occurs, the family members come and bring with them a barrel full of fruits, and break it in the middle of a public square to publicize the matter, and they say: Our brothers, the house of Israel, listen. Our brother so-and-so married a woman who is unsuited for him, and we fear lest his descendants become intermingled with our descendants. In order to further underscore the matter, they continue: Come and take for yourselves a sample as an indicator for future generations, so that his descendants will not intermingle with our descendants. The gathering of the large crowd to take the fruit generates publicity. And this is the ketzatza that a child who witnessed it is deemed credible to testify about it when he is an adult.

May we return to you, the chapter “the woman who was widowed.”

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

Ketuvot 28b examines evidence of priestly status through testimony about childhood observations of ritual immersion and sharing teruma at the threshing floor.