About this episode
Study Guide Gittin 38 Today's daf is sponsored by Art Gould in loving memory of Carol Joy Robinson, Karina Gola bat Huddah v'Yehudah Tzvi. "My beloved bride of almost 50 years. Tomorrow, Shabbat, we would have been married 50 years on the secular calendar. It's no accident that Joy was Carol's middle name. She brought joy to everyone who knew her. I will be forever grateful to HaShem for dropping Carol into my life like an angel from the heavens on an erev Shabbat in August of 1971. And I will love Carol forever. רַבּ֣וֹת בָּ֭נוֹת עָ֣שׂוּ חָ֑יִל וְ֝אַ֗תְּ עָלִ֥ית עַל־כֻּלָּֽנָה." A gentile can acquire a gentile or a Jew for his labor either by paying money or even by chazaka . From where is this derived? Rabbi Yochanan ruled that a Caananite slave who escapes from prison is automatically freed (and becomes Jewish). How does this fit with his other ruling that whenever a Mishna quotes Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, the halakha is like him other than three cases and in our Mishna, he ruled that the slave who is redeemed stays a slave. How can we distinguish between the two cases? The Gemara brings the stories of three maidservants of rabbis that were either taken into captivity or there was an issue with freeing her. Each story is explained according to the rules of redemption/freeing of slaves. One is not supposed to free a Caananite slave, as derived from a verse in the Torah. However, there is a debate whether that verse is obligatory or perhaps it is just permitting keeping a slave, but not forbidding freeing a slave. Also, there are exceptions to the rule, such as for the purposes of a mitzva, like needing a tenth for a minyan. Rav and Shmuel argue in a case where one is mafkir (makes ownerless) his slave, whether or not he also needs to give the slave an emancipation document freeing the slave in order to permit marriage with a Jew. Rav says that one who sanctifies one's slave is really just freeing the slave, but also needs to give an emancipation document to permit marriage with a Jew. Three other sources say that one who sanctifies a slave needs to bring the value of the slave to the Temple, thus indicating against Rav that one is not setting the slave free. Each difficulty is resolved.