Kiddushin - Daf 20
- Ruling leniently for changes in value
It was taught in a Baraisa: נמכר במנה והשביח ועמד על מאתים – If an עבד עברי was sold for a maneh (one hundred zuz) and his value subsequently increased and reached two hundred [zuz], he can be redeemed for a mere maneh, based on the passuk: "מכסף מקנתו" – from the money of his purchase (implying redemption according to his purchase price). נמכר במאתים והכסיף ועמד על מנה – If he was sold for two hundred, and his value subsequently depreciated and reached a maneh, he is still redeemed for a maneh, based on the passuk: "כפי שניו" – according to his years, implying redemption according to current value. Abaye was asked why the pesukim are not interpreted in the reverse (to require both higher values), and he responded that since the Torah requires the servant to be treated well, his redemption should also be calculated leniently. This is rejected, because although his physical needs must be provided for, perhaps his redemption amount should be calculated stringently, since a Baraisa (brought below) teaches that his servitude is a result of transgressions. The Gemara will ultimately explain that the first segments of the above two pesukim indicate how they should be interpreted.
- כמה קשה אבקה של שביעית, and כיון שעבר אדם עבירה ושנה בה נעשית לו כהיתר
Rebbe Yose bar Rebbe Chanina says: בא וראה כמה קשה אבקה של שביעית – Come and see how severe is the “dust” of sheviis (i.e., a lesser prohibition)! He proceeds to list, based on the sequence of pesukim, a series of financial hardships that will befall someone who does business with shemittah produce and does not repent. He will be forced to sell his movable items, then his fields, then his daughter as anאמה עבריה, then borrow with interest, then sell himself as a slave, even to an idolatrous temple.
The Gemara notes that he expresses the second stage with "לא הרגיש" – if he does not give thought to his punishment (to repent), but the later stages are expressed as "לא באת לידו" – repentant thoughts do not even come to his hand, and explains that it reflects Rav Huna’s principle: כיון שעבר אדם עבירה ושנה בה – once a person commits a sin and repeats it, הותרה לו – it becomes permitted to him, which the Gemara explains to mean: נעשית לו כהיתר – it becomes to him as if it is permitted, since he became accustomed to violating it.
- If an עבד עברי sold to an idolator can be redeemed by halves
Rav Huna bar Chanina asked Rav Sheishess: עבד עברי הנמכר לעובד כוכבים – An עבד עברי sold to an idolator, נגאל לחצאין או אינו נגאל לחצאין – can he be redeemed by halves, or can he not be redeemed by halves (i.e., can he reduce half his remaining term by paying half the redemption price)? Do we learn, through a gezeirah shavah (גאולתו גאולתו) from שדה אחוזה – an ancestrally-owned field, that just as a שדה אחוזה cannot be redeemed by halves, so too an עבד עברי cannot be redeemed by halves, or do we allow him to be redeemed by halves when it would be more lenient for him, but not when it would be stricter for him (since it was established above, in point 1, that his redemption is calculated leniently)? Rav Sheishess answered that just as an עבד עברי cannot be sold for a theft which is half his sale value (as taught on Daf 18a), ה"נ נגאל כולו ולא חציו – so too, he can only be redeemed fully, but not by halves. Abaye explains that “redeeming by halves” can result in a leniency or a stringency in cases where the slave’s value fluctuates (higher or lower) between when he redeemed halfway to when he can be fully redeemed.
