[Avodah] Freeing a Slave

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Aug 01, 2011 (a year ago) at 4:55pm -0400, I wrote:
: It seems that in the Y-mi, shikhrur avadim is a good thing. See Pesachim
: 2:2, vilna 15a. There is a mishnah that says that a Jew who uses chameitz
: as collateral for Pesach to secure a loan from a non-Jew may not use
: the chameitz after Pesach. Collateral does not sufficiently remove it
: from his reshus, and so he violated bal yeira'eh.
:
: However, when it comes to freeing an eved, Rav says either the owner or
: the lender could free the eved, and R' Yochanan holds only the owner. So,
: the gemara cites that mishnah as a question on Rav. R' Yudan [ie Yehudah]
: answers that "qal hu beshikhrur". And he quotes another mishnah: Someone
: who makes his slave a security -- if [the borrower] sells him, he is
: not sold, if he frees him, the [slave] is not freed.
:
: Freeing a slave is a value which motivates a qulah.

Zev expressed surprise, that we could have a machloqes so broad as the Bavli
only permitting shikhrur to enable some other mitzvah to the Y-mi considering
it a positive thing that force qulos elsewhere. So I followed up the next day.

On Tue, Aug 02, 2011 at 09:15:25AM -0400, Micha Berger wrote:
:                 As the Qorban haEdah (d"h "qal hu beshikhrur") "hiqhilu
: chakhamim beshikhrur, daa"p delo shelo hu legamrei..." And the Penei Moshe
: (same d"h), "... shani beshikhrur" -- note, "shani", an exception --
: "shehiqilu bo ..."

Well, thanks to a lot of traffic this morning, I'm on Sunday's daf, Y-mi
Yevamos 64. The mishnah (11:6, on amud a) discusses the case of two men
who were possibly switched as babies, one is a kohein, the other an eved
(ben shifchah) and we don't know which is which. So, the mishnah says that
when they grow up, "vesheyishachru zeh es zeh", then a whole list of things
apply to them -- both can only marry women re'uyos lekehunah, can't be
tamei meis... A list of conclusions based on safeiq deOraisa lechumerah and
hamotzi meichaveiro alav hara'ayah (bedi'eved, you can't take the matanos
away).

Really, only the kohein frees the eved. When they do the same gestures
in reverse, it's just a meaningless act. But we can't know which shichrur
is real, so we do both.

The gemara opens asking from the word "vesheyishachru" which seems to
imply only bedi'eved. If they did this, then the rest of the mishnah
applies. In reply, "Kini masnisa, mutar leshachreir betechilah". And
even R' Yosi haGelili, who holds asur lashachreir, would agree here
because simplifying this mess is sufficient reason to permit shichrur.

So it seems that in EY rov do hold it's (at least) mutar to free an eved.
Whereas the Bavli holds like R' Yosi haGelili.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Education is not the filling of a bucket,
micha at aishdas.org        but the lighting of a fire.
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