In the twentieth century, kidnappings of celebrity children occasionally became front page news, from the 1932 kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby to the 1974 disappearance of Patty Hearst. These kidnappings had two key components: taking someone against their will and trying to extract profit by holding the victim for ransom. In the ancient world, kidnapping was also often similarly financially motivated, with captors either looking to rake in a large ransom or, more commonly, planning to sell their captives on the slave market and pocket the fees.
Yesterday, we learned what kind of abductions incur the penalty of execution. On today’s daf, the Talmud attempts to identify the biblical source of the prohibition against abduction. In their discussion, we see how the rabbis are aware of both components of kidnapping — stealing someone’s freedom and using them for profit:
From where is a prohibition against abducting a person derived?
Rabbi Yoshiya says: “You shall not steal.” (Exodus 20:13)
Rabbi Yohanan says: “They shall not be sold as slaves.” (Leviticus 25:42)
Rabbi Yoshiya turns to the Ten Commandments for evidence: One is not permitted to steal anything, including another human, so abduction is forbidden, case closed. But Rabbi Yohanan turns to a lesser-quoted part of the Bible. According to Leviticus 25:39, “If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and sell themselves to you, do not make them work as slaves.” In the ancient Near East, free men could sell either themselves or their dependent family members (wives and children) into slavery in order to pay their debts. Leviticus allows Israelites to similarly sell themselves into debt slavery, but offers special protections. A few verses on, Leviticus 25:42 states: “because the Israelites are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves.” From this verse, Rabbi Yohanan understands that one cannot sell an enslaved Israelite, but must instead allow them the relative stability of a single enslaver.
These are very different textual proofs for the prohibition on kidnapping. The anonymous voice of the Talmud harmonizes them by explaining that they are actually talking about two different actions that are involved in abduction for profit:
They do not disagree: One sage enumerates the prohibition against abduction and one sage enumerates the prohibition against selling.
Both depriving someone of their freedom and financially benefiting from that deprivation are biblically prohibited as kidnapping, which is in essence a double crime.
The Talmud digs a little deeper, asking how we know that the commandment against stealing refers to stealing people and not stealing property. It quotes a beraita that explains:
Go out and learn from the 13 interpretive principles: A matter is derived from its context. In what context is the matter written? Capital crimes. So too is this (theft) a capital crime.
Over time, the rabbis developed a set of principles by which to derive halakhah, rabbinic law, from the text of the Bible. Exodus 20:13 reads: “You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Since murder, adultery and bearing false witness are all punishable by death, the rabbis infer from context that theft must likewise be a capital offense. The problem is that Exodus 22 is quite clear that theft of property is not a capital crime. The rabbis thus conclude that the theft discussed in the Ten Commandments is of a different sort: the theft of a human being.
The Talmud’s discussion of kidnapping is relatively brief (especially for a talmudic discussion) but it leaves us reckoning with the idea that kidnapping is best understood in a larger context — both textually and financially. It involves a system which allows one to receive money one hasn’t earned for exploiting other people’s bodies and labor. With its focus on context, then, perhaps we have the opportunity to read the Talmud as indicting that entire system.
Read all of Sanhedrin 86 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on March 13, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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