Commentary for Kiddushin 35:12
אמר רבא בהא זכנהו ר"א לרבנן דמאי שנא גניבו חמש מאות ושוה אלף דאין נמכר דנמכר כולו אמר רחמנא ולא חציו ה"נ נמכר בגניבתו אמר רחמנא ולא נמכר בחצי גניבתו :
Our Rabbis taught: If his theft was thousand [zuz], and he was [only] worth five hundred, he is sold and then sold again.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' This is the reading of curr. edd. The Wilna Gaon and Maim. read: he is sold but not sold again. This is preferable, and agrees with the previous statements.');"><sup>14</sup></span> If his theft was five hundred, whereas he is worth thousand, he is not sold at all.
Daf Shevui to Kiddushin
Rava points out that R. Eliezer is more consistent than the rabbis. According to the rabbis if his theft was worth five hundred and he is worth one thousand he is not sold because we cannot sell half of him. But so too we could read the other word in the the verse with precision—that he cannot be sold to recover half of his theft, not even once. Thus, according to R. Eliezer, unless the theft and purchase price are exactly the same, the slave cannot be sold.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy