The last several chapters of massekhet Baba Kamma discuss the laws concerning thievery. The Gemara differentiates between two kinds of thieves. The first is a ganav (גָנָב). This thief breaks into a person’s home either the middle that night or when the person is not at home. Consequently, his victim does not know his identity. The second category of a thief is a gazlan (גָזְלָן). This thief robs a person in bright daylight; consequently, the victim actually knows his identity.
When I first studied the
following passage from the Gemara, I was quite taken aback by the
permissibility of robbing a non-Jew. I’m sharing with you what I learned from
the Rabbanit Yafit Clymer (https://hadran.org.il/author-post/stealing-from-a-gentile-on-second-thought/).
She has set the record straight.
Sefaria.org translates the word goy (גוי) as gentile. Today we think of a Gentile as a Christian because we live amongst a majority of Christians. The text really means somebody who is not Jewish. That person could be a Christian, but also he could be a pagan or a Zoroastrian for these are the people that the Jews lived amongst in the land of Israel or Babylonia. All quotes are from the Rabbanit’s source sheet.
“Gemara cites another statement related to stealing from a gentile. Rav Beivai bar Giddel says that Rabbi Shimon Ḥasida says: It is prohibited to rob a gentile, but it is permitted to retain his lost item, i.e., one is not required to return it to him. The Gemara examines the basis for each of these rulings: It is prohibited to rob a gentile, as Rav Huna says: From where is it derived that it is prohibited to rob a gentile? It is derived from a verse, as it is stated: “And you shall consume all the peoples that the Lord your God shall deliver unto you” (Deuteronomy 7:16), indicating that it is permitted to consume the other nations’ property only when they are delivered into your hand, i.e., in times of war, but not when they are not delivered into your hand. (TB Baba Kamma 113)
This passage is relevant today
than ever before as the October 7 war in Gaza rages. Just based on the above
passage alone one might come to the incorrect conclusion that the Israeli
soldiers have permission take whatever they wish from the Palestinian
population. Delving deeper into the proof text we see that our classical
commentators were also disturbed about the possibility of robbing non-Jews and consider
this thievery a desecration of God’s name.
Commenting on the verse in
Deuteronomy quoted above “You shall destroy all the peoples that your God
delivers to you, showing them no pity. And you shall not worship their gods,
for that would be a snare to you.” Rabbeinu Bahya[1]
(1255–1340)) writes “which the
Lord your God is about to give to you.” Our sages in Baba Kama 113 state
that this was true only at the time when the Canaanites were being delivered
into the hands of the Israelites during the years of conquest. Nowadays,
stealing from or robbing Gentiles is certainly prohibited. In fact, the Talmud
there describes stealing from Gentiles as a greater sin than stealing from
Israelites as it involves the desecration of the name of the Lord. The Jewish
people are to be models of morality. If we steal, we drag God’s Torah into
disrepute.”
Leviticus 25:50 talks about
the treatment of the resident alien who was forced to sell himselves into
slavery and who will be redeemed during the Jubilee year. Commenting on this
verse, Rabbeinu Bahya disabuses any notion it might be permissible to steal
from a non-Jew.
Concerning this resident alien
he explains: “’he will make a reckoning with the one who purchased him.’ The
verse warns that one must make a meticulous accounting and not try and trick
the Gentile in one’s calculations. The reason is that stealing from pagans is
prohibited as a form of desecrating the holy name of the Lord. The Torah
demands such careful accounting when the Gentile in question is under Jewish
authority. I might have thought that seeing the Torah permits charging interest
to Gentiles, something which the Torah elsewhere appears to view as a form of
unethical conduct, that stealing, at least indirectly, from a pagan is
permitted; therefore, the Torah makes a point of telling us that this is not
so. We know already from Joseph’s brothers whose money had been returned to
them by the Egyptians (at least they thought so) that they took it back to Egypt
with them (Genesis 43,13)
in response to their father Yaakov’s instructions.
“If Yaakov thought (as he
said) that even if the pagans had made an error, we must not take advantage of
it to their detriment, how
much more so must we not disadvantage them deliberately. All of this occurred before the Torah was
given, when we did not have these limitations imposed upon us. How much more meticulous must one deal with a
Gentile now that the laws of the Torah apply to us! …”
In fact the Tosefta Baba Kama 113 states
expressly that if one has robbed a pagan one must return the stolen goods. It
adds that such robbery is a graver crime than robbing a Jew because the crime
includes the sin of desecrating the Lord’s name. When one robs a fellow Jew,
the victim does not use this as an excuse to question the rules of the Torah
and the fairness of God.
Rabbi Moshe ben Ya'akov of Coucy[2] (the
first half of the 13th century) codifies the law in his book Sefer
Mitzvot Gadol, positive mitzvah 74 that it is forbidden to rob a non-Jew for
three reasons.
“I have already talked to the
exile of Jerusalem which is in Spain and the rest of Galuyot Edom (the exile in
Christian lands-gg), because now that the exile has been prolonged it is more
than likely that Israel must distinguish itself from the vanities of the world
and grasp the seal of God Almighty who is truth and not to lie to Israel or to
the Gentiles and not to mislead them in any matter and to sanctify themselves
even in what is permitted to them as it is said: The remnant of Israel Shall do
no wrong And speak no falsehood; A deceitful tongue Shall not be in their
mouths. Only such as these shall graze and lie down,With none to trouble them (Tsefanya 2:13)
“And when the Almighty comes to save them, the Gentiles will say
they are righteous and they are people of truth and the Torah is true in their
mouths.
“But if they behave deceitfully with the Gentiles, they will say, look
what the Almighty has done, who chose thieves and cheats, and it is also
written, ” I will sow her in the land as My own;(Hosea 2:25).
Does One-man sows one portion in the land, but to find a few. This is how God
sows Israel in the lands, so that they will be join by converts. And as long as
they behave deceitfully toward them, who will stick to them.” Note that he
consider s conversion to Judaism something that is positive.
Finally Moshe Chaim Luzzatto[3]
in his book on ethics Messilat
Yesharim writes in his introduction that we are always obligated to do what is just and
ethical. “Walking in His ways – this includes all matters of uprightness
and correction of character traits. This is what our sages of blessed memory
explained (Shab.133b) “just as He is merciful, be also merciful…” The general
principle of all this is for one to conduct all of his traits in all the
variety of his deeds according to what is just and ethical.
I should have remembered that
the Talmud is not the last word in the discussion, but the beginning of the
conversation.
[1] Bahya was a pupil of Rabbi Shlomo ibn Aderet (the Rashba). Unlike the latter, Bahya did not publish a
Talmud commentary; he is, however, considered by Jewish scholars to be one of
the most distinguished of the biblical exegetes of Spain. He "discharged with zeal" the duties
of a darshan (Hebrew for "expounder") in his
native city of Zaragoza, sharing this position with several others. He is
buried in Kadarim, Israel, a few minutes walking distance from the prophet Habakkuk. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahya_ben_Asher)
[2] Rabbi Moses ben Jacob of Coucy, also known as Moses Mikkotsi (Hebrew: משה בן יעקב מקוצי; Latin: Moses Kotsensis), was a French Tosafist and authority on Halakha (Jewish law). He is best known as the author
of one of the earliest codifications of Halakha, the Sefer Mitzvot Gadol. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_ben_Jacob_of_Coucy
codifies)
[3] Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (Hebrew: משה חיים לוצאטו, also Moses Chaim, Moses Hayyim, also Luzzato) (1707 – 16 May 1746 (26 Iyar 5506)), also known by the Hebrew acronym RaMCHaL (or RaMHaL, רמח"ל), was a prominent Italian Jewish rabbi, kabbalist, and philosopher. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Chaim_Luzzatto)
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