פירוש על גיטין 4:6

בן חורין – if he fled from the heathen, or the or the court fined him [i.e., the original owner] to redeem him from the heathens, as we said – we force him to redeem him and after he has redeemed him, he does not free him, and this is a fine of the Sages, because he releases him from the commandments. And similarly, if he [i.e., the master], sold him outside of the Land [of Israel], he [i.e., the slave] goes free, since he took him outside of the Land of Israel.

Introduction There are four sections to our mishnah. The first deals with selling slaves to Gentiles or to an owner who lives outside the land of Israel. The last three clauses deal with redeeming captives or sacred objects taken captive. Unfortunately, I should note that as I write these lines (many months before you read them) the issue of captives and the price we pay to redeem them is terribly relevant, both in Israel and in the entire world. Muslim extremists are regularly taking captives (often innocent bystanders and not soldiers) and threatening them with beheading in order to force the political hands of countries with whom they are at war. In Israel a hotly debated topic is whether to exchange live prisoners for the bodies of Israeli soldiers killed in battle or even for knowledge of the whereabouts of their bodies. While the mishnah seems to have simple answers for the question of how to deal with these situations, we should note that real life situations are complex, involve people’s families and political forces that differ from situation to situation. One thing which I think all can agree upon is to pray that our leaders have the wisdom to deal with these situations as best as possible, to when possible redeem captured soldiers, journalists and others, to prevent others from being taken captive in the future, and to put a stop to the terrible people who commit these crimes.

מפני תקון העולם – they would not surrender the heathens themselves [to the authorities] to increase and bring captives when we see that they are selling them for more than their worth.

If a man sells his slave to a Gentile or [to someone living] outside the land [of Israel] the slave goes free. According to halakhah, a slave owned by a Jew is obligated to observe most of the commandments. If a slave-owner sells a slave to a non-Jew he has put a person obligated in the commandments into a position where he will not be able to observe the commandments. Therefore, the halakhah demands that such a slave go free. Whether or not the non-Jew will observe the halakhah is a different question. The mishnah seems to be presuming a situation of Jewish political sovereignty. Secondly, we learned in Ketuboth 13:11 that a husband cannot force his wife to leave the land of Israel (neither can a wife force her husband). Here we see that a master cannot force even his slave to be sold to someone living outside of the land.

אין מבריחין את השבויין מפני תקון העולם – lest they arouse to anger the captives who will eventually come into their hands and place them in chains and put them on the splints of his legs.

Captives should not be redeemed for more than their value, because of tikkun olam. Redeeming captives for more than their price will obviously encourage captors to continue to take and ransom innocent people and to charge exorbitant prices for their return. Therefore this practice is forbidden. Note that the rabbis do not forbid redeeming captives and paying ransoms, but those ransoms must not be exorbitant. It seems to me that the rabbis are searching for the middle road, somewhere between respect for the life of the person taken captive and fear that paying a ransom will encourage further capturing.

רבן שמעון בן גמליאל אומר מפני תקנת השבויין – Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel has not been concerned about the future as a captive, other than with those who are currently in captivity with him. If there is no other captive than him alone, we force him [to free him] and we are not concerned here about the decree of other captives when there are no others with him. And the Halakha is according to Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel.

Captives should not be helped to escape, because of tikkun olam. Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel says [that the reason is] to prevent the ill-treatment of fellow captives. According to the first opinion, rescuing captives, while effective in the present, may encourage future captors to take more drastic measures to keep their captives under lock. Saving one person now may cause many others in the future to be treated in a very harsh manner. Therefore, they should not be rescued. Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel says we are not concerned about future captives but rather about those currently being held. If we rescue some captives, those that remain in captivity will be ill-treated, and perhaps even killed. However, if there are no other captives and we can successfully rescue all those that are currently under captivity, we should make such an attempt. Again, we should note exactly what the rabbis were trying to accomplish the safe return of current captives while at the same time the prevention of harm to future captives. While their means may not be directly applicable today, their goals seem to me to be the same as ours should be.

Torah scrolls of the law, tefillin and mezuzoth are not bought from Gentiles at more than their value, because of tikkun olam. Evidently, Gentiles knew well what was valuable to Jews. From the mishnah it seems that they would capture religious items and ransom them back. Again, the mishnah forbids paying more than they are worth. At least with things it is easier to establish a value than with human beings. After all, how much is a human being worth.