Study Bava Kamma folio 113B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
שלא ימשכנו ויצא. יכול יגלום עליו? תלמוד לומר: ״וחשב עם קנהו״ – ידקדק עם קונהו!
indicating that one should not take a Hebrew slave by force and thereby allow him to leave the non-Jew’s jurisdiction. Rather, the Jew must be freed by legal means. One might have thought that it is permitted to deceive him in order to free the Jew. Therefore, the verse states: “And he should reckon with him that bought him” (Leviticus 25:50), in order to teach that one must be precise in the financial dealings with the purchaser of a Hebrew slave, and one must pay him the appropriate sum without employing any form of deception. This indicates that it is prohibited to steal from a non-Jew.
אמר רב יוסף: לא קשיא; הא, בגוי, הא בגר תושב.
The Talmud answers that Rav Yosef said: It is not difficult, as this ruling that permits the court to deceive a non-Jew is issued with regard to a regular non-Jew, whereas that verse, which teaches that it is prohibited to deceive a non-Jew, is stated with regard to a non-Jew who resides in Eretz Yisrael and observes the 7 Noahide mitzvot [ger toshav].
אמר ליה אביי, והא תרוייהו גבי הדדי כתיבי: לא לך, אלא לגר – שנאמר: ״לגר״. ולא לגר צדק, אלא לגר תושב – שנאמר: ״לגר תושב״.
Abaye said to Rav Yosef: How is it possible to differentiate between a non-Jew and a ger toshav? Aren’t both of them written next to each other, indicating that the same halakha pertains to both? As it is taught in a baraita: One who violates the prohibitions of the Sabbatical Year will be punished by having to resort to selling himself as a slave. And he will sell himself not to you, but to a stranger, as it is stated: “And sell himself to the stranger” (Leviticus 25:47), and not to a stranger who is a convert, but to a ger toshav, as it is stated: “And sell himself to the stranger who is a settler [ger toshav] with you” (Leviticus 25:47).