Kiddushin, Daf Kaf Bet, Part 6

 

Introduction

Today s section discusses acquisition through hazakah.

 

תנו רבנן כיצד בחזקה התיר לו מנעלו או הוליך כליו אחריו לבית המרחץ הפשיטו הרחיצו סכו גרדו הלבישו הנעילו הגביהו קנאו

 

Our Rabbis taught: How [is a non-Jewish slave acquired] by hazakah? If he unties his shoes for him, or carries his clothese after him to the bathhouse; if he undresses, washes him, anoints, scrapes, dresses him, puts on his shoes, or lifts him, he acquires him.

 

Hazakah is an act that creates the presumption of ownership. To acquire a slave through hazakah, the slave must act in a manner subservient to the one acquiring him. The baraita therefore describes common things that a slave would do for an owner. Note that most of these are acts of personal servitude. It seems that most slaves served as personal servants and not workers in the field.

 

אמר ר’ שמעון לא תהא חזקה גדולה מהגבהה שהגבהה קונה בכל מקום

מאי קאמר אמר רב אשי הגביהו הוא לרבו קנאו הגביהו רבו לו לא קנאו

אמר רבי שמעון לא תהא חזקה גדולה מהגבהה שהגבהה קונה בכל מקום

 

R. Shimon said: Let hazakah not be greater than lifting, for lifting acquires everywhere.

What is he saying?

R. Ashi said: [The first Tanna implies,] if he [the slave] lifts his master, he acquires him; if his master lifts him, he does not acquire him.

R. Shimon said: Hazakah should not be greater than lifting, for lifting acquires everywhere.

 

At the end of the baraita R. Shimon makes a cryptic statement regarding hazakah.

R. Ashi explains that according to the tanna kamma (the first opinion) if the slave lifts the master, the master acquires the slave, for this is an act of hazakah. The slave shows that he is a slave by lifting the master. But if the master lifts the slave, there is no acquisition.

R. Shimon disagrees. In general when one lifts something up he acquires it. Thus hazakah should not be greater than lifting means that whenever someone lifts something, he acquires it. Even if the master lifts the slave.

 

השתא דאמרת הגביהו הוא לרבו קנאו אלא מעתה שפחה כנענית תקנה בביאה

כי קאמרינן זה נהנה וזה מצטער הכא זה נהנה וזה נהנה הוא

 

Now that you say that if he lifts his master he acquires him, if so, a non-Jewish slave woman should be acquired by intercourse?

When do we say this, when one derives pleasure and the other pain; but here both derive pleasure.

 

If a slave can be acquired by lifting his master, then a female slave should be acquired through intercourse. After all, if she is on the bottom, she lifts him.

The Talmud responds that when a slave lifts his master, the master derives pleasure, the slave does not. During intercourse, both parties derive pleasure. Therefore, this does not imply that the female slave is serving the male partner.

 

שלא כדרכה מאי איכא למימר

אמר רב אחיי [בר אדא] דמן אחא מאן לימא לן דלאו הנאה אית להו לתרוייהו

ועוד משכבי אשה כתיב הקישה הכתוב כדרכה לשלא כדרכה

 

Then what can be said of unnatural intercourse?

R. Ahay b. Adda of Aha: Who can say that both do not derive pleasure? Moreover, it is written, With the lyings of a woman (Leviticus 18:22): thus the verse compared unnatural to natural intercourse.

 

The initial assumption is that women do not enjoy unnatural (anal) intercourse. Therefore, he could acquire her through such a form of intercourse, because she would be doing this just as an act of servitude (again, this is not sanctioned the Talmud is asking how come this does not work).

There are two answers: 1) Some women do enjoy anal intercourse. 2) The Torah uses the plural in reference to forms of intercourse, thereby implying that they are all treated the same. Just as a female slave cannot be acquired through natural intercourse, she also cannot be acquired through unnatural intercourse.