Captivity and Purity: The Story of Shmuel’s Daughters (Ketubot 23a)
See yesterday’s piece, for the story of the captivity of Rav Nahman’s daughters.
Outline
Debating Protective Measures for Captive Women: Shmuel and His Father's Exchange in Neharde’a
Shmuel’s Daughters Taken Captive
Self-Testimony of Captivity and No Sex
Appendix - Shmuel’s father’s strict practices for his daughters (Shabbat 65a)
The Passage
Debating Protective Measures for Captive Women: Shmuel and His Father's Exchange in Neharde’a
Captive women arrived in Neharde’a (for ransom),1 and Shmuel’s father2 assigned guards/chaperones (נטורי) to protect them from seclusion with non-Jews (to prevent sexual assault).
Shmuel questioned the necessity, rhetorically asking: “Until now who guarded them?!“
Shmuel's father defended his actions by rhetorically asking back: “If they were your daughters, would you treat them with contempt (מזלזל) to that extent?!“
הני שבוייתא דאתיין לנהרדעא.
אותיב אבוה דשמואל נטורי בהדייהו,
אמר ליה שמואל: ועד האידנא מאן נטרינהו?!
אמר ליה: אילו בנתך הווין, מי הוית מזלזל בהו כולי האי?!
The Gemara relates: There were these captive women who came to Neharde’a with their captors so that the local residents would redeem them.
Shmuel’s father posted guards with them to ensure that they would not enter into seclusion with gentiles.
Shmuel said to him: Until now who guarded them?! If there is concern about their status, it should be with regard to the possibility that they engaged in intercourse while in captivity before they were brought to Neharde’a.
He said to Shmuel: If they were your daughters, would you treat them with contempt to that extent?! They are no longer captives and deserve to be treated like any Jewish woman of unflawed lineage.
Shmuel’s Daughters Taken Captive
Shmuel’s father’s statement was “Like an error that emerges from before the ruler” (Ecclesiastes 10:5), and the statement came true.3
Shmuel’s daughters were subsequently taken captive, brought to Eretz Yisrael, and their captors attempted to sell or ransom them.
הואי ״כשגגה שיוצא מלפני השליט״,
ואישתביין בנתיה דמר שמואל,
ואסקינהו לארעא דישראל.
The statement by the father of Shmuel was “Like an error that emerges from before the ruler” (Ecclesiastes 10:5), and it was realized.
The daughters of Master Shmuel were taken captive,
and their captors took them up to Eretz Yisrael and sought to sell them or ransom them.
Self-Testimony of Captivity and No Sex
Shmuel’s daughters avoided bringing their captors to court and instead entered Rabbi Ḥanina’s study hall.
Each testified to her own purity (i.e. not sexually assaulted) despite captivity, stating: "I was taken captive, and I am pure."
The court accepted their testimonies and allowed them to marry into the priesthood.
אוקמן לשבויינהי מאבראי, ועיילי [אינהי] לבי מדרשא דרבי חנינא.
הא אמרה: ״נשביתי וטהורה אני״, והא אמרה: ״נשביתי וטהורה אני״
שרינהו.
[...]
Shmuel’s daughters left their captors standing outside, so that they would not come before the court, and the women entered the study hall of R' Ḥanina.
This daughter said: I was taken captive, and I am pure, and that daughter said: I was taken captive, and I am pure,
and the court permitted them to marry into the priesthood.
[...]
Appendix - Shmuel’s father’s strict practices for his daughters (Shabbat 65a)
The Mishnah permits young girls to go out on Shabbat wearing strings (חוטין), but the Talmud notes that Shmuel’s father imposed stricter practices on his daughters, prohibiting them from wearing strings on Shabbat.
Shmuel's father also imposed other strict practices on his daughters:
He forbade them from sleeping4 next to each other
He facilitated their ritual immersions by preparing seasonal accommodations.
In Nisan, he made ritual baths for them
in Tishrei, he placed mats in the river (to prevent them from getting muddy in the shallow waters).
הבנות יוצאות בחוטין.
אבוה דשמואל
לא שביק להו לבנתיה דנפקן בחוטין,
ולא שביק להו גניאן גבי הדדי,
ועביד להו
מקואות ביומי ניסן
ומפצי ביומי תשרי.
The mishna taught that the young girls may go out with strings.
The Gemara relates that Shmuel’s father
did not allow his daughters to go out with strings,
and did not allow them to lie next to each other,
and he made
ritual baths for them in the days of Nisan
and mats in the Euphrates River in the days of Tishrei. Since the water was shallow and the riverbed muddy, he placed mats on the riverbed so that they could immerse without getting dirty.
See Wikipedia, “Pidyon shvuyim“.
Pidyon shvuyim (Hebrew: פִּדְיוֹן שְׁבוּיִים, literally: Redemption of Captives) is a religious duty in Judaism to bring about the release of a fellow Jew captured by slave dealers or robbers, or imprisoned unjustly. The release of the captive is typically secured by reconciliation, ransom negotiations, or unrelenting pursuit. It is considered an important commandment in Jewish law.
Compare Wikipedia, “Slavery in ancient Rome“ > “Piracy and kidnapping“:
Piracy has a long history in human trafficking. The primary goal of kidnapping was not enslavement but maximizing profit, as the relatives of captives were expected to pay ransom.
People who cared about getting the captive back were motivated to pay more than a stranger would if the captive were auctioned as a slave, since the price would be determined by the captive's individual qualities, but sometimes the ransom demand could not be met.
If a slave was kidnapped, the owner might or might not decide that the amount of ransom was worthwhile. If multiple people from the same city were taken at the same time and demands for payment could not be met privately, the home city might try to pay the ransom from public funds, but these efforts too might come up short.
The captive could then resort to borrowing the ransom money from profiteering lenders, in effect putting himself into debt bondage to them. Selling the kidnap victim on the open market was a last but not infrequent resort […]
Within the Jewish community, rabbis usually encouraged buying back enslaved Jews, but advised that “one should not ransom captives for more than their value, for the good order of the world” because inflated ransoms would only “motivate Romans to enslave even more Jews”.
In the early Church, ransoming captives was considered a work of charity (caritas), and after the Empire came under Christian rule, churches spent “enormous funds” to buy back Christian prisoners.
אבוה דשמואל. For another extended talmudic story relating to Shmuel and his father, see my piece here.
See אל תפתח פה לשטן.
Compare the English expressions “tempt fate", “Speak of the devil, and he shall appear”, and see Knocking on wood - Wikipedia.
גניאן - literally: “laying”.