שבת Date: 8 Shevat, 5777 (2/4/17) – Bava Basra Daf 13 ~ Tani Guterman

TIGHT TUGGINGS

[13a bottom] Beis Hillel agrees with Beis Shammai: If someone is half slave and half free-man (he was jointly owned by two men, and one of them set him free), he cannot marry a Canaanite slavewoman (as his free side is a freeman, who is forbidden to marry a slavewoman) and he cannot marry a regular Jewish girl (who cannot be with his slave half). Since, “The world was not created by G-d to be empty; it was created to be populated,” we force his remaining master to free his slave half as well [and we have the slave write for the master a document stating that he owes the master the rest of his value].

Prac-T-cal Tidbits: We are never completely “free” to do as we we want as we are bound to our commitment to honor Hashem’s Torah and its commandments. Since we too are half free (being souls) and half bound (by our bodies), we are constantly battling between our evil and good inclinations .