Judaism and Slavery - Redeeming Jewish Slaves

Redeeming Jewish Slaves

The Hebrew Bible contains instructions to redeem (purchase the freedom of) Jewish slaves owned by non-Jews (Lev. 25:47-51). However, these instructions only began to be followed in the Greek and Roman periods. The Talmud contained similar guidance to emancipate Jewish slaves, but cautioned the redemeer against paying excessive prices since that may encourage "the Romans" to enslave more Jews.

Many Jews were taken to Rome as prisoners of war, but Julius Caesar, who was fairly friendly towards Judaism, appears to have freed most of them. Josephus, himself a former 1st century slave, remarks that the faithfulness of Jewish slaves, and former slaves, was appreciated by their owners; this may have been one of the main reasons for freeing them. Also, Jewish slaves held in Rome were sometimes freed by their owners because of "their unwillingness to break the laws of their fathers, they were unserviceable".

In the Middle Ages, redeeming Jewish slaves gained importance and - up until the 19th century - Jewish congregations around the Mediterranean Sea formed societies dedicated to that purpose. Jewish communities customarily ransomed Jewish captives according to a Judaic mitzvah regarding the redemption of captives (Pidyon Shvuyim). In his A History of the Jews, Paul Johnson writes:

Jews were particularly valued as captives since it was believed, usually correctly, that even if they themselves poor, a Jewish community somewhere could be persuaded to ransom them. If a Jew was taken by Turks from a Christian ship, his release was usually negotiated from Constantinople. In Venice, the Jewish Levantine and Portuguese congregations set up a special organization for redeeming Jewish captives taken by Christians from Turkish ships, Jewish merchants paid a special tax on all goods to support it, which acted as a form of insurance since they were likely victims.