The Talmudic Laws for the Acquisition of a Slave.

by Master Alan

Published in Prometheus #36 (January 2001) pp. 28-29, as part of a special issue on "Spirituality & S/M"

Few people have much appreciation for ancient Jewish ethics with regard to sexual relations and slavery. The Biblical and Talmudic ethics in these regards are, by today's standards, politically, theologically and sexually incorrect. They are so embarrassing that most rabbis try to hide the truth about Judaism's sexual ethics.

The Talmud, a massive encyclopedia of Jewish life and law was redacted in the third century AD in Babylonia (Iraq). The Talmud contains numerous stories of loyal faithful and devoted slaves. The archetype of the devoted slave is the Biblical figure of Abraham's slave, Eliezer. Abraham found Eliezer lying half starved by the edge of the road on the way to Damascus. Eliezer was a runaway slave. After Abraham nursed him back to health, he told the runaway that he was free to leave, but Eliezer, who was born to serve, vowed never to leave Abraham, having finally found a Master worthy of his love and loyalty. When Abraham asked Eliezer to swear fidelity, he told him to "place your hand upon my thigh." This was an ancient custom, not some bizarre kink of Abraham's. When taking an oath to a Master, a slave would place his hand upon the Master's thigh near the testicles. Then he would swear to honor his Master's will.

Abraham, Sarah and Hagar: A Biblical Triad.

According to Talmudic legend, Hagar, Sarah's handmaid, was actually an Egyptian princess. She had been given to Sarah by Pharaoh, years before when Sarah was a concubine in Pharaoh's house. Pharaoh had plenty of daughters to spare and enslaving a daughter to a man or women that Pharaoh wanted to honor, was not unusual. For a woman to offer her slave to her husband/master was also not unusual. Sarah asked Abraham to take Hagar as a wife, while reserving her rights as Hagar's mistress.

After Hagar became pregnant, "her mistress was lowered in her esteem" and:

Abram said to Sarai, Behold! - your maidservant is in your hand; do to her as you see fit, And Sarai dealt harshly with her, so she fled from her.

⁷ An angel of G*d found her by the spring of water in the desert, at the spring on the road to Shur. ⁶ And he said, "Hagar, maidservant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?" And she said, 'I am running away from Sarai my mistress."

⁹ And the angel said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her domination.'' (Gen: 16:1-9)

What we have here is a model of a society that consisted of many different ways for people to form households, including "ownership" such as Sarah's relationship to Hagar. Imagine for a moment what that relationship must have been like? Sarah was given Hagar by the Pharaoh of Egypt. Sarah was older, the girl much younger. What was Hagar's relationship to Sarah? Was it an oppressive relationship based on terror... the kind of slavery that existed in the American South... slavery based on the whip? Or did Sarah and Hagar love each other? They spent their lives together, after all.

According the Biblical account Hagar returned to her mistress and accepted her domination and gave birth to Ishmael. Apparently, once Hagar accepted the fact that despite her new relationship with Abraham, her relationship to her mistress had not changed, things ran smoothly again. What we have here is a triad consisting of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar in which Sarah was the dominant partner of the three. Both Abraham and Hagar defer to Sarah. It was Sarah who decided what the relationship between Abraham and Hagar was to be while maintaining her authority over her property.

Rachel and Leah give us another insight into family relations among the patriarchs and this time it would be worthwhile quoting from directly from the text (Genesis 30):

Rueben [Leah's eldest] went out in the days of the wheat harvest; and found dudaim (an aphrodisiac) in the field and brought them to Leah his mother. Rachel said to Leah, "Oh, please can I have some of your son's dudaim."

Leah replied: "you took my husband and now you want my son's dudaim!" So Rachel made an offer: "I'll trade you my night with Jacob for some of your dudaim."

When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah ran out to meet him crying, "It is to me that you must come tonight for I have bought you with my son's dudaim." So he lay with her that night... and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.

Once again, it appears that the women are deciding who sleeps with the Master and when. It also seems very playful. Leah runs out to meet Jacob telling him that "I bought you with my son's dudaim." And the fact that Leah conceived is an indication that G*d blessed what she had done. Both Rachael and Leah owned slaves which were given to Jacob. The Twelve Tribes of Israel are descended from all four mothers. The fact that some tribes were descended from slaves, does not seem to have mattered much.

Consensual Slavery

Judaism has a whole category of laws relating to the acquisition and ownership of slaves. The acquisition of female slaves is discussed in great detail along with the general laws for the acquisition of a wife. Both are called "acquisition" and the laws are all derived from the general Talmudic laws of related to the acquisition of property. One does not acquire a slave simply by paying for her, or as in our society by collaring her. According to the Talmud Kiddushin (Tractate on Marriages), a slave must perform a servile act such as removing the master's shoe, carrying his clothing after him to the bathhouse, washing his body, rubbing him with oil, scrapping his skin, dressing him, or lifting him. If the slave performed any of these servile acts, the person seeking to acquire the slave has acquired him or her.

Acquisition by Cohabitation?

After setting down the general principles for the acquisition of a slave, the rabbis asked if a female slave can be acquired with sexual intercourse. This is a natural question to ask since a woman can be acquired as a wife with sexual intercourse and in general the acquisition of a slave follows the same rules as the acquisition of a wife. Furthermore, the Talmud already stated that "if the slave lifted the master the master acquires... Accordingly let us derive that a Canaanite slave-woman can be acquired through cohabitation with her. For in the act of cohabitation she supports his weight and in effect lifts him, which should constitute her servile act."

The rabbis answered, "When do we say that the slave is acquired by lifting the master?... When the master derives pleasure from the act and the slave suffers pain. That is an act of servitude. However, here, in the case of cohabitation, it is a situation in which both the master and the slave derive pleasure." And that leads to the next question, "What about cohabitation in an unnatural manner (anal intercourse). Why should he not acquire her in that case?" And, in a priceless reply, Rabbi Achai bar Adda from Acha said, "Who tells us that both do not derive pleasure from the unnatural act? Perhaps both do!"

The rabbis next ask if anal intercourse will work as a legal form of acquisition for the sanctification of a marriage. And to this they reply, "If ten men raped her anally, she is still considered a virgin, but if her husband takes her with her consent that way, he has acquired her and she is no longer considered a virgin." Thus, the Talmudic rabbis considered anal sex, not only acceptable, but acceptable for the sacrament of marriage.

Interestingly, the slavery discussed in the Talmud appears to be at least to some extent "consensual slavery." Just as a wife can only be acquired with her consent, that is, the act of intercourse does not effectuate a marriage unless the woman has in mind to accept the man. If a man rapes a woman or they have casual sex, they are not married. Rather the man has to say to her, "with this act, I consecrate you to me according to laws of Moses and Israel." And she has to at least think to herself, "and I wish to be acquired by you."

Now, the same holds for the slave and the servile act. The slave has to acquiesce to the process. In fact, in ancient times, a Cannanite slave owned by a Jew, had to accept the basic tenants of Judaism. A Jewish slave owner was only allowed to keep a Cannanite slave for one year. After that period, if the slave remained a pagan, the slave had to be sold to pagans. Jews were not allowed to own pagans who remained pagans. And if the Master hit the slave and broke a bone or a even a tooth, the slave was automatically emancipated and upon emancipation was considered a Jew in all respects. Whether or not these rules were actually kept, their existence along with numerous stories of slaves who were devoted to their Master's tells us that a kind of consensual slavery existed in Talmudic Judaism. In fact, it was acceptable even for Jews. This slavery was actually a kind of indentured servitude lasting no more than seven years. But, if the Jewish bondsman were to say, "I love my master... I shall not go free;" then his master will "bore his ear with an awl, and he shall serve forever." (Gen. 25).