For the source text click/tap here: Gittin 39
To download, click/tap here: PDF
The rabbis consider what happens when a slave is freed by his master who then dies. Is this like other cases of death before one is released, like a man who has written a get for his wife but has not yet delivered it to her hand when he then dies?
We are given an example of one of their questions via the rabbi's story of a maidservant whose master was dying. She came to him in tears, begging to be freed from servitude. He threw his hat to her and said that she should acquire the hat and with it her freedom. Sounds terrific -- except that a court denied the relevance of his actions: "He did nothing". This is because he act was one of transfer of ownership, which is different from an act releasing one from ownership.
We explore acts of manumission in history.