For the source text click/tap here: Bava Kamma 68
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The Gemara asks another question with regard to the fourfold or fivefold payment…maybe this applies only in the specific case where the animal is sold after we heard that the owner despaired of its recovery (Yiush)?
The Sages respond to this and say:This cannot be since the thief’s sale of the animal must be similar to his slaughter of it.
Rabbi Yoḥanan said to Rabbi Elazar: The case of stealing a human being, i.e., kidnapping, proves that your reasoning is incorrect. The Torah states:
“And he who steals a man and sells him or if he is found in his hand, he shall be put to death” (Exodus 21:16).
In this case there is no owner’s despair, as no one ever despairs of his own freedom. Consequently, the thief’s sale of the person he kidnapped is invalid, and yet the Torah states that he is liable to receive the death penalty for selling him.
We explore the kidnapping of the Jewish child,
Edgardo Levi Mortara and its repercussions to this day in the catholic church.