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of a slave’ (Vayikra 25:42) but no lashes are given for violating these
two negative precepts because they incur the death penalty as it says,
‘If a man is found stealing a soul from among his brethren etc.’ and
he is put to death by strangulation. A thief does not incur the death
penalty until he steals a fellow Jew, brings him under his authority,
makes use of him and sells him to another.”

The Minchas Chinuch (Mitzvah, 36) writes that even though a
person who steals a fellow Jew but neither sells him nor puts him to
work, is not put to death, he nevertheless violates the negative precept
‘Do not steal’ and he is not flogged because this negative command-
ment carries the death sentence, as above.

Now, in the responsa of Rabbenu Betzalel Ashkenazi (39) the
author was asked the following question. [Halachah distinguishes
between two types of stealing: geneivah (theft), when property is
taken secretly, without the owner’s knowledge and gezeilah (robbery),
where the item is openly snatched from the owner.] Although gene-
ivah always denotes stealing without the owner’s knowledge, when a
person is stolen the owner knows about it because the victim knows
he is being abducted. Surely then, the Torah should have written “lo
tigzol” using the term reserved for robbery, rather than “lo tignov.” His
response was: “The victim’s owners are his father, his brothers and
his other relatives from whom he is being stolen away and separated.
This is referred to by the Torah as theft, for it is [indeed being done]
without the owners’ knowledge, [not in regard to the victim but] in
regard to those from whom he is being stolen.”

It is evident from these comments that a thief who abducts a fellow
Jew is called a ganav because he is stealing him from his relatives who
are termed his “owners” for this purpose. [Slight proof to this can be
adduced from the language employed by Yosef Hatzaddik, whom
the Torah reports as having said, “Ki gunov gunavti…for I was stolen
away) from the land of the Hebrews” (Bereishis, 40,15). Clearly then,
stealing a person from his relatives and separating him from them is
termed geneivah even though it is done with the knowledge of the
victim himself.]

Maaseh Rokei’ach takes him to task, asking how the victim’s fathers

230 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein