ABSTRACT
Shall the poor break vessels in order to better observe Passover? This text reports the ruling of the second- to third-century Babylonian rabbi Abba Arikha—commonly known as Rab—who prescribes that used vessels shall be broken before Passover, in fulfillment of the commandments not to mix leaven with other components and to cleanse the house from leaven. Another rabbi, however, disagrees: Mar Samuel of Nehardea maintains that only mixing leaven with ingredients of the same kind is forbidden and thus that mixing it either with ingredients of different kind during Passover or with ingredients of the same kind on or after Passover is permitted. As a consequence of these two different rulings, Rab assumes that vessels used for leaven shall be destroyed, whereas Mar Samuel permits their use after Passover. It is at this point that the discussion leads to a case of economic speculation on sellers of vessels, who presumably were selling them at a higher rate around the time of Passover, because Rab—the local authority in the city of Sura—had ruled to destroy them. Moreover, Mar Samuel—the local authority in the city of Nehardea—was bound to the duty of respecting his colleague’s stringent ruling: namely, destroying all the vessels and requiring the purchase of new ones, despite his disagreement. The text does not provide a justification for the decision to contrast this case of economic speculation, but the context clearly suggests that the intention was to preserve religious observance and social equity by lowering the prices in order to protect the poor, even though Mar Samuel’s more lenient ruling appears never to have been implemented. Notably, neither Jewish nor non-Jewish institutions were involved in the possible decision-making but questions of authority and local prestige are portrayed as more important than the welfare and social issues implicit in the manipulation of prices.
