The eighth of the Ten Commandments is “Lo Tignob” – “You shall not steal.” Many misinterpret this command as introducing the prohibition against stealing money or property, when in truth, this command refers to stealing human beings, meaning, kidnapping. Specifically, it forbids forcefully taking somebody and selling him as a slave. Needless to say, stealing money or property is also forbidden, but the Torah introduces that command in a different context. The command of “Lo Tignob” in the Aseret Ha’dibberot forbids kidnapping. The Sefer Ha’hinuch writes that the reason behind this command is readily obvious, and needs no explanation. The Rikanti (Rav Menahem Rikanti, Italy, 1250-1310) elaborates on the deeper meaning behind this command, explaining that every person is to be free to serve his Creator through the fulfillment of Misvot. One who kidnaps his fellow and sells him as a slave deprives his victim of realizing the purpose for which he was created – to serve G-d – by forcing him into subservience to another human being. This command is binding upon all people, at all times, and in all locations. It is included under the general prohibition of theft which is one of the Seven Noachide Laws, and it is thus binding even upon gentiles. One who kidnaps another person and sells him as a slave is liable to capital punishment, specifically, to Henek (strangulation). The Torah states this explicitly in Parashat Mishpatim (21:16): “And one who steals a person and sells him shall be put to death.” Of course, as we know, the Torah tells a famous story about somebody who was kidnapped and sold as a slave – the story of Yosef, whose brothers sold him to merchants as a slave. Yosef’s brothers were, clearly, righteous men, and it seems difficult to imagine that they transgressed one of the Ten Commandments. Therefore, while clearly the act they committed was wrong, a number of commentators explained that the sale of Yosef did not, at least technically, qualify as a violation of the command of “Lo Tignob.” One possibility is that one violates “Lo Tignob” only if he physically removes a person from his property into the kidnapper’s property. The sale of Yosef occurred in the region of Shechem, which Yaakob Abinu granted to Yosef. As such, the brothers never brought Yosef out of his property, and so the act they committed does not technically qualify as a violation of “Lo Tignob.” Others suggest that one does not violate “Lo Tignob” unless he performs “Hagbeha” – lifting the victim off the ground. Yosef’s brothers dragged him out of the pit when they sold him as a slave, without ever lifting him off the ground, and thus they were not in violation of “Lo Tignob.” Yet another theory emerges from the Midrash’s statement that the brothers decided to sell Yosef based on the precedent of Canaan – Noah’s grandson whom Noah cursed in response to Canaan’s disrespectful conduct when Noah became intoxicated. Noah placed a curse upon Canaan that he should be a slave because of his wrongdoing, and Yosef’s brothers reasoned that just as Canaan became a slave because of his misconduct, Yosef, too, should be condemned to slavery because of his bringing negative reports about them to their father. If so, then one could argue that the brothers already considered Yosef a slave by virtue of his wrongdoing, such that they did not, technically speaking, turn him into a slave. Furthermore, some commentators understand the text of the sale of Yosef (Bereshit 37:28) to mean that it was the Midyanim, and not the brothers, who actually pulled Yosef out of the pit and sold him to the Yishmaelite merchants. According to this understanding, then the brothers were clearly not in violation of the prohibition of “Lo Tignob.”