theft

Distinctions

genevah (גניבה)

The Torah's lo tignovu (Vayikra 19:11) forbids this class, and the Torah mandates repayment for the ganav at Shemos 22:3. Bereishis Rabbah 54:3 and Bava Kamma 79b: the ganav conceals himself from his victim and takes in a sneaky way. The S'ma (to Choshen Mishpat 348:7) adds that even if the victim ends up seeing him, the fact that he tried to hide is enough to make him a ganav. Rambam (Hilchos Geneivah 1:3): he takes another's property clandestinely so that the owner does not know, as a pickpocket does.

The ganav alone bears the fines: double the value of what he stole (Shemos 21:37), and four or five times over for a slaughtered or sold animal. Bava Kamma 79b gives the reason, and it is the heart of this cluster: the ganav hides from people but not from Hashem, so he shows he fears man more than his Creator. The gazlan fears nobody, but at least he does not honor man above Hashem, and so he goes free of the fines. (By Torah tradition the lo tignov of the Aseres HaDibros, Shemos 20:13 and Devarim 5:17, is kidnapping, not ordinary theft.)

gezeilah (גזילה)

Lo tigzol (Vayikra 19:13), with repayment at Vayikra 5:23. Bereishis Rabbah 54:3: gezeilah is taking in public, out in the open; one opinion requires that he take it in front of ten people, and if only nine he is merely a ganav; another opinion requires that he come face to face with the victim and snatch the item from his hand. Rambam (Hilchos Gezeilah 1:3) illustrates: snatching movable goods from a man's hand (Bava Basra 34a), entering his property uninvited and taking (Shevuos 44b), overpowering his slaves or animals and making them work (Bava Kamma 97a), going into his field and eating his produce (Bava Basra 38a).

Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim gives the two-letter ג-ז the sense of shaving or trimming, a cut that leaves part attached and part detached: geiz (the grass left after mowing, Tehillim 72:6), gozez (shearing, Bereishis 31:19, 38:12), gazam (a locust that eats some and leaves the rest), geza (a stump), gazis (hewn stone). He does not extend this to gezel himself, since the lamed does not fit his theory; Rabbi Klein suggests it fits all the same, robbery severing one possession while leaving the rest. Rav Hirsch (to Shemos 23:19) makes the same move from the other side: gozel, a fledgling, is cognate with gezel because taking the bird from the nest severs its bond with its mother as theft severs the bond between an object and its owner. Rabbi Ernest Klein takes gezel as related to a root meaning "cut off," a violent ripping of the object out of its owner's hands.

Mnemonic, from Rabbi A. Y. Berman: the gaNav steals at Night, the gazLan in the Light.

chamas (חמס)

Some sixty appearances in Tanach, and not always theft; often plain violence or injustice. The generation of the Flood was destroyed because "the land was filled with chamas" (Bereishis 6:13), which Rashi, following Sanhedrin 108a, takes as robbery. But Bava Kamma 62a defines the Rabbinic chamsan narrowly: he is a coercive buyer, who takes the object against the owner's will but pays him money. A wrongdoer, yet not technically a thief or a robber.

Rashi (to Yoma 39a and Tehillim 71:4) and Radak (there and in Sefer HaShorashim) equate chometz/chamtzan with gazlan and chamsan, Radak noting the interchange of tzadi and samech. The Netziv narrows it differently: a chamtzan is not a thief at all but one who took something he was genuinely owed and took more than his due.

listim (לסטים)

Mishnaic Hebrew from the Greek leistes, "robber." The singular form ends like a plural, so it was pressed into service for a band of robbers too, and Rabbinic Hebrew derived verbs from it (lilastem, to rob). Whether an armed listim is a ganav or a gazlan turns on an unresolved question in Bava Kamma 57a and is disputed by the authorities (Kesef Mishneh, Lechem Mishneh, Even HaAzel to Hilchos Geneivah 1:3): he takes openly and the victim knows, like a gazlan, but he carries a weapon, which shows he fears being caught, like a ganav.

Rendering guidance

• Genevah / ganav: stealing, theft, thief. Gezeilah / gazlan: robbery, robber. Hold this pairing everywhere; the fines, the derashos, and the mussar all hang on it.
• Chamas in a pasuk: violence unless the context (Bereishis 6:13 with Rashi) fixes it on theft, and then "robbery" with a note. The Rabbinic chamsan is neither: a coercive buyer, or leave it transliterated.
• Listim: brigand or armed robber; "bandit" also works. Do not resolve him into ganav or gazlan in the English when the sugya leaves him open.
• Trap: English "theft" and "stealing" will absorb genevah and gezeilah together, and the whole passage in Bava Kamma 79b becomes unreadable. When both stand in one sentence, take "steal" for the first and "rob" or "seize by force" for the second, and never let "steal" do both jobs.
• Trap: "robbery" is also the natural English for chamas in Bereishis 6:13, which then collides with gezeilah. If both words are live in the passage, render chamas "lawlessness" or "violent wrongdoing" and reserve "robbery" for gezeilah.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Stealing and Robbing," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 27 Shevat 5780 (2020-02-22): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/8613-stealing-and-robbing.md. Primary loci: Vayikra 19:11, 19:13, 5:23; Shemos 22:3, 21:37, 20:13; Devarim 5:17; Bereishis 6:13; Bereishis Rabbah 54:3; Bava Kamma 4b, 57a, 62a, 79b, 97a; Bava Basra 34a, 38a; Shevuos 44b; Sanhedrin 108a; Tehillim 71:4, 72:6; Yoma 39a; Rambam, Hilchos Geneivah 1:3 and Hilchos Gezeilah 1:3; S'ma to Choshen Mishpat 348:7; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim. The article's Akkadian and Arabic comparisons are omitted here per house rule 9.