Sublime

Until well into the seventeenth century, the Ottoman sultans balanced their dependence on the political and military service of the Turkish aristocracy by recruiting a slave army of Muslim converts (perhaps seven or eight thousand a year) separated in childhood from their Christian parents. Devshirme recruitment obliterated the ties of kinship and

It is a pious quality not to accept presents, but rather to trust in G-d that He will satisfy his needs, as it is written:51 “And one who loathes presents shall live.”52

was not ritually slaughtered with the assumption that it was ritually slaughtered.69

If, however, one promises to give a poor person25 a present — whether a large one or a small one — he cannot retract, [even] according to the letter of the law, because it is considered as a vow.26 Even if he [merely] undertook a resolution in his heart, he must carry out that resolve,27 as will be explained in Hilchos Tzedakah. 28