Study Bava Batra folio 153B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
אמר רבה: הרי מת, והרי קברו מוכיח עליו. אמר ליה אביי: השתא, ומה ספינה – שרובן לאבד, נותנין עליהן חומרי חיים וחומרי מתים; חולין – שרוב חולין לחיים, לא כל שכן?!
Rabba said: He is dead, and his grave proves that he died. It may therefore be assumed that he did not recover from his sickness, and his gift remains valid. Abaye said to him: And now, if in the case of a ship that sank, where the fate of most of the passengers of sunken ships is to perish, the stringencies of the living and the stringencies of the dead are applied to them due to the uncertainty as to whether they are alive or dead, in the case of sick people, where the fate of most sick people is to return to life, all the more so is it not clear that one should assume that he recovered from the illness and his gift is invalid?
אמר רב הונא בריה דרב יהושע: כמאן אזלא הא שמעתא דרבה – כרבי נתן. דתניא: מי מוציא מיד מי? הוא מוציא מידיהן בלא ראיה, והן אין מוציאין מידו אלא בראיה; דברי רבי יעקב.
Rav Huna, son of Rav Yehoshua, said: In accordance with whose opinion is that halakha of Rabba? It is in accordance with the opinion of R' Natan, as it is taught in a baraita: With regard to a case where one who gave his property to others claims that since he was on his deathbed at the time he can retract the gifts, and the recipients claim that he was healthy and cannot retract it, who removes the property from whose possession? The giver can remove it from the recipients’ possession without proof, as the property was previously established to be in his possession, but the recipients can remove it from the giver’s possession only with proof. This is the statement of R' Ya’akov.