Study Bava Batra folio 163B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
הניחא לרב כהנא – דמתני לה משמיה דשמואל, שפיר; אלא לרב טביומי – דמתני לה משמיה דרב, מאי איכא למימר?
This works out well, i.e., this concern does not apply, according to Rav Kahana, who teaches in the name of Shmuel that a document in which its content and its witnesses’ signatures are both written over an erasure is valid; according to him, all is well. It is Rav who says that an inked-in gap between the witnesses’ signatures and the court’s ratification is acceptable, and it is Shmuel who says that a document that is written and signed over an erasure is acceptable. But according to Rav Tavyumei, who teaches this latter statement in the name of Rav, what can be said? According to him, Rav said both statements, and taken together they pose a difficulty: The inked-in gap between the witnesses’ signatures and the ratification can easily be erased and a new document with signatures can be written over the erasure.
קסבר: כל כי האי גוונא, אין מקיימין אותו מן האשרתא שבו, אלא מן העדים שבו.
The Talmud answers: Rav maintains that in all cases like this, where a document and its witnesses’ signatures are written over an erasure and there is a court ratification on a non-erased part of the paper, the later court ratifies the document not on the basis of the previous court’s ratification that is on it, but only on the basis of the signatures of the witnesses that are on it. Therefore, the forging of a document in this manner is impossible, as the prior ratification of the court is disregarded, and the witnesses will attest to what they signed upon.
ורבי יוחנן אמר: לא שנו אלא בין העדים לכתב, אבל בין עדים לאשרתא – אפילו שיטה אחת פסול.
The Talmud cites another opinion: And R' Yoḥanan says: They taught in the baraita that a gap of one line does not invalidate the document only in the case where that space is between the witnesses’ signatures and the text of the document. But if the gap is between the witnesses’ signatures and a court’s ratification of the document, then a space of even one line renders the document not valid.