Study Bava Batra folio 164B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
והלא אינו דומה זמנו של זה לזמנו של זה! פשוט; מלך שנה – מונין לו שנה, שתים – מונין לו שתים. מקושר; מלך שנה – מונין לו שתים, שתים – מונין לו שלש.
But the date of this one, a tied document, is not the same as the date of that one, an ordinary document. In an ordinary document, when the king has reigned for one year, one year is counted for him, and when he has reigned for two years, two years are counted for him. By contrast, in a tied document, when the king has reigned for one year, two years are counted for him, and when he has reigned for two years, 3 years are counted for him. If a tied document is simply opened up and used as an ordinary document, then it will emerge that it is postdated by a year.
R' Yehuda HaNasi continues: And there are times this can be problematic, as in a case where the debtor borrows money from the creditor, and the details of the loan are written in a tied document. And the debtor chances upon some money in the interim, i.e., during the 1st year after the document was written, and he repays the creditor, and says to him: Give me back my promissory note, as I have just repaid you. And the creditor says to the debtor: I lost the document and cannot give it to you. And in lieu of returning the promissory note, the creditor writes a receipt for the debtor, as protection against a second collection.
R' Yehuda HaNasi continues: And then, when the time for repayment written in the promissory note arrives, the creditor will make it into an ordinary document by undoing its stitches and opening it up, and he can then say to the debtor: It is now that you borrowed this money from me, as attested in this promissory note, and the receipt you have in your possession is for a previous debt, as its date precedes the date on my document.