Study Bava Batra folio 169A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
רבן שמעון בן גמליאל אומר: אף שטרי מקח וממכר אין כותבין. וכן היה רבן שמעון בן גמליאל אומר: הנותן מתנה לחברו, והחזיר לו את השטר – חזרה מתנתו. וחכמים אומרים: מתנתו קיימת.
The baraita continues: Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: The court may not write a replacement document even for deeds of buying and selling land. And Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says as well: With regard to one who gives a gift of land to another, and the recipient returned the deed to him, his gift of land returns to him as well. But the Rabbis say: His gift of land remains in the possession of the recipient.
אמר מר: חוץ מאחריות שבו. מאי טעמא?
The Talmud analyzes the baraita: The Master says in the baraita: With regard to deeds of buying and selling land, the court may write a replacement document, excluding the guarantee that was in the first document. What is the reason that the guarantee may not be written?
אמר רב ספרא: לפי שאין כותבין שני שטרות על שדה אחת; דלמא אזיל בעל חוב טריף ליה להאי, ואזיל האי ומפיק חד – וטריף לקוחות, ואמר ליה לבעל חוב: ״שוף לי דאיקום בה, והדר תא טירפן״. ומפיק אחרינא, והדר אזיל טריף לקוחות אחריני.
Rav Safra says: It is because the court may not write two deeds of sale for the same sale of one field, lest a creditor of the seller go and repossess the field sold to this purchaser, and that purchaser go and take out one deed, and in accordance with the guarantee clause of the sale, repossess land from other purchasers who purchased land from the same seller at a later date, and say to the creditor: Remain quiet [shof ] about this matter for a few years, while I become established in the property I repossessed. And then, come and claim your loan again, and then you will repossess this property from me. And then, after it is taken from him a second time, the purchaser will then take out the other document of sale, the replacement that the court had written for him, and then go and repossess land from other purchasers who purchased land from the same seller. In short, a replacement document with a guarantee will enable double collection on that guarantee.