Study Yevamot folio 116A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
למאי ניחוש לה? אי לנפילה — מזהר זהיר ביה. אי לפקדון — כיון דשמיה כשמיה לא מפקיד גביה.
With regard to what should we be concerned in the case of the promissory note? If we are concerned about the possibility of falling, i.e., that the promissory note might have dropped from this person’s hand and the other one found it, the former is certainly careful with it so as not to lose it, as he knows there is someone else in the city with the same name. If we are concerned about the possibility that it was given as a deposit for safekeeping, i.e., that the actual owner might have given it to the one in possession of it, since his name is the same as the name of the bailee, the owner would not deposit his contract with him without some insurance.
מאי אמרת, דלמא מסר ליה? אותיות נקנות במסירה.
If you say that perhaps the actual owner passed, i.e., transferred the promissory note to this person whose name is the same as his own, i.e., he gave or sold it to him so he may collect it for himself, in that case the one in possession is entitled to collect the money, as letters of credit are acquired through passing. There is no need for an additional act of acquisition here, which means that the promissory note belongs to the one in possession of it, despite the fact that it was not originally written for him. Consequently, no proof can be brought from this case with regard to whether or not one should be concerned about two people with identical names.
ההוא גיטא דאשתכח בסורא וכתיב ביה הכי: בסורא מתא אנא ענן בר חייא נהרדעא פטרית ותרכית פלונית אנתתי. ובדקו רבנן מסורא ועד נהרדעא, ולא הוה ענן בר חייא אחרינא לבר מענן בר חייא מחגרא דהוה בנהרדעא. ואתו סהדי ואמור דההוא יומא כי איכתב ההוא גיטא, ענן בר חייא מחגרא גבן הוה.
The Talmud relates: There was a certain bill of divorce that was found in the city of Sura and the following was written in it: In the city of Sura, I, Anan bar Ḥiyya of Neharde’a, excused and sent away and divorced my wife, so-and-so. And the rabbis examined the area from Sura to Neharde’a, throughout almost all of Babylonia, and there was no other Anan bar Ḥiyya than the one they knew, apart from an Anan bar Ḥiyya of Ḥagra who was in Neharde’a. And yet witnesses came and said that on that day, when that bill of divorce was written: Anan bar Ḥiyya of Ḥagra was with us in Neharde’a, not in Sura.