Gittin, Daf Yod Daled, Part 5

 

Introduction

The Talmud continues to deal with cases where someone sends something to someone else.

 

הוֹלֵךְ מָנֶה לִפְלוֹנִי וְהָלַךְ וּבִקְּשׁוֹ וְלֹא מְצָאוֹ תָּנֵי חֲדָא יַחְזְרוּ לַמְשַׁלֵּחַ וְתַנְיָא אִידַּךְ לְיוֹרְשֵׁי מִי שֶׁנִּשְׁתַּלְחוּ לוֹ

לֵימָא בְּהָא קָמִיפַּלְגִי דְּמָר סָבַר הוֹלֵךְ כִּזְכִי וּמָר סָבַר הוֹלֵךְ לָאו כִּזְכִי

 

[One who says]: Bring a maneh to So-and-so, and he goes and looks for him but does not find him: One tanna says he should bring it back to the sender. The other tanna says he should give it to the inheritors of the intended recipient.

Shall we say that they dispute the followig: One master holds that bring is like acquire and the other holds that bring is not like acquire.

 

In this case the recipient seems to have died. What should the agent do with the object? According to one tanna, he should bring it back to the sender. The Talmud proposes that this is because he holds that the agent has not acquired it. The sender said Bring not acquire. The other tanna holds that he should give it to the inheritors. The Talmud suggests that this is because the agent has acquired the object on behalf of the recipient. Bring is like acquire. The recipient s inheritors are now the rightful possessors.

 

אָמַר רַבִּי אַבָּא בַּר מֶמֶל דְּכוּלֵּי עָלְמָא הוֹלֵךְ לָאו כִּזְכִי וְלָא קַשְׁיָא הָא בְּבָרִיא הָא בִּשְׁכִיב מְרַע

 

Rabbi Abba bar Mamel said: Everyone holds Bring is not like acquire. And there is no difficulty in one case, the sender was healthy and in the other he was dying.

 

Rabbi Abba bar Mamel harmonizes the two baraitot. They both hold that when a sender says bring he does not mean acquire. Therefore, the agent has not acquired the object. One baraita refers to a healthy sender in such a case he should bring the gift back. The second baraita refers to a dying man. When a dying man instructs to give a gift his words are irreversible.

 

רַב זְבִיד אָמַר הָא וְהָא בִּשְׁכִיב מְרַע הָא דְּאִיתֵיהּ לִמְקַבֵּל בִּשְׁעַת מַתַּן מָעוֹת הָא דְּלֵיתֵיהּ לִמְקַבֵּל בִּשְׁעַת מַתַּן מָעוֹת

 

Rav Zevid said: Both refer to a dying man. One is a case where he (the recipient) was alive when the coins were given and one refers to a case where the recipient was not alive when the coins were given.

 

Rav Zevid says that both baraitot refer to a gift given by a dying person. However, for the gift to be valid the recipient must be alive. So one baraita refers to a case where the recipient was alive and thus the gift was valid and must be given to the inheritors. And the other baraita refers to a case where he was not alive, and therefore the gift must be returned to the sender.

 

רַב פָּפָּא אָמַר הָא וְהָא בְּבָרִיא הָא דְּמִית מְקַבֵּל בְּחַיֵּי נוֹתֵן הָא דְּמִית נוֹתֵן בְּחַיֵּי מְקַבֵּל

 

Rav Papa said: Both refer to a healthy person. One baraita refers to a case where the recipient died while the giver was alive, and the other to a case where the giver died while the recipient was alive.

 

Rav Papa said that both baraitot refer to a gift of a healthy person. If the recipient died while the giver was alive, the agent must return the gift to the giver. But if the giver died while the recipient was alive and then the recipient died, he should give the gift to the inheritors.