Kiddushin, Daf Kaf Vav, Part 5

 

Introduction

Today s section discusses the law which allows one to buy movables together with land. In other words, one does not need to actually pick up the movables. Once one buys the land, the movables are his as well.

 

נכסים שאין להם אחריות: מנהני מילי אמר חזקיה דאמר קרא (דברי הימים ב כא, ג) ויתן להם אביהם מתנות וגו’ עם ערי מצורות ביהודה

 

Property which does not provide security [may be acquired in conjunction with property which does have security by money, deed, or possession]. From where do we know this? Hizkiyah said: For the verse says, And their father gave them gifts . . . with walled cities in Judah.

 

The fact that the gifts are given with the walled cities implies that one can transfer movables with land.

 

איבעיא להו בעינן צבורים או לא

אמר רב יוסף תא שמע ר’ עקיבא אומר קרקע כל שהוא חייבת בפאה ובבכורים ולכתוב עליה פרוסבול ולקנות עמה נכסים שאין להם אחריות ואי אמרת בעינן צבורים כל שהוא למאי חזי

 

They asked: Do we need [the movables] to be heaped up [on the land] or not?

R. Joseph said: Come and hear: R. Akiba said: Land, whatever its size, is liable to pe’ah and first fruits, and [is fit] for a prosbul to be written on it, and to buy with it property which does not provide security. And if you say: They must be heaped on it, for what is a very small piece of land fit?

 

The Talmud asks a critical question must the movables be on the property that is being acquired. In other words, how does this transaction work? Is it that since I m buying land, I can more easily also buy what s on the land? Or is it some sort of bundled acquisition acquiring the land allows me to more easily acquire other things.

The fact that R. Akiva says that movables can be acquired even with a small piece of land seems to imply that the movables need not be on the land. Otherwise, why mention that the land need not be of a minimum size.

[A prosbul allows debts to not be remitted during the sabbatical year. For this document to be written, the debtor must own some land, even an amount far smaller than his actual debt. Peah is the corners of land left for the poor. First fruits are brought to the Temple.]

 

תרגומא רב שמואל בר ביסנא קמיה דרב יוסף כגון שנעץ בה מחט

א"ל רב יוסף קבסתן איכפל תנא לאשמועי’ מחט אמר רב אשי מאן לימא לן דלא תלה בה מרגניתא דשוויא אלפא זוזי

 

R. Shmuel b. Bisna explained it in front of R. Joseph: For example, he stuck a needle on it.

R. Joseph said to him. You are bothering us! Would the tanna trouble to teach us about a needle!

R. Ashi said: How do we know that he did not suspend a pearl on it, worth a thousand zuz?

 

R. Shmuel b. Bisna locates a case where movables could be on a very tiny piece of land the person stuck a needle into the ground. Buying this ground would allow one to buy the needle with it. But it would not allow one to buy movables not on the land.

R. Joseph responds that this is absurd would a baraita teach such a halakhah one can buy a tiny needle, when he buys a tiny piece of land? Surely the baraita was referring to a more consequential case, one in which a person was trying to buy a very tiny, almost non-existent piece land so that with it he could buy valuable movables that are not on this land.

R. Ashi defends R. Shmuel b. Bisna perhaps he put a pearl on the end of the needle!

 

ת"ש אמר ר’ אלעזר מעשה במדוני אחד שהיה בירושלים שהיו לו מטלטלין הרבה וביקש ליתנם במתנה אמרו לו אין לו תקנה עד שיקנם על גבי קרקע מה עשה הלך ולקח בית סלע סמוך לירושלים ואמר צפוני זה לפלוני ועמו מאה צאן ומאה חביות ומת וקיימו את דבריו

ואי אמרת בעינן צבורים בה בית סלע למאי חזי

 

Come and hear: R. Elazar said: It once happened that a certain Madonite was in Jerusalem and had a large quantity of movables, which he wanted to give away as a gift. They told him he had no other means but to transfer them along with land. What did he do? He went and bought a bet sela s worth of land near Jerusalem and declared: The north of this belongs to So-and-so, and together with it go a hundred sheep and a hundred barrels. When he died, they upheld his word. But if you say: They [the movables] must be heaped up thereon, for what is beth sela fit?

 

In this story a man wants to give away movables but the movables are not with him. So he buys a small plot of land, which here we seem to think cost a sela (very small amount of money for land). Clearly, a hundred sheep and a hundred barrels cannot fit on this piece of land. Nevertheless, by giving away the tiny piece of land land, he is also able to give away the sheep. This proves that the movables need not be on the land.

 

מי סברת בית סלע סלע ממש מאי סלע דנפיש טובא ואמאי קרו ליה סלע דקשי כסלע

 

Do you think that by bet sela literally means a sela [coin]? What is sela ? A large area; and why was it called sela? Because it was as hard as a rock.

 

The Talmud reinterprets bet sela from a very small piece of land, to a large piece of land that was hard as a rock (a sela). We now assume that the sheep and barrels fit on the land. This discussion will continue tomorrow.