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Bava Basra 144a

בבא בתרא קמ״ד ע״א

Bava Batra 144a

Learn Bava Basra 144a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

Profit from improving an undivided estate, a son acquiring his wedding house, and three rules the רבנן fixed without a stated mechanism

Overview

The גמרא finishes a challenge about a rented-out mortar. Since even minors can watch a mortar, its rent is shared by all the heirs. It then explains the משנה's rule that heirs who openly say 'we are working for ourselves' keep the profit. A story about רב ספרא shows that a great scholar does not even need to say it. The גמרא next explains the משנה's case of a wife who improves the estate. רבי ירמיה says she is an heir herself, and two 'obvious' challenges show why the משנה spells out both halves of her case. Then רבי חנינא teaches that a son married off in a house his father set aside for the wedding acquires the house, under four conditions. The גמרא asks about a porch and an inner house and leaves those questions as תיקו. It answers a ברייתא by saying any item of the father's left in the house keeps it his, which is why מר זוטרא and רב אשי hung a sandal and a jug of oil there. Finally, מר זוטרא lists three rules the רבנן fixed as הלכה without explaining how they work: the wedding house, writing all one's property to a wife, and מעמד שלשתן.

Opening lines

אוּדְיָינֵי – הַשָּׂכָר לָאֶמְצַע.

A mortar: the rent goes to the middle.

וְהָא אוּדְיָינֵי, דְּמֵחֲמַת עַצְמוֹ הוּא!

But a mortar's income comes from his own effort!

שָׁאנֵי אוּדְיָינֵי –

A mortar is different,

דְּלִנְטִירוּתָא הוּא דַּעֲבִידָא,

for it works with just watching,

The steps (24)

  1. ChallengeThe mortar case seems to contradict the rule
  2. ResolutionA mortar only needs watching, and anyone can do that
  3. StatementThe משנה: heirs who say they are working for themselves
  4. Statementרב ספרא's case: a great scholar is assumed to work for himself
  5. StatementThe משנה: a wife who improved the property
  6. QuestionWhy is the wife involved in the orphans' property?
  7. Responseרבי ירמיה: she is an heir herself
  8. ChallengeIsn't that obvious?
  9. ResolutionWithout the משנה, we might think she doesn't need to say it
  10. StatementThe wife who says she is working for herself
  11. ChallengeIsn't that obvious?
  12. ResolutionPraise might have made us think she gave up her share
  13. StatementA son married off in a house gets the house
  14. StatementFour conditions for the son to get the house
  15. StatementThe house counts, the upper floor does not
  16. QuestionWhat about a porch or an inner house?
  17. ConclusionThe questions stay unresolved
  18. ChallengeA source that says the son does not get the house
  19. ResolutionThe father kept his storeroom there
  20. ResolutionEven a small item of the father's is enough
  21. StatementSages who hung an item to keep the house
  22. StatementThree rules set as law without a stated reason
  23. StatementWriting all one's property to a wife makes her only a manager
  24. StatementTransferring a debt when all three people are present