Bava Basra 42a

בבא בתרא מ״ב ע״א

Bava Batra 42a

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Topic

A sale is public while a loan is private, how this affects a buyer's year toward a חזקה, and a new משנה on who cannot make a חזקה and how one act acquires land.

Overview

The amud opens by finishing רב's reasoning: later buyers who lose land have only themselves to blame, because they should have checked first. The גמרא challenges רב with a משנה that says a debt backed only by witnesses cannot be collected from sold property. It also blocks the answer that רב, as a תנא, may argue, because רב and שמואל themselves said an oral loan is not collected from heirs or buyers. The answer is that a loan is kept quiet, but a sale is made in public so that word spreads. A ברייתא then teaches that a buyer's year of use joins the father's and son's years to make a חזקה. A second ברייתא seems to show a sale is not public, since a sale by the owner's son is not counted as a מחאה. רב פפא answers that the son sold 'his fields' without naming this one. Finally, a new משנה lists people whose use cannot create a חזקה, such as craftsmen, partners, sharecroppers, guardians, spouses, and a father or son. It then teaches that for a gift, brothers dividing an inheritance, or a convert's ownerless property, one act of locking, fencing, or breaching acquires the field at once.

Opening lines

The steps (9)

1. StatementThe later buyers caused their own loss
2. ChallengeA משנה seems to contradict רב
3. Challengeרב cannot simply argue, since he agrees with the rule himself
4. ResolutionA loan is private, but a sale is public
5. StatementA buyer's year joins the earlier years to make a חזקה
6. ChallengeClash with a ברייתא where the owner's son sells the field
7. Resolutionרב פפא: the seller did not name this field
8. StatementNew משנה: people who cannot make a חזקה
9. StatementThree years is only for proof, and one act is enough to acquire