Bava Kamma 96a

בבא קמא צ״ו ע״א

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Topic

Who gets the שבח (improvement) when land or a stolen item is improved, and which changes (שינוי) let a thief acquire what he stole.

Overview

The amud opens by finishing an answer to two rulings of שמואל that seem to contradict each other: does a בעל חוב collect the שבח a buyer added to the land? The גמרא says it depends on how much he is owed. רבינא challenges this, and רב אשי defends it by explaining that the field was an אפותיקי. רבא then rules that a גזלן who improves a stolen item and sells it or leaves it to heirs passes the improvement along. A buyer who improves it himself also keeps the improvement, because a seller hands over all his rights. רבא also asks about a גוי who improved the item, and the question ends in תיקו. Next, רב פפא and רבא teach when changing a stolen palm tree or palm frond counts as a real שינוי that lets the thief acquire it. The test is whether it gets a new name, and a change that can be undone does not count. Finally, רב פפא asks about a לולב whose תיומת split, and the גמרא begins bringing a proof that continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (18)

1. ResolutionIt depends on how much the creditor is owed
2. ChallengeThe buyer should be able to keep land worth his improvement
3. ResolutionThe field was set aside as the only source of payment
4. StatementA robber who improves an item passes the improvement to a buyer or heir
5. QuestionWhat if the buyer improved the stolen item?
6. Responseרבא answers: the seller passes on all his rights
7. QuestionWhat if a גוי improved the stolen item?
8. ChallengeWould the חכמים make an enactment to benefit a גוי?
9. ResolutionThe case is where the גוי sold it to a Jew
10. ChallengeSomeone who buys from a גוי is like the גוי
11. ResolutionJew, then גוי, then Jew: does the enactment apply?
12. ConclusionThe question stays unresolved
13. StatementA cut-down palm tree is still a palm tree
14. StatementPalm tree logs are still 'palm tree logs'
15. StatementLogs to beams, big beams to small beams, beams to boards
16. StatementPalm frond to leaves, leaves to broom, broom to rope
17. QuestionWhat if the twin center leaf of a לולב split?
18. ProofA teaching about a removed twin leaf