One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הִלְכוֹת מְכִירָה
Sales 1-3
Sefer Kinyan · A new book begins • Acquiring land: money, deed, chazakah • Servants and animals • The Sages' decree on movables
3
Ways to acquire land:
money, deed, chazakah
10
Fields in ten lands,
acquired by one chazakah
2
Feet the animal lifts:
a forefoot and a hind foot
30
Days: now and after,
versus only after
Mechirah 1Words Do Not Acquire Land
- A verbal deal is nothing. Even with an agreed price and witnesses told to testify, words alone transfer nothing, as if the parties never spoke. Once a real kinyan is done, no witnesses are needed and neither side can retract. (1:1-2)
- Money, deed or chazakah. Money acquires land where deeds are not customary; where they are, not until the deed is written. Nothing less than a p'rutah. A deed on paper, a shard or a leaf works alone only for a poor field the owner wants to be rid of. (1:3-7)
- An act that brings benefit. Locking the entrance, raising a fence to ten handbreadths, widening an opening, placing or removing a stone for irrigation. Outside the seller's presence he must say go, take possession and acquire; handing over the key or the cistern's bucket counts. (1:8-12)
- Walking is not owning. Walking a field brings it no benefit and acquires nothing, unless what was sold is a path. Sowing or plowing acquires, and so does the seller handing over a basket of its produce. (1:13-16)
- One chazakah for many fields. A gentile cannot acquire land by chazakah. Ripe produce counts as movable. One chazakah acquires ten fields in ten lands, but only as much as was paid for. (1:17-20)
RememberThe test of chazakah is not intent but benefit: do what only an owner would do for the property.
Mechirah 2Servants, Animals and the Words of the Sale
- A servant like land. A Canaanite servant is acquired by money, deed, or by serving the new master: untying his shoe, carrying his things to the bathhouse. Calling him so that he comes is not enough. (2:1-3)
- Pulling, and where. Livestock is acquired by meshichah or lifting. Meshichah works only in an alley off the public domain or a shared courtyard; lifting works everywhere. (2:5)
- Two feet up. Pulling, riding, calling or swatting it so it moves; acquisition is complete when it lifts a forefoot and a hind foot. Handing over the herd's lead animal is like saying go, pull and acquire. (2:6-7)
- Tense matters. You will acquire is future and fails. After thirty days fails; now and after thirty days works, even if the animal is in a swamp on day thirty. (2:8-9)
- Riding in the city. Riding acquires in a field but not in town, unless the rider is an important person, unconcerned with appearances, or a woman, or it is in the public domain. (2:10)
RememberThe animal is yours when it moves at your direction, not when you decided.
Mechirah 3Why Money Is Not Enough for Movables
- Torah law and the decree. By Torah law money acquires movables; the Sages required lifting, or pulling what is not usually lifted. Until then either side may retract. A ship is acquired by handing it over. (3:1-4)
- So the seller will save it. If goods stay the seller's until taken, he will rush to save them from fire or thieves. If destroyed first, the buyer may demand the goods or his money. (3:5-6)
- In the buyer's domain. If the goods sit in a house the buyer owns or rents, payment suffices. (3:6-7)
- Riding along with land. Movables are acquired with land if gathered on it, or anywhere if the seller says acquire them by virtue of the land; the smallest plot suffices. (3:8-10)
- A walking courtyard. Pulling an animal does not acquire its load unless the animal is tied. A perforated flowerpot counts as land. (3:13-16)
RememberThe Sages tied ownership to responsibility: whoever holds it is the one who saves it.