One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הִלְכוֹת מְכִירָה
Sales 19-21
Sefer Kinyan · The seller's responsibility • Who must prove • What the words of a sale contain
2
Fields sold by the
words I sell you fields
4x6
Cubits for a plot sold
to build a house
16
Cubits for a path sold
as a public road
5
Claimants who wait for
the money until Elijah
Ch 19What the Seller Stands Behind
- Disclose a dispute. Property under dispute or awaiting judgment may not be sold without telling the buyer, even with responsibility. Claimants after acquisition but before any use let the buyer retract; once he used it at all, he litigates and collects from the seller if he loses. (19:1-2)
- Responsibility is assumed. A seller of land, servants or movables repays if the article is taken because of him, even without a stipulation; a deed that omits it is a scribal error. This covers seizure by a Jewish court, for theft, robbery or the seller's creditor, not seizure by gentiles, which is beyond his control. (19:3-4)
- Promises cover the foreseeable. A seller who guaranteed losses beyond his control pays even for seizure by gentiles, but not for a dried stream, a river that changes course or an earthquake. Conditions include only well-known matters that were in the speaker's mind, as with the sesame and the river that stopped. (19:5-7)
- No responsibility, if stipulated. A seller who said he takes no responsibility is free even if the field proves stolen. (19:8)
- Reuven and Shimon. A seller without responsibility may still litigate against a claimant, so his buyer will have no grievance. If he bought the field back with Shimon's guarantee, he cannot charge Shimon for his own creditor, but may for their father Jacob's. (19:9-10)
RememberTo sell something is to stand behind it, unless you say plainly that you do not.
Ch 20When Nobody Can Prove It
- The silent handover. Asked 200, offered a maneh, then the article changed hands without words: if the seller gave it, he gets a maneh; if the buyer took it, he pays 200. (20:1)
- One of five. A buyer unsure which of five sold to him leaves the money among them until the truth is known or Elijah comes; the pious pays each. One who swore falsely and repented must pay all five. (20:2-3)
- Who must prove. The seller is believed about who bought while he holds the article; after that, he is one witness. Whoever wants to take from another must prove it; without proof the defendant swears and is free. (20:4-6)
- Where the goods sit. Produce or coins in the public domain: the buyer who says he paid swears holding a sacred object and takes them; in the buyer's domain, a lighter oath; in the storekeeper's, the storekeeper swears and keeps them. (20:7-9)
- Births, sizes and dead donkeys. A calf born near the sale: the buyer must prove, and if neither knows and it stands in neither's domain, they divide. Larger or smaller field: the buyer proves. A doubt is borne by the one in whose domain it arose; the butcher with the needle must prove it was trefah before. (20:10-15)
RememberThe one who wants to take must prove. The one who held it when the doubt arose carries it.
Ch 21What the Words Contain
- Known kind, unknown amount. This heap of wheat, this cellar of wine, this bag of figs, for a price, is binding, with ona'ah checked. Whatever is in this house, chest or sack is not, since it could be straw or gold. Wheat for ten dinarim goes by the market price at the time. (21:1-4)
- Measures the law supplies. House 4x6 cubits, large house 8x10, hall 10x10, garden 12x12, height half the length and width together; a crypt of 4x6 with eight graves; a ditch of two cubits with a cubit for each bank, trees but no grain on the banks. (21:5-8)
- Paths and plots. A road between towns is 8 cubits, a public road 16; a king's road or road to a grave has no limit, and the Rambam rules its sale is not binding. A place to eulogize: room to sow four kabbim. Cistern walls: three handbreadths. (21:9-12)
- Boundaries. Long and short boundary lines, three of four drawn, corners only: each has its rule. An apartment drawn with the whole building's boundaries, or a field with the valley's, sells only the apartment or the field. (21:13-17)
- Words as people use them. Fields is two; all my fields excludes gardens and orchards; my property includes them; all my property includes even his tefillin. One of my oxen is the smallest; Reuven's field is the one called so; half a field comes from the poorer part; the half I own sells all of it, half the field I own sells a quarter. (21:18-23)
RememberDraw the boundaries as wide as you like. You still sold the apartment.