One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הִלְכוֹת גְּזֵלָה וַאֲבֵדָה
Robbery and Lost Property · Chapters 7-9
Sefer Nezikin · The Added Fifth • Nobody Left to Repay • Land That Cannot Be Taken
1/4
Of the principal:
what "a fifth" means
1
P'rutah: the floor
below which no fifth
3
Categories exempt:
servants, notes, land
1000
Buyers, and the field
still goes back free
Ch 7The Fifth, and Who Can Trigger It
- Deny under oath, then admit: pay principal plus a fifth. The rule covers robbery, theft, withheld wages, a loan, an entrusted article, a denied lost object and partnership money alike. The "fifth" chomesh is a quarter of the principal, so four zuz becomes five, and a guilt offering asham gezeilot is owed too. (7:1-2, 7:7)
- Witnesses collect the principal only. The fifth and the sacrifice were instituted for atonement, so they attach only where his own admission creates the liability. Proven against his continued denial, he pays the principal and nothing more. (7:8)
- Three more exemptions from the fifth. A liability inherited from a father, unless the stolen object still exists; a false oath against a gentile's claim, since the verse says "his colleague"; and anything worth under a p'rutah. (7:3-4, 7:7)
- The oath creates a duty to search. Without an oath the money may sit with the robber until the owner comes for it. Once he swore, he must bring it to the owner "even if he is on far removed islands," because the oath made the owner despair of asking. Delivery to the beit din discharges him. (7:9-10)
Remember"He shall add its fifths" is plural: a fifth on top of a fifth if he swears again about the surcharge, and a separate fifth for every false oath over one deposit, until what he denies is worth under a p'rutah.
Ch 8When There Is Nobody to Repay
- Robbed your own father: get the object out. Settle principal and fifth with your brothers. If the object still exists you must remove it from your possession, and if you are the sole heir you give it to your children, a creditor, a loan or charity, telling the recipient it was obtained by robbery from your father. (8:2-3)
- A convert with no heirs: pay the priests. Principal and fifth go to the priests of the watch serving that week, read from "if a person does not have a redeemer." Because the verse calls the restitution itself a guilt offering, it may not be handed over at night, each priest of the watch must receive a p'rutah's worth, and two such restitutions may not be pooled. (8:5-7)
- Sequencing the atonement. The guilt offering is not brought until the principal is returned, though an unpaid fifth does not block atonement. Money already given to the priests cannot be reclaimed by the robber's heirs: "when a man gives it to the priest, it shall be his." A wrong watch acquires nothing. (8:11-13)
- Never a fifth for three things. Canaanite servants, promissory notes and landed property, since the verse lists movables with worth in themselves. Chametz robbed from such a convert and held through Pesach is paid at its value when taken. (8:8, 8:14)
RememberLanded property never becomes a robber's. Sold to a thousand buyers in succession, with the owner long despairing, it returns to him without charge, and each buyer sues the man who sold to him.
Ch 9A Field He Occupies But Cannot Own
- His hand, his loss. Cisterns dug, trees felled, springs spoiled, a building pulled down: restore the field or pay the depreciation. River flood or lightning fire: "here is your property," and he owes nothing, because land stays the owner's throughout and only damage the robber caused is his. (9:1)
- Confiscation turns on the cause. If the crown is seizing everyone's fields, "here is your property." If it was taken because of the robber, or because he showed the king the stolen field among his own, he owes a comparable field or its value. (9:2-3)
- Improvements, with the robber disadvantaged. Increase above his expense means the owner reimburses only the expense; expense above the increase means he recovers only up to the increase. Produce consumed is paid for. A purchaser who knew it was stolen gets the principal and forfeits the increase. (9:5-8)
- Good faith can revive a void sale. Selling a field that is not yours conveys nothing, but if the robber later buys it from the rightful owner the sale becomes binding, since he took the trouble so as to have acted in good faith. That is disproved if the court had already announced his property for sale, if he resells or gifts or wills it on, or if he merely inherited it. (9:9-13)
RememberWhere robbery is established, the owner who says he acknowledged payment only out of fear is believed over the witnesses, and needs no protest. A mere coercer who beat his neighbor into selling holds the sale if no protest was issued, because he "intends to rob but has not yet robbed."