One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הלכות מכירה
Mechirah 22-24 · Sales
Sefer Kinyan · What a sale can reach: nothing that has not come into existence, nothing outside the seller's hand, nothing without substance - and the lawful way to buy a future anyway, by buying the source and owing it upkeep.
3
Trees that carry their land
4-16
Cubits apart, min and max
2
Blocks left in a bought hive
1
Handbreadth of stump, ordinary tree
Ch 22What Cannot Be Sold At All
- Not yet in existence. "Whatever my field produces is sold to you," or the offspring an animal will bear, conveys nothing, by sale, gift or oral will. A person who does not yet exist acquires nothing either, not even a fetus, unless the fetus is the giver's own son (22:1, 22:10)
- Not in the seller's domain. What a net will bring up, what will be inherited from a living father, a field he is about to buy: nothing is acquired. Movable property transferred by kinyan agav must already be in his domain (22:5, 22:8)
- Two emergency exceptions. A poor heir may sell what he inherits that day so his father's body is not left unburied and disgraced, and a destitute fisherman may sell that day's catch for his livelihood (22:6)
- No substance, no sale. Not the fragrance of an apple, the taste of honey or the color of crystal; therefore not "the right to eat this palm's fruit" or "the right to dwell in this house." The body itself must be conveyed (22:13-14)
- Vows and charity are stronger. A pledge of future offspring to the Temple treasury or to the poor does not consecrate it, yet the speaker is bound to keep his word: "he must act according to the statements that he utters." Some Geonim disagreed; the Rambam rejects their view (22:15-17)
RememberThree different nothings: out of time, out of hand, out of substance. A pledge to charity binds the mouth even where it cannot move the property.
Ch 23Selling the Body for Its Produce
- The lawful route to a future. A field may be sold "with regard to its produce," a tree for its fruit, a sheep for its shearings, a servant for his work, for a term or for a lifetime. The object exists, so this is not a sale of what has not come into existence (23:1-2)
- How far the right reaches. A buyer for a fixed term may build and destroy like a permanent owner, while a buyer of the land for its produce may not alter it. A buyer of the produce alone may not even enter except to carry his crop out; a buyer of the field for its produce bars the owner, and unlike a renter he may resell his rights (23:5-8)
- Dovecote and beehive. Selling a dovecote or hive "for the benefit it gives" is valid; the dovecote's eggs and fledglings are not acquired until they fly, a safeguard for "do not take the mother with the young," so rap the dovecote first to send the mothers up (23:9-10)
- Leave the source alive. The buyer must leave the first pair the mothers bear and two pairs from the daughters so the dovecote stays populated; from a hive he takes three swarms in a row, then one for himself and one for the hive (23:11-13)
- Stumps by species. Olive trees bought for lumber, two fistfuls above the ground; an uncut wild fig, three handbreadths; one cut before, two; other trees, one handbreadth; reeds and vines, the lowest knot. Palms and cedars may be dug out, since they will not regrow (23:15)
RememberYou cannot sell the fruit; you can sell the tree for its fruit. And the moment you own the source, the law tells you what to leave behind.
Ch 24Trees, Ground, and What a Deed Cannot Move
- Three trees carry their land. The buyer acquires the ground that nurtures them - room for a picker to stand with his basket - plus every tree between them, and keeps it even if they dry up or are cut down. They must sit like the three feet of a pot stand, four to sixteen cubits apart, measured from the wide trunk; bought one by one, split across two fields, or divided by a cistern, ditch or public road, no land passes (24:1-4)
- Two trees carry nothing. No land at all, and the buyer must trim the twigs and shoots lest one grow to look like a third tree and found a claim to the ground (24:6)
- Branches that see the sun. Growth from the sunlit trunk belongs to the owner of the trees; growth from the roots belongs to the owner of the field. With palm trees the tree owner gets none, since their branches do not grow from the trunk (24:7)
- Ambiguity read generously. "Whoever sells, sells generously": a seller who excepts one fine palm kept only that one, while excepting an inferior palm means he surely kept the good ones too. Retained trees carry half the land with them (24:8, 24:11-12)
- A grave stays a grave. Even after a lawful sale of the grave, its path, and the places of procession and eulogy, the family may bury there and perform the rites against the buyer's will, lest the family's honor be blemished; they pay for the grave used (24:17)
RememberTwo trees are a purchase; three trees are a holding. And some ground stays what it was for, whatever the deed says.