1)

LAWS OF POSTDATED DOCUMENTS

(a)

Question (Ravina): We do not do this nowadays!

(b)

Answer (Rav Ashi): Chachamim taught people how to protect themselves from swindlers. If people do not do so, they cause their own loss.

(c)

Rabah bar Rav Shila (to scribes): When you write an Akniasa document (in which a Kinyan Chalipin was done), if you know the date of the Kinyan, write it. (The buyer truly has Acharayus from that day.) If not, write the current date, lest it look like Sheker.

(d)

Rav and Rav Huna would tell scribes to write in the document the city they are writing in, and not where they were commanded to write the document.

2)

WE DO NOT EXCHANGE DOCUMENTS

(a)

(Rava): If someone has a loan document for 100, and requests to get two documents of 50 each, we do not accede.

(b)

Question: What is the reason?

(c)

Answer: Chachamim enacted this. It is good for the lender and the borrower;

1.

It is good for the lender, for (if the borrower paid half,) it pressures the borrower to finish paying (lest he lose his receipt, and the lender will claim the entire 100 from him);

2.

It is good for the borrower, for (if he pays half,) the lender's document will be blemished (and he cannot collect the rest without swearing).

(d)

(Rava): If someone has two loan documents for 50 each, and requests to get one document of 100, we do not accede.

(e)

Question: What is the reason?

(f)

Answer: Chachamim enacted this. It is good for the lender and the borrower;

1.

It is good for the lender, for now (if the borrower pays half,) the lender's document will not be blemished;

2.

It is good for the borrower, for now (if he pays half,) he will not be pressured to finish paying (due to fear of losing a receipt).

(g)

(Rav Ashi): If someone has a loan documents for 100, and requests to get one document of 50, we do not accede.

(h)

Question: What is the reason?

(i)

Answer: We say that [perhaps the borrower] paid it, and said "give to me my document", and the lender said that he lost it, and he wrote a receipt. If [we would write for him a new document of 50,] he will bring it against the borrower, and say that this is a different loan (you paid me a loan of 100, like the receipt says)!

3)

DOCUMENTS FOR PEOPLE WITH THE SAME NAME

(a)

(Mishnah): If two brothers, Reuven (who is rich) and Shimon (who is poor) inherited a bathhouse and an olivepress:

1.

If their father made them to rent out, they do so, and share the income;

2.

If the father made them for his own use, the brothers use it themselves;

i.

(If Shimon wants to rent them out, because he has little use for them,) Reuven can refuse, and say 'go buy slaves and they can bathe. Buy olives and press them!'

(b)

If two men in a city have the same name (Yosef ben Shimon), neither can use a document to claim money from the other. No one can use a document to claim money from either of them;

1.

If Levi found among his documents a note saying 'the document of Yosef ben Shimon was paid' (and he does not know which), he cannot collect a loan from either of them.

(c)

To avoid these problems, documents for them should include the grandfather's name;

1.

If their grandfathers had the same name, we add a sign to distinguish them (e.g. the short Yosef ben Shimon);

2.

If there is no sign to distinguish them, if one is a Kohen, we use that for the sign.

4)

CONCERN LEST THE BEARER IS NOT ENTITLED TO COLLECT

(a)

(Gemara): A document came to Rav Huna's Beis Din. It said 'I, Ploni ben Almoni, borrowed 100 Zuz from you.'

172b----------------------------------------172b

(b)

Version #1 (Rashbam) Rav Huna: 'From you' could mean even from the Reish Galusa or Shevor Malka (the executive head of Yisrael in exile, or the Persian king, who normally do not lend money. We are concerned lest the bearer of the document is not the lender, so he cannot collect.)

(c)

Version #2 (Tosfos) Rav Huna - Question: Could 'from you' mean even from the Reish Galusa or Shevor Malka (i.e. even one of them could collect), or is it meaningless (and no one may collect)?

(d)

(Rabah - Beraisa - Aba Sha'ul): If a Get has witnesses but no date, but it says 'I divorced you today', it is Kosher.

1.

Inference: We assume that 'today' means the day that it comes in front of us;

2.

Likewise, 'from you' means the person holding it! (Tosfos - this answers Rav Huna's question.)

(e)

Question (Abaye): Perhaps Aba Sha'ul holds like R. Eliezer, who says that a document is empowered by the witnesses who saw it given (therefore, the Get is Kosher without any date), but here we are concerned lest the lender dropped it!

(f)

Answer (Rabah): We are not concerned lest it was dropped.

(g)

Question: What is his source that we are not concerned lest it was dropped?

(h)

Answer (Mishnah): If two men in a city have the same name (Yosef ben Shimon), neither can use a document to claim money from the other, and no one can use a document to claim money from either of them.

1.

Inference: Either of them can use a document to claim money from someone else.

2.

If we are concerned lest a document was dropped, neither of them should be able to collect (perhaps the other dropped it)!

(i)

Rejection (Abaye): There, the only concern is lest one Yosef ben Shimon dropped it (Tosfos; Rashbam - and that the other found it). We are not concerned for this;

1.

In Rav Huna's case, the document could have fallen from anyone, so we are concerned.

OTHER D.A.F. RESOURCES
ON THIS DAF