Chapter 1 · HaShutafin

A partition in a shared courtyard

Lesson 1 of 44 25 min

The tractate opens with two partners in one courtyard who wish to divide it with a wall.

Lesson goals

01Restate the source in your own words.
02Identify the central distinction and explain its significance.
03Apply the distinction in the exercise without adding a ruling absent from the source.

Source and decoding - Bava Batra 2a

Bava Batra 2a

הַשּׁוּתָּפִין שֶׁרָצוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת מְחִיצָה בְּחָצֵר – בּוֹנִין אֶת הַכּוֹתֶל בְּאֶמְצַע. מָקוֹם שֶׁנָּהֲגוּ לִבְנוֹת גְּוִיל, גָּזִית, כְּפִיסִין, לְבֵינִין – בּוֹנִין; הַכֹּל כְּמִנְהַג הַמְּדִינָה.

Partners who wished to build a partition in a courtyard build the wall in the middle.

Partners who wished to build a partition in a courtyard build the wall in the middle. The building material (rough stone, hewn stone, half-bricks, bricks) follows local practice: everything according to the custom of the land. The Gemara will ask what "partition" means and what "wished" implies.

Building the reasoning

1Restate the source in your own words.
2Identify the central distinction and explain its significance.
3Apply the distinction in the exercise without adding a ruling absent from the source.

Terms to decode

שותפין

partners

מחיצה

a partition

מנהג המדינה

local custom

Before moving on

Insight

This lesson is a study framework, not a halachic ruling. Check everything in the sources, and bring practical questions to a rabbi.

Practice

Make a table: who decides, where to build, with what - and beside each row, the Mishnah's words.

Lesson wrap-up

Monetary law begins with neighborliness: how to share space fairly.

Check your understanding

Test yourself before marking the lesson complete.

Question 1 of 4

Where is the wall built?

Next lessonDamage by sight