MISHNAH: If somebody says to another: I am selling you a bet kor or 75’000 square cubits. of dust, if there were depressions ten handbreadths deep or rocks ten handbreadths high, they are not measured with it; less than that they are measured with it. But if he said, about a bet kor of dust, if there were depressions deeper than ten handbreadths or rocks higher than ten handbreadths, they are measured with it.
HALAKHAH: “If somebody says to another: I am selling you a bet kor of dust,” etc. Rebbi Yasa said in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan: Only if it is the smaller part of his field and enclosed in it. And a rock with a total surface area of a bet rova‘ is not measured with it or 104 1/6 square cubits. The Babli, 103a , restricts the total area of bad spots in a bet kor to 4 batte rova‘ . . If it is in the middle, it is measured, at the side it is not measured. What is a side and what is in the middle? In the House of Rebbi Yannai they said, any place surrounded by a ploughed area is in the middle; any place not surrounded by a ploughed area is to the side. Rebbi Yose came in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan: If it was a majority on one side, but if you spread it, it becomes a smaller part, and it is measured with it measured.” Then at the end the reading will be “is measured”. This is the reading of Šiṭṭah Mequbeṣet Bava batra 102b, which always quotes from mss. The question is whether the sale is legitimate if an entire area of the field is not usable for agriculture because of many unusable spots when each in isolation would be insignificant. . How wide? Rebbi Ḥaggai said, up to four cubits. Rebbi Yose ben Rebbi Abun said, up to ten handbreadths reads: R. Yannai says, 10 handbreadths, R. Yose bar Abun says, up to 4 cubits. . If there was a depression ten handbreadths deep but less than four spelling out the numeral as a word, by choosing the masculine form is referring to handbreadths. But Šiṭṭah Mequbeṣet (following Rashba and Ritba) quotes the question as about “4 by 4” and this in both Talmudim always refers to 4 by 4 cubits which characterizes the minimum size of a piece of land for which separate title can be acquired. Then it is possible to read the question as referring to depressions less than 10 handbreadths deep but more than 16 square cubits wide, which as a separate area may be rejected by the buyer as a separate field. wide, what is the rule? Let us hear from the following, what Rebbi Yasa said in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan: “Only if it is the smaller part of his field and enclosed in it. And a rock with a total surface area of a bet rova‘ is not measured with it. If it was split, it is measured with it.” This means that if the greater part of it was on one side, but if you spread it, it becomes the smaller part and is not measured with it reads: “is measured with it.” This is the logical consequence of the quote that the rocks be measured with the field if the total area of the rocky surface was more than a bet rova‘ but no single piece of rock was of that size. . If there was a long depression which added up to a bet rova‘ ? that this cannot be part of the area sold. Rebbi Ḥiyya bar Abba asked: If it was shaped like sticks, is it measured with it or not? Rebbi Yudan bar Ismael asked: If it was like marble plates, is it measured with it or not? Rebbi Isaac bar Tebelai asked: If it was formed like chairs, does he measure from the place of its wall or does he measure from its declivity? Rav Huna in the name of Rav, [Rebbi] Ḥiyya in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan: Only if the total agricultural area was four bet kor .
MISHNAH: “I am selling you a bet kor or 75’000 square cubits. of dust measured by the surveyor’s measuring tape,” if a little bit be missing, he deducts, if it be a little more, he has to refund. . If he said “more or less,” even if it was deficient by a quarter [ qab ] per se’ah or redundant by a quarter [ qab ] per se’ah, he received it. For more than that one makes a computation. What does he return? Money. But if he agreed, he returns land to him. Then why did they say, he returns money to him? To empower the seller, for if this one retained for himself a space for nine qab , or in a vegetable garden the space for half a qab (or following Rebbi Aqiba a bet rova‘ ) he returns land to him. Not only the quarter [ qab ] he has to return but all the excess.
HALAKHAH: “I am selling you a bet kor of dust,” etc. Here, you say that “he has received it.” But there, you say that “not only the quarter [ qab ] he has to return but all the excess”? They said, since you exclude him from the rule of “less than measured by the surveyor’s measuring tape” you return him to the rules of “by the surveyor’s measuring tape.”
MISHNAH: “Measured by the surveyor’s measuring tape, more or less; that the amount delivered will be exactly as stipulated, but it might not exactly be the amount stipulated. Ben Nannas holds that the last statement always is the operative one. The Babli in 105a and the Yerushalmi in Bava meṣia‘ 8:10 (Note 48) decide that practice does not follow Ben Nannas. ” “more or less” invalidated “measured by the surveyor’s measuring tape”. “More or less, measured by the surveyor’s measuring tape;” “measured by the surveyor’s measuring tape” invalidated “more or less”, the words of Ben Nannas. “By its description and its boundary strips,” less than one sixth he received it, up to a sixth he shall deduct.
HALAKHAH: “What does he return? Money,” etc. 60b , Qiddušin 11a . Rebbi Ḥiyya stated: If somebody sell a slave to another and he turns out to be a thief or a gambler, he received him. But if he was a robber or proscribed by the Government, he did not receive him.
“If somebody say to another: I am selling you half a field,” etc. Huna declares that an error of one sixth follows the rules of errors less than one sixth; i. e., he holds that monetary adjustment is needed for any deviation from the area stated in the contract. It is not evident that Rebbi Huna here is a scribal error for Rav Huna even though Rav Huna is quoted reasonably frequently in Neziqin but Rebbi Huna is only mentioned three times, and this in Bava meṣia‘ . Rebbi Huna said, the sixth itself he shall deduct.
MISHNAH: If somebody say to another: I am selling you half a field, they estimate in common and he takes half of his field. Its Southern part I am selling to you, they estimate in common and he takes the Southern half. He has to accept the place of the wall, the trench or the small trench. How much is a trench? Six handbreadths. And the small trench, three.
HALAKHAH: It was stated: If somebody says to another: I am selling you half a field, and X and Y and half of Z surround you. Rav Huna, and Rav Jehudah, and Rebbi Jeremiah. One said, he gives him [an area shaped] like a pandur . And one said, he gives him something like a strip of cloth. And one said, he gives him something like patches as “ox head” ( Kilaim 1:9, Note 202 ; 2:7 Note 101 ). For this, one has to assume that one of the sides is not contiguous with the other two. .