Daf Yomi 1 Week at a Time: Bava Batra

This week we will begin with an introduction to Masechet Bava Batra. We will learn the law that neighbors must build a wall between their properties to prevent looking into each other’s courtyards. We will learn who needs to pay for what expenses and the specifications for this wall. We will also learn about communal responsibilities to a city and what taxes and charities one must contribute.

This week we will learn about the greatness of giving charity, how to give it properly and what rewards it brings to those who give it. We will also learn about 2 partners or neighbors who need to divide their property. Each one must receive a minimum area for the split to be legal.

This week we will learn some background to the Book of Job. We will then begin the second chapter of Bava Batra and learn about distancing potential damage from our neighbor’s property. We will learn what objects cause damage and how far they must be from the border of our neighbor’s property.

This week we will learn that a person must distance things that can potentially harm their neighbors. A dovecote must be at least 50 amot from a city to ensure that the birds don’t eat from the city. We will also learn that one must distance certain things from a city either to beautify the city or to prevent foul orders. We will then begin the third chapter of Bava Batra which deals with the laws of Chazaka, ownership of property.

This week we will learn many scenarios when the owner of the property accuses the occupant of the property of being on his land. If the occupant can prove that he has been on the land or worked the land for 3 years without a claim from the owner, he can keep the land.

This week we will continue to discuss how a person can establish a Chazaka (ownership) of land without producing a sales document. If he worked the land for 3 years and the owner didn’t claim that the land was his, the occupant can stay on the land. However, if the owner was in another region of Israel or out of the country, the occupant can’t create a chazaka. The occupant must also claim that he bought the land or that he received it as a gift.

This week we will learn that a craftsman can’t create a Chazaka on an item he was asked to repair because he had permission from the owner to take possession of the item. A sharecropper is also not able to create a Chazaka on land he has permission to farm. We will also learn that if a person is forced to make a sale, the sale is valid.

This week we will learn that if a person has permission to be on property, he can’t create a Chazaka on it. We will also learn that if a person has an item that is normally rented out, he is not believed when he says it’s his. The Gemara will then discuss pairs of witnesses that testify that a person was on a property for 3 years.

This week we will learn that one can make a Chazaka on permanent objects, not temporary ones. The Gemara also teaches when someone can put in a window that looks into public or shared spaces. We will then begin the 4th chapter which discusses what is included in the sale of a house or a field.

This week we will learn what is included in the sale of a house, courtyard, city, bathhouse, olive press, and field. This is when there were no other details enumerated in the contract. Objects essential to the thing being sold are generally included in the sale, whereas non-essential objects aren’t included.

This week we begin the fifth chapter of Bava Batra. We will discuss the sale of a ship and what is included and not included in the sale. We will then learn many stories, some quite fantastical about the depths of the sea and the creatures that can be found there.

This week we will learn that when one buys 2 trees, you don’t get the rights to the land under the trees. Therefore, if the tree dies, you can’t plant another tree. But if you buy 3 trees, you get the rights to the land between the 3 trees.  Therefore, if one of the trees dies, you can plant another tree on the land. We will also learn how to finalize a sale of a movable object using one of the acquisition actions.

This week we will learn when a sale is final and when the buyer or the seller can change their minds. We will also learn about the mitzvah of having accurate measuring tools and the prohibition of owning and using false weights and measurements.

This week we will learn that when a person buys produce, he accepts a certain percentage of impurities in the sale. When the buyer says he wants to buy wine for cooking, he is really telling the seller that it must last for a long time.  If a person sells wine and later on it is spoiled, the seller isn’t responsible.

This week we will learn about someone who owns a cistern on someone else’s property. He has the right to access it during the day but not at night. If someone has a public path through his field, he cannot decide to move that path. If he does, he loses the rights to the original and new paths. We will also learn how people were buried in the time of the Mishna and Gemara and what rights people had to that land.

This week we will learn that when a person sells a field “with its borders”, he means approximately. Therefore, if he errs in his measurement by less than a sixth, it’s a valid sale. If it’s more than a sixth, the buyer must pay for the extra land or return it.  We will then begin Chapter 8 which discusses the laws of inheritance. We will learn who takes precedence over whom when a family member passes away.

This week we will learn in what order family members inherit their father’s estate. We will then learn the story of the Daughters of Tzlofchad and how they inherited their father’s portion in the Land of Israel.

This week we will learn that the firstborn son gets a double portion of his father’s estate. He gets double of whatever we in his father’s possession when he died.

This week, we will learn that a person has the right to gift his possessions to whomever he chooses. But he can only bequeath his inheritance to those who are eligible to inherit him. A father is believed to say that someone is his son and that he is the firstborn.

This week we will learn that when a person is on their deathbed, their statements are taken seriously. Therefore, if they say “Give my estate to Reuven”, we listen to him and it doesn’t need to be written in a contract. We will also learn that a father can give his land to his son and retain rights to the produce while he is alive.

This week, we will learn that when a father dies and leaves older sons and younger sons, they split the estate’s gain. If they want, they can divide the estate at the beginning, and then each son keeps his own gain. We will also learn about the concept of Shushvinut (like a groomsman), when a friend of the groom brings a gift to the wedding, the groom is obligated to reciprocate the gift at the friend’s wedding.

This week we will learn that is a person is on their deathbed, and they give away all their possessions, if they recover, they can retract the gift they gave. But if they retained ownership of some of their estate, the gift is permanent and can’t be retracted even if the person recovers.

This week, we will learn that if a father and a son die around the same time and we don’t know who died first, we split the estate between both their heirs or the estate remains in the possession of whoever had it at the time of death. The same is true for a husband and wife and a man and his mother. We will then begin the last chapter of Baba Batra by learning about two different types of documents.

This week we will continue to learn about how contracts were written. We will see that certain areas of the document can have blank spaces whereas other areas cannot. We will also learn how we interpret discrepancies in the document as well.

For our last class in Masechet Bava Batra, we will learn that the lender must write a new document if a loan is partially paid back. The Masechet ends by discussing guarantors who sign loan documents and who is responsible for paying back the loan.