שנים אוחזין בטלית – In the Gemara (Bava Metzia 7a), it maintains our Mishnah [deals with the case] such as one of them grabs hold of threads that are at the border of the garment from this side, and another grabs hold of threads that at the border of the of the garment from that side, but if they were cleaving to the garment itself, this one takes up until the place where hand reaches and that one takes up the place where his hand reaches, and the rest they would divide equally. , and through an oath.

זה אומר כולה שלי – I purchased it and/or it was sold to me by the seller and not to you. And when the seller sold [it] to one of them and took the money from both of them, one of them with his knowledge and the other one against his will, and he (i.e., the seller) does not know which one was with his knowledge and which one was against his will. For if he had known, and he would have said: “to this one, I sold [it].” There would be here one witness. And the one opposite him would be liable for an oath from the Torah, to contradict the witness. But now that he does not know, both are sworn to this oath that is mentioned in our Mishnah. And by law, they would divide [the garment] without an oath, but the Sages enacted that neither of them at all can take it without an oath, in order that everyone wouldn’t go and seize the garment of his fellow and say, “it is mine.” And it was necessary for the Tanna [of our Mishnah] to teach us that when this one says, “I found it, “that is through [an act of] finding it, and the other who says, “it is all mine,” that is through a commercial transaction. For had the Tanna [of our Mishnah] [only taught] a found object, I might think that it is through a found object [only] that the Rabbis imposed an oath, because they have taught a leniency to grab hold [of the corner of the object] inappropriately, so that my fellow would not have nothing missing in it, I will go and grab hold of it and divide it in public, but [regarding] a commercial transaction, if he had no need for it, he would not go after it to purchase it, and the person who comes to divide it with him and give him half of its monetary value, which is inappropriate, causing him loss and that is not to say that he is teaching that it is permitted to do so. I would say that the Rabbis did not impose upon him an oath. But if [the Mishnah] only taught about commercial transactions, I would say that is only upon commercial transactions that the Rabbis imposed upon him an oath because they are teaching a leniency and he [would] say, my fellow gives me money and I give money, now it is necessary for me, I will take it, and my fellow will have to trouble himself to go and purchase another one. But, regarding a found object, where you don’t have to say this, I would say, no, hence, it is necessary [for the Mishnah to teach both about found objects and commercial transactions].

ישבע שאין לו בה פחות מחציה – but he would not be sworn to an oath [saying] “it is all his,” as he would claim from the outset. For all of it would not be given to him. But if from when he claimed that half of it was his that it should be given to him, he would weaken his position from his first statement – when he said that it was all his. Therefore, he takes an oath that he does not have any less than half, which implies by this – that all of it is mine, as he had said initially; but according to your words, where you do not believe me regarding all of it, [I am taking] an oath that I have [a stake] in it and I have no less than one-half.

היו שנים רוכבים על גבי בהמה – this comes to teach us that a rider purchases, and even though he does not direct the animal [by leading it] as the animal does not move from its place.

או שהיה אחד רוכב ואחד מנהיג – at the time when he rides, he stirs it up with his legs so that when the animal moves in consequence of this, the rider and the leader are identical , but if there only was a rider alone, the leader purchased the animal; the rider did not purchase the animal. But if they admitted or witnesses came even after the law was decided for them, that they should divide it with an oath, they divide it without an oath [administered].

אמר לחבירו תנה לי וכו' – but if he said: “I have taken possession of it,” the rider has purchased it, and the leader cannot say: “I have taken possession of it.”

לא אמר כלום – that he acquired it when he drew/seized it from his fellow’s hand, and all the while that it was in the hand of the one who lifted it, it is was ownerless.

זה שהחזיק בה זכה בה – and especially when the lost object was in the public domain, since the four cubits [surrounding] a person do not acquire for him in the public domain, the person who takes hold of it acquires title to it. But in an alley/recess (adjoining an open place to which merchants retire to transact business; alternatively: market stand under a colonnade), which is the path of an individual, or on the sides of the public domain where many are not crowding there, the four cubits of a person take possession for any found object and any ownerless object that is near him is considered like four cubits, and another person may not take seize it. And the Rabbis decreed this so people would not come to quarrel.

אחר צבי שבור – which is incapable of running and is well-guarded in the field (i.e., fenced in), if others will not take it, it is like a found object.

זכתה לו – and he stands at the side of his field, and as such is able to run after them and reaches them before they leave from his field.

הקטנים – all who are supported by/rely upon the father’s table, even if he is an adult, we call him a minor, and anything he finds belongs to his father for the sake of preventing ill-feeling. But a daughter, whether she is a minor or a maiden, her found object belongs to her father, since the Torah makes assignment of all gains/profits of her maidenhood belong to her father (see Numbers 30:17 – בנעוריה בית אביה /”while in her father’s household by reason of her youth”).

עבדו ושפחתו הכנענים – for their bodies are owned by him, as it is written (Leviticus 25:46): “You shall keep them as a possession [for your children after you, for them to inherit as property for all time. Such you may treat as slaves].”

מציאת אשתו – The Rabbis ordained this for the sake of preventing ill-feeling.

אחריות נכסים – landed security (i.e., that the debtor’s landed property is pledged to the creditor) that he can collect from them.

לא יחזיר – for we are suspicious of collection and conspiracy to fraud and divide the profits. Lest it was a collected/paid off document and it fell from the borrower, and when he admits: “I did not pay,” there is a council of deception between them to seize the sold mortgaged property which cannot be resorted to (in the event of non-payment) and it will be divided between them.

בין כך ובין כך לא יחזיר – a document which cannot be resorted to (i.e., movable property) is mortgaged, and can be collected from, and surety (i.e., property which may be resorted to in the event of non-payment) is the error made by the scribe; and we are suspicious of collection and conspiracy to fraud, and the Halakha is according to the Sages. And specifically, with a document where property may be resorted to in the event of non-payment is not mentioned in it, the Sages said that it is an error made by the scribe, and we collect from mortgaged property as if the surety was written in it (i.e., the document). But if it was spelled out in the document that he (i.e., the borrower) did not want to accept upon himself surety [for non-payment], the Sages admit that he may return it, for now there is no fear for a conspiracy to fraud.

דייתיקי – the verbal will of someone on his death-bed, that this is what should occur and happen.

ושוברים – [receipts] that the creditor makes for the borrower when his loan document has been repaid.

אגרות שום – that the Jewish court estimated the [value of the] property of the borrower to the creditor in his loan document

ואגרות מזון – that he accepted upon himself to feed the daughter of his wife. Another explanation: that they would sell from the landed property of the husband to support the wife and the daughters.

ומיאונין – that they would write in the document: “In our presence, so-and-so has refused this particular gentleman as her husband.” And this is regarding when a minor whose mother and/or brothers married her off, she does not require a Jewish bill of divorce.

שטרי בירורין – this one chooses one [judge] and the other party chooses one [judge] who will adjudicate for them.

מצא – [he found] documents.

בחפיסה – a small leather bag

ודלוסקמא – a leather utensil/box that the elderly hide their utensils so that they don’t have to search after them.

ותכריך של שטרות – three documents or more which are wrapped up one with the other.

ואגודה – that are lying one on top of the other, the length of this one on the length of that one.

הרי זה יחזיר – since it is something that has a sign; for the utensil is sign when the owners say, “in this particular utensil you found them.”

אחד הלוה משלשה – if there are three [loan] documents of one borrower who borrowed from three [different] people, the finder [of these lost documents] should be returned to the borrower, since they had surely fallen from his hand, for if they had fallen from their hands (i.e., the three lenders), who gathered them to one place? And specifically when the documents were authenticated by the Jewish court. But if they were not authenticated, we suspect that perhaps, in order to authenticate them, the three lenders brought them to the scribe of the judges and they fell from the hand of the scribe. And we should not suspect lest after they had been authenticated, they fell from the hand of the scribe, for a person does not delay their confirmation in the hand of the scribe. And if they (i.e., the loan documents) are from three [different] borrowers, who borrowed from one individual, the finder should return them to the lender for the matter is known that they fell from him. And if all three of them were in the writing of one scribe, we suspect lest they fell from the hand of the scribe and they were not [ever] loaned. And therefore, we do not return them.

מצא שטר בין שטרותיו ואינו יודע מה טיבו – with him – if the borrower deposited it with him or the lender, or lest it was partially paid-off, and they delivered it to him to be the intermediary between them (i.e., the lender and the borrower).

יהא מונח – in his hand, and he should not return it to either this one or the other one.

ואם יש עמהן סמפון – [codicil]. The one who finds it amongst his documents a receipt that was written on one of his documents.

יעשה מה שבסמפון – And the [loan] document was under the presumption of having been paid-off, and even though it would have been appropriate for this receipt to have been placed in the hand of the borrower and not in the hand of the lender/creditor, we say that the borrower trusted the lender and said: “tomorrow give it [the receipt] to me,” and he forgot. And this is the case of when a lender found this document upon which was written the receipt, between his torn documents even though it was not torn.