MISHNAH: If somebody says to another: I am selling you a bet kor¹ or 75’000 square cubits. of dust², if there were depressions ten handbreadths deep or rocks ten handbreadths high³, they are not measured with it⁴; 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.

footnotes: ¹ 30 bet se’ah ² Agricultural land. ³ They cannot be cultivated with the rest. ⁴ To measure the exact size of the area delivered.

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 it⁵ is the smaller part of his field and enclosed in it⁶. And a rock with a total surface area of a bet rova‘ is not measured with it⁷ 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 area⁸ 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 it⁹ 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 wide¹⁰? Rebbi Ḥaggai said, up to four cubits. Rebbi Yose ben Rebbi Abun said, up to ten handbreadths¹¹ 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 four¹² 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 it¹³ 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‘?¹⁴ 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?¹⁵ 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 declivity¹⁶? Rav Huna in the name of Rav, [Rebbi] Ḥiyya in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan: Only if the total agricultural area was four bet kor¹⁷.

footnotes: ⁵ The depressions or rocky areas. ⁶ The total of the area that is difficult or impossible to cultivate must be less than 50% of the total area and cannot be directly accessible from the boundary of the field. ⁷ No single bad area may be more than 1/24 of a bet se’ah ⁸ “In the middle” means at least four cubits removed from the boundary line of the property. Four cubits is the customary space needed for the plough and the cattle which draw it. ⁹ This is the reading of L. Since later the opposite conclusion is reached by an argument, the readings of L are consistent with one another. The reading of E is: “is not ¹⁰ The Mishnah, while specifying depth or height of an unacceptable obstacle, fails to indicate length or width. ¹¹ Šiṭṭah Mequbeṣet ¹² The mss., using letters as numerals, fail to indicate whether one refers to handbreadths or cubits. The printer of the editio princeps, ¹³ Šiṭṭah Mequbeṣet ¹⁴ The question already was answered in the Mishnah, viz., ¹⁵ It is not clear what these questions mean. ¹⁶ The Mishnah does not specify how the area of depression has to be measured, whether from the upper rim or only on the bottom. ¹⁷ The remedy of the Mishnah, that the seller has to give the buyer additional land to make up for the bad spots, only works if there be enough adjacent agricultural land at the seller’s disposal. If the buyer would have to accept a replacement plot separate from the main field, the sale would be annulled.

MISHNAH: “I am selling you a bet kor¹ 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 refund¹⁸.. 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 it¹⁹. For more than that one makes a computation²⁰. What does he return²³? Money. But if he²⁴ agreed, he returns land to him. Then why did they say, he returns money to him? To empower the seller²⁵, for if this one²⁴ retained for himself a space for nine qab²⁶, 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.

footnotes: ¹ 30 bet se’ah ¹⁸ The buyer pays exactly for the square cubits he received in land based on the fixed purchase price per bet kor ¹⁹ A sale “more or less” allows a margin of ±4.1667%. ²⁰ The sale price is proportional to the agreed price for 75’000 square cubits. ²³ The buyer who received more than 25/24 of the area agreed to for the stated purchase price. ²⁴ The seller. ²⁵ To protect the seller; to avoid his becoming the owner of a parcel too small for agricultural use which practically would be worthless. ²⁴ The seller. ²⁶ If the seller retained at least 3750 square cubits of land for extensive agriculture or 208 1/3 square cubits of land for intensive agriculture, the seller automatically has a legal claim to receive the excess amount in land, rather than money.

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”²¹? They said, since you exclude him from the rule of “less²² than measured by the surveyor’s measuring tape” you return him to the rules of “by the surveyor’s measuring tape.”

footnotes: ²¹ In Mishnah 2 it is stated that if the deviation of the delivered real estate from the contracted amount be less than 1/24, the contract was validly satisfied. But in Mishnah 3 it is stated that if the difference was more than 1/24, the entire excess beyond the contracted amount must be restituted, not only the excess beyond 104.167% over the contracted amount. ²² Short for “more or less than ..”.

MISHNAH: “Measured by the surveyor’s measuring tape, more or less;²⁷ 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,”²⁸ less than one sixth he received it, up to a sixth he shall deduct.

footnotes: ²⁷ The seller made two contradictory statements, viz., ²⁸ In addition to stating the surface area to be sold, the seller gave a topographical description of the field. If the latter disagrees with the former, less than a 16 2/3% error does not change the contract. An error of exactly 16 2/3% requires a monetary adjustment; a larger error invalidates the entire transaction.

HALAKHAH: “What does he return? Money,” etc. ²⁹60b, Qiddušin 11a. Rebbi Ḥiyya stated: If somebody sell a slave to another and he turns out to be a thief or a gambler³⁰, he received him. But if he was a robber³¹ or proscribed by the Government³², he did not receive him.

footnotes: ²⁹ Tosephta 4:7; Babli 92b, Ketubot ³⁰ Greek κυβευτής “dicer, gambler.” ³¹ Greek λῃστής. In contrast to the thief, a robber is armed and subject to capital punishment. He already is considered as dead; the sale of a dead slave is invalid. ³² A warrant is out for his arrest. The sale is invalid.

“If somebody say to another: I am selling you half a field,” etc. ³⁷ 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.

footnotes: ³⁷ This should be in Halakhah 3; it refers to the end of Mishnah 4, Note 28. In the Babli, 106a, Rav

MISHNAH: If somebody say to another: I am selling you half a field, they estimate in common³³ 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 wall³⁴, the trench or the small trench. How much is a trench? Six handbreadths³⁶. And the small trench, three.

footnotes: ³³ They together appoint the appraiser who will determine what exactly constitutes half a field in value. ³⁴ If it is necessary to fence in the property, the owner of the fenced-in property also has to provide for the wall and the trench separating the wall from the field. ³⁶ Width.

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 Jeremiah³⁸. One said, he gives him [an area shaped] like a pandur³⁹. And one said, he gives him something like a strip of cloth. And one said, he gives him something like patches⁴⁰ 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..

footnotes: ³⁸ The Babylonian who in the Babli usually is called Rav Jeremiah. ³⁹ Greek πανδοῦρα “three-stringed lute.” ⁴⁰ It is not clear which shape of a field is meant. In the Babli, 62a/b, the question is about a Gamma-shaped field or one given in separate pieces. If one assumes the original field to be rectangular, the indication of 2½ boundary strips would indicate a surface composed of two rectangles forming a Γ. A “field in the form of patches” probably is a field of irregular shape, or even composed of disjoint triangles, discussed in Kilaim