Talmud for Sanhedrin 3:6

כֵּיצַד בּוֹדְקִים אֶת הָעֵדִים, הָיוּ מַכְנִיסִין אוֹתָן וּמְאַיְּמִין עֲלֵיהֶן וּמוֹצִיאִין אֶת כָּל הָאָדָם לַחוּץ, וּמְשַׁיְּרִין אֶת הַגָּדוֹל שֶׁבָּהֶן, וְאוֹמְרִים לוֹ אֱמֹר הֵיאַךְ אַתָּה יוֹדֵעַ שֶׁזֶּה חַיָּב לָזֶה. אִם אָמַר, הוּא אָמַר לִי שֶׁאֲנִי חַיָּב לוֹ, אִישׁ פְּלוֹנִי אָמַר לִי שֶׁהוּא חַיָּב לוֹ, לֹא אָמַר כְּלוּם, עַד שֶׁיֹּאמַר, בְּפָנֵינוּ הוֹדָה לוֹ שֶׁהוּא חַיָּב לוֹ מָאתַיִם זוּז. וְאַחַר כָּךְ מַכְנִיסִין אֶת הַשֵּׁנִי וּבוֹדְקִים אוֹתוֹ. אִם נִמְצְאוּ דִבְרֵיהֶם מְכֻוָּנִים, נוֹשְׂאִין וְנוֹתְנִין בַּדָּבָר. שְׁנַיִם אוֹמְרִים זַכַּאי, וְאֶחָד אוֹמֵר חַיָּב, זַכַּאי. שְׁנַיִם אוֹמְרִים חַיָּב, וְאֶחָד אוֹמֵר זַכַּאי, חַיָּב. אֶחָד אוֹמֵר זַכַּאי, וְאֶחָד אוֹמֵר חַיָּב, וַאֲפִלּוּ שְׁנַיִם מְזַכִּין אוֹ שְׁנַיִם מְחַיְּבִין וְאֶחָד אוֹמֵר אֵינִי יוֹדֵעַ, יוֹסִיפוּ הַדַּיָּנִין:

How are the witnesses examined (to ascertain that they are telling the truth)? They would bring them in and intimidate them. [They would apprise them that the hirers of false witnesses themselves scorn them and call them wicked, viz., in respect to Navoth (I Kings 21:10): "And seat two worthless people opposite him, and let them testify (falsely)," the king's counselors themselves, who counseled hiring them, calling them "worthless."] And they would take everyone out and leave the senior (witness) there, and they would say to him: "How do you know that this one owed that one?" If he said: "He (the borrower) told me that he owes him," "That man told me that he owes him," he has said nothing. [for people are wont to say that they owe in order not to be thought rich.] (He is not accepted as a witness) until he says: "Before us he admitted to him that he owes him two hundred zuz." [i.e., Both of them were before us and his intent was to acknowledge the debt and have them witness the acknowledgement.] Then the second one is brought in and he is examined. If their stories jibe, they (beth-din) deliberate. If two say "Not liable," and one says "Liable," he (the borrower) is not liable. If two say "Liable," and one "Not liable," he is liable. If one says "Not liable," and one says "Liable" — and even if two say "Not liable" or two say "Liable," and one says "I do not know" — they add judges. [And even though if he had differed with the others, he, being in the minority, would be overruled, when he says "I do not know," it is as if he had not sat in judgment, so it is as if the judgment were with two, and we require three.]

Jerusalem Talmud Sheviit

A similar case: When does a man acquire Sabbatical fruit? Rebbi Jeremiah wanted to say, when he puts them in his vessels. Rebbi Yose wanted to say, even if he puts them into his vessels he did not acquire them; he thinks that they are his but they are not his⁴³If the fruits had a human owner, they would become property of the person who takes them. If somebody steals fruit from a farmer, once the fruit is in his vessel he is the owner but owes the farmer the value of the fruit he took. However, Sabbatical fruit are God’s property; even after they have been harvested they retain the holiness of the Sabbatical. They may be eaten but not used for industrial purposes. Hence, they cannnot be acquired as property.. Compare the following⁴⁴Different versions of the story are in Massekhet Kallah; BabliNedarim 62a.: Rebbi Tarphon went to eat single figs from somebody’s property without reciprocity, following the House of Shammai. The watchmen⁴⁵Jastrow takes the word as saf‘el of נטר “to guard”. (In Arabic, the word means “cymbal”.) saw him and started whipping him. When he saw himself in danger, he said to them, by your lives, tell in Tarphon’s house to have his burial shrouds ready. When they heard this, they prostrated themselves before him and said, Rebbi, forgive us. He said to them, so and so should come upon me if I did not forgive you beforehand every stick that was coming down on me. In these two instances did Rebbi Tarphon follow the House of Shammai and endangered himself, in the case here and in the recitation of Shema'⁴⁶Berakhot, Mishnah 1:7.. Rebbi Abbahu in the name of Rebbi Ḥanina ben Gamliel: All his life did Rebbi Tarphon repent about this happening and said, woe to me that I used the Crown of the Torah⁴⁷MishnahAvot 1:13: “He who uses the Crown disappears.”.

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Jerusalem Talmud Ketubot

HALAKHAH: “If he left produce taken¹⁰⁷In this and the preceding Mishnah, the Mishnah text differs in a few details from the common reading of most Mishnaiot but the text quoted in the Halakhah is the standard Mishnah text.,” etc. Both Rav and Rebbi Simeon ben Laqish say, if they were collected at a trading place¹⁰⁸“A place of Saracens.” The problem discussed here is quite different from that discussed in the Babli, 84b, by the same authors. In the Yerushalmi, it is supposed that the acquirer removes the produce from the public place since it is obvious that it would not be his when left in the public place. But if the produce was already in a place belonging to the claimant, according to Rav and R. Simeon ben Laqish “a person’s courtyard acquires for him automatically” (Babli Baba meṣi‘a 10b). For R. Joḥanan, “a person’s courtyard acquires for him only by a conscious act.” Therefore, in a situation where an unlearned person could think that anything in a private domain to which the owner has a claim is automatically his, we may assume that the conscious act of acquisition is missing. This argument assumes that the first part of the Mishnah is everybody’s opinion and the difference between R. Ṭarphon and R. Aqiba refers only to the excess.
In the Babli, the entire first part of the Mishnah is considered R. Ṭarphon’s and everybody agrees that “a person’s courtyard acquires for him automatically”; cf. Note 106.. But if somebody collected it in his house, his house acquired for him. Rebbi Joḥanan said, even if he collected it in his house, his house did not acquire for him. For he thinks that they are his but they are not his. Does from this follow how the owner acquires his produce¹⁰⁹The ripe produce is ownerless by biblical decree. Naturally, the owner of the property has the same right to take it as does everybody else. Anybody but the owner acquires simply by taking. How does the owner acquire, that taking from him would be theft? in a Sabbatical year? Rebbi Jeremiah wanted to say, from the moment he put them into his vessel. Rebbi Yose said, even if he put them into his vessel he did not acquire, for he thinks that they are his but they are not his¹¹⁰He can acquire only by a) putting the produce into his vessel and b) declaring that it is his..

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