El pago no se exige por el consumo de frutas, por el enriquecimiento de la tierra y por el alimento de la esposa y las hijas de la propiedad consolidada, por "el bien general". [Si uno robó un campo y se lo vendió a otro, y él lo sembró y brotó y produjo fruta, y el despojado vino y lo reclamó con su fruta al comprador (reembolsándole solo por sus gastos), el comprador regresa y reclama el precio del campo de la propiedad consolidada, ya que se le vendió a él con una garantía mediante una factura de venta, esto es "un préstamo contra una nota" (milveh bishtar), y (afirma) el precio de la fruta de forma gratuita , y no de bienes vinculados. Lo mismo se aplica cuando el comprador enriquece la tierra plantando árboles o fertilizándola, y cosas por el estilo. ("y para la comida de la esposa y las hijas de uno" :) esta es una condición de la kethubah, a saber: "Y habitarás en mi casa y serás alimentado a través de mi propiedad; y las hijas que tienes por mí habitarán en mi casa y ser alimentado a través de mi propiedad, etc. " Cuando vienen a reclamar su comida, lo hacen solo de la propiedad libre, y no de la propiedad consolidada. ("para 'el bien general'" :) Porque estas son cosas indeterminadas y no se pueden hacer concesiones exactas para ellos.] Y si uno encuentra un objeto perdido [y lo devuelve, y el propietario afirmó que no lo devolvió todo ], él no hace un juramento, por "el bien general". [Porque si se le impusiera un juramento, nadie se esforzaría por devolver un objeto perdido.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Gittin
אין מוציאין לאכילת פירות ולשבח קרקעות – The one who steals a field and sells it to another [person], who sowed it and caused it to grow and made fruits and the person from whom it was stolen comes and collects it with its fruits from the purchaser, does not pay the purchaser other than the expenses [laid out following the purchase] and the purchaser goes back to the seller and collects the cost of the land from his mortgaged possessions, for he [the thief] sold it to him [the purchaser who was unaware that the land had been stolen] with surety and wrote him a document of sale , and it is a loan document, and the fruit come from free-standing property and not from mortgaged property.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Gittin
Introduction
The first section of this mishnah continues the topic of collecting debts from mortgaged properties. The second section deals with returning lost objects.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Gittin
לשבח קרקעות – and similarly, if the purchase increased the value of the property by planting trees or manuring it or doing similar things.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Gittin
[Creditors] do not collect from mortgaged property for produce consumed, for the improvement of property, [and payment] for the maintenance of a widow and daughters, because of tikkun olam. There are three types of repayments mentioned in this section. In each of these cases when a creditor collects his debt he can only collect from unmortgaged property, meaning property that is actually in the hands of the debtor. The first category is “produce consumed.” This refers to a situation where someone illegally obtained land, for instance he stole it. He then eats the produce on the land and sells the land to another person. When the original owner comes to claim the land he extracts the land from the person who purchased it from the thief and he can extract the value of the produce from the thief himself. However, he can only exact this payment from the thief from unmortgaged property and not from property which the thief sold or gave away to others. In this same situation, the one who purchased the property from the thief and then had to restore it to its original owner collects from the thief the original purchase price. He also may collect from the thief any money he spent to improve the property, but this amount he may collect only from unmortgaged property. This is what the mishnah means by “improvement of property.” When a man dies one of the ketubah stipulations is that his widow and daughters are to be provided for from his estate until they are married. However, they are only provided for from the dead husband’s unmortgaged property. The “tikkun olam” here is that these amounts are not fixed. Therefore, one who buys from a person who might be in this situation will never know how much debt that person is really in and he won’t be able to be cautious lest he buy property that has a lien on it. To protect these purchasers, these amounts cannot be collected from them.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Gittin
ולמזון אשה והבנות – for it is a condition of the Jewish marriage contract, “for you will dwell in my house and be supported from my possessions, and the female issue that you will have from me will dwell in my house and be supported from my possessions, etc., and when they come to claim their food, they do not collect it other than from free-standing property and not from mortgaged [properties].”
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Gittin
The finder of a lost article is not required to take an oath, because of tikkun olam. If a person returns a lost object to another person, and the person receiving the lost object suspects that the one returning it has kept part of the object for himself he cannot make the one returning the object take an oath that he has returned it all. If such an oath could be enforced, people might be hesitant to return lost objects, because people did not want to take oaths even if they were true. In order to encourage people to fulfill the mitzvah of returning lost objects, in other words for tikkun olam, such oaths were not enforced.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Gittin
מפני תקון העולם – for they are many which have no limit and no one knows how much they are and one is not able to be careful with this.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Gittin
והמוצא מציאה – and returned [the lost object], and the owners say that the entirety was not returned.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Gittin
לא ישבע מפני תקון העולם – for if you say that he should take an oath, there are no individuals who deals with the return of lost objects.