Comentario sobre Peah 3:7

שכיב מרע – he who lies on his bed on account of illness.

Introduction This mishnah has nothing to do with the laws of peah, but rather continues to discuss cases in which a certain halakhah is effective with even the smallest piece of land.

שייר קרקע כל שהוא – all these he left a bit of land, as is taught in our Mishnah, from here until the end of our chapter, not exactly land as the same law applies with a bit of movables, but since the first part of the Mishnah teaches regarding the corner and First Fruits and Prosbul/a declaration made in court before the execution of a loan to the effect that the law of limitation by the entrance of the Sabbatical year shall not apply to the loan to be transacted – a bit of land is taught in all of these are also a bit of land.

One who is about to die who assigns his property in writing [to another]: If he retains any land [for himself] however small, he renders his gift valid. But if he retains no land whatsoever, his gift is not valid. There is a special halakhah concerning a person who is about to die who wants to give away his property before it gets divided according to the lines of inheritance. He may write a document giving all of his property to another person and if he gets well the present is annulled. In such a case we understand that the reason he was giving his money away was that he thought he was about to die. He did not intend to give his money away and then remain alive. However, if he retains even a small amount of land for himself, then his gift is valid even if he becomes healthy again. Had he been trying to give away his property before he died, he wouldn’t have left some land for himself. Therefore, we assume that his intention was simply to give away his property and he cannot retract his gift. Only if he retains no land whatsoever is his gift invalid, should he become healthy again.

מתנתו קיימת – if they purchased from his hand on the gift even though he rose from his illness, he cannot retract, since he left for himself a bit, he revealed his thinking that it was not on account of death that he wrote the gift.

One who assigns in writing his property to his children, and he assigns to his wife in writing any plot of land, however small, she lost her ketubah. Rabbi Yose says: if she accepted [such an assignment] even though he did not assign it to her in writing she lost her ketubah. When a woman is married, she receives a ketubah, which is in essence a type of debt document which puts a lien on all of her husband’s property. What this means is that whenever he sells property she must agree to the sale. If she does not then the buyer must know that should her husband die or divorce her, she might end up taking the field away from the buyer, if she doesn’t have anything else to collect as her ketubah. In the scenario in our mishnah, a man gives away all of his property to his children and he assigns a small piece of land to his wife. If she agrees to this and then he dies, she will not be able to collect her ketubah (except from the tiny piece of land which she already received) because she agreed to his giving all of his property to his children. She has forgiven the lien that she had on all his property. If she doesn’t receive any land then we can’t assume that she would agree to the arrangement and when he dies she can still collect her ketubah. According to Rabbi Yose, she doesn’t even have to receive the land. All she has to do is agree to this arrangement and then should he die, she will not receive her ketubah.

לא שייר קרקע כל שהוא – for himself, from something undefined, a person does not leave himself poorly dressed, and if he had not thought that he would certainly die, he would not give all his possessions, therefore if he stood, he retracts and even if they purchased it from his hand.

וכתב לאשתו קרקע כל שהוא אבדה כתובתה – we are speaking of someone near death who distributes his possessions to his children and writes to his wife a portion among the children, and she herself heard and was silent and didn’t say, “I am collecting my Ketubah” or something similar, she loses her Ketubah.

רבי יוסי אומר אם קבלה עליה – that she would be a partner among the children, and even if they did not purchase from her hand, and he did not command that they should write such in her presence, she lost her Ketubah and furthermore she is not able to retract, but the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yosi.