Commentary for Bava Batra 338:16

במאי קמיפלגי כי אתא רב דימי אמר באותיות נקנות במסירה קא מיפלגי

[may] be acquired by delivery.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Heb., mesirah, v. supra 76a (q.v. for notes), and Glos. ');">⁴³</span> R. Simeon b. Gamaliel holds the opinion [that] 'letters' are acquired by delivery while the Rabbis<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The Sages. ');">⁴⁴</span> hold the opinion [that] 'letters' may not be acquired by delivery. Our Rabbis taught: Where a person appears in court<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'who comes to be judged', i.e., to respond to a claim that a plot of land which he Occupies is not his. ');">⁴⁵</span> with a deed<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Of purchase, which X, the person who sold the land to him, received from Y, from whom he in turn bought it; pleading that, though his own name does not appear in it, he acquired ownership of the land by the act of delivery which X had performed when he handed the deed to him. [So Rashb. R. Gersh. and Rashi (Sanh. 23b) take it simply to refer to the deed of purchase which the buyer claims to have received from the seller.] ');">⁴⁶</span> and with [evidence of] undisturbed possession<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Hazakah (v. Glos.). Witnesses testify that he occupied the land during the statutory period of three years required for establishing his title to it. ');">⁴⁷</span> judgment is given [on the basis of] the deed; [these are] the words of Rabbi. R. Simeon b. Gamaliel said: [Judgment is given] on [the basis of his] undisturbed possession. On what [principle] do they differ? — When R. Dimi came<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' From Palestine to Babylon. ');">⁴⁸</span> he said: They differ on [the question whether] 'letters' may be acquired by delivery.

Explore commentary for Bava Batra 338:16. In-depth commentary and analysis from classical Jewish sources.