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Perek 5

Mishnayos Gittin Perek 5 Mishnah 3

גיטין פרק ה׳ משנה ג׳

3
The court does not appropriate liened property that has been sold to a third party for the consumption of produce or for the enhanced value of land. If one appropriated a field and sold it, and the buyer worked the land, enhanced it, and grew produce on it, and then the initial owner from whom the field had been stolen took back the land and the produce from the buyer, compensating him only for his expenses, then the buyer may go back to the seller, i.e., the robber, and collect his losses. He can collect the purchase price of the field even from property that the robber sold to another person. By contrast, the value of the produce and the enhancement in the value of the field, which resulted from his actions, may be collected only from the robber’s unsold property. And similarly, payment for the sustenance of a man’s wife and daughters cannot be collected from his liened property. One of the stipulations included in a marriage contract is that after the husband dies, his widow and daughters are entitled to sustenance from his estate. This sustenance cannot be collected from husband’s liened property that has been sold to another person, but only from his unsold property inherited by his heirs. All of these enactments were made for the betterment of the world. And it was further instituted that one who finds a lost item and returns it to its rightful owner is not required to take an oath that he did not keep any part of the lost item for himself. This ordinance was also instituted for the betterment of the world.
אֵין מוֹצִיאִין לַאֲכִילַת פֵּרוֹת וּלְשֶׁבַח קַרְקָעוֹת וְלִמְזוֹן הָאִשָּׁה וְהַבָּנוֹת מִנְּכָסִים מְשֻׁעְבָּדִים, מִפְּנֵי תִקּוּן הָעוֹלָם. וְהַמּוֹצֵא מְצִיאָה, לֹא יִשָּׁבַע, מִפְּנֵי תִקּוּן הָעוֹלָם:
ג׳

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.

לשבח קרקעות – and similarly, if the purchase increased the value of the property by planting trees or manuring it or doing similar things.

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].”

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.

והמוצא מציאה – and returned [the lost object], and the owners say that the entirety was not returned.

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.

אין מוציאין לאכילת פירות ולשבח קרקעות. הגוזל שדה ומכרה לאחר, וזרעה וצמחה ועשאה פירות ובא נגזל וגבאה עם פירותיה מן הלוקח, אינו משלם ללוקח כי אם היציאה, וחוזר הלוקח על המוכר וגובה דמי הקרקע מנכסים משועבדים, שהרי מכרה לו באחריות וכתב לו שטר מכירה והרי היא מלוה בשטר, ואת הפירות מנכסים בני חורין ולא ממשועבדים:

וכן לשבח קרקעות. אם השביחה הלוקח בנטיעת האילנות או בזבל וכיוצא בזה:

ולמזון האשה והבנות. דתנאי כתובה הוא, ואת תהא יתבא בביתי ומתזנא מנכסי, ובנן נוקבין דיהויין ליכי מנאי יהויין יתבין בביתי ומתזנין מנכסאי וכו׳, כשבאות לגבות מזונותיהן אין גובים אלא מנכסים בני חורין ולא ממשועבדים:

מפני תקון העולם. שהם דברים שאין להם קצבה ולא ידע כמה הם ולא מצי מזדהר:

והמוצא מציאה. והחזירה, והבעלים אומרים שלא החזיר כולה:

לא ישבע מפני תקון העולם. שאם אתה אומר ישבע אין לך אדם שמטפל במציאה להחזירה: