Mishnayos Kesuvos Perek 13 Mishnah 6
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כתובות פרק י"ג משנה ו׳
With regard to one who contests ownership of a field, claiming that a field under the control of someone else actually belongs to him, and the claimant himself is signed as a witness on the bill of sale to that other person, Admon says: His signature does not disprove his claim of ownership of the property, as it is possible that the claimant said to himself: The second person is easier for me, as I can reason with him, but the first owner, who sold the field to the current holder, is more difficult to deal with than him. The claimant might have been afraid to protest against the first one, who is perhaps violent, and therefore he was even willing to sign as a witness to transfer the field to the control of someone more amenable to his ensuing protest. And the Rabbis say: He has lost his right to contest ownership, as he signed a bill of sale that states that the field belongs to the present holder. If he established that field as a marker for another field, everyone agrees that he has lost his right. In other words, if the claimant wrote a document concerning another field and in that document he listed the first field as a boundary marker and described it as belonging to someone else, even Admon concedes that he has lost his right, as he had no reason to say it belonged to someone else other than his belief this was in fact the case.
הָעוֹרֵר עַל הַשָּׂדֶה וְהוּא חָתוּם עָלֶיהָ בְעֵד, אַדְמוֹן אוֹמֵר, יָכוֹל הוּא שֶׁיֹּאמַר, הַשֵּׁנִי נֹחַ לִי וְהָרִאשׁוֹן קָשֶׁה הֵימֶנּוּ. וַחֲכָמִים אוֹמְרִים, אִבֵּד אֶת זְכוּתוֹ. עֲשָׂאָהּ סִימָן לְאַחֵר, אִבֵּד אֶת זְכוּתוֹ:
Bartenura
העורר על השדה וכו׳ ראובן מערער על השדה שביד שמעון ואומר לו, לוי שמכר לך גזלה ממני, והוא חתום על שטר המכירה שכתב לוי לשמעון שמכר לו:
אדמון אומר יכול הוא שיאמר. מה שלא ערערתי בשעה שלקחת שדה זו מלוי וחתמתי עד בתוך השטר, לפי שלוי אדם חזק וקשה להוציאה מידו ונוח לי שתהא בידך שאוציאנה ממך בדין:
איבד את זכותו. דהואיל וחתם הודה שאין לו עסק בה. ואין הלכה כאדמון. ודוקא כשחתם בה בעד הוא דפליגי אדמון וחכמים, אבל אם הוא חתום בדיין לקיים את השטר, הכל מודים שלא איבד את זכותו, מפני שיכול לומר לא הייתי יודע מה שכתוב בשטר, שהדיין החותם על ההנפק לקיים את השטר אין צריך שידע מה שכתוב בשטר אלא שיכיר חתימת העדים בלבד:
העורר על השדה וכו' – Reuven protests concerning the field that is in the hand of Shimon, and says to him: “Levi who sold it to you stole it from me, and he is inscribed on the bill of sale that Levi wrote to Shimon who sold it to him.
אדמון אומר יכול הוא שיאמר – just as I did not protest at the time when you purchased this field from Levi and I signed/inscribed as a witness in the midst of the document because Levi is a strong man and difficult to remove something from his hand, it was pleasant for me that it should be in your hand than that I would [try] to remove it from you in court.
אבד את זכותו – for since and he signed, he admitted that he had no business with this, but the Halakha is not like Admon, and especially when he signed it as a witness, this is what Admon and the Sages were arguing about, but if he is signed as a judge to uphold the document, everyone agrees that he did not lose his right because he would be able to say: “I did not know what was written in the document for the judge who signs as the legal endorsement of a note, stating that it has been produced in court and found valid – to uphold the document and it is not necessary that he knew what was written in the document other than that he should recognize the signatures alone.