Gittin 5:3 - 5:4

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.

יתומים שסמכו אצל בעל הבית – to do their work at his direction, for an administrator/guardian had not been appointed for them; but nevertheless, he was like an administrator.

אפוטרופוס – In the Roman language they would call a father PATER and children [would be called] POTOS. An explanation of APOTROPOS is the father of minor children.

שמינהו אבי יתומים ישבע – for if not [i.e. if he did not take an oath], that he had benefit from him, he would not have had an administrator, and because of the oath taken, he might shrink from serving as a guardian.

מנוהו בית דין לא ישבע – as a gratuitous favor, as he does this for the Jewish court to accept their words and to trouble himself without pay, and if they bring a dispute [by requiring that] he take an oath [that he was faithful to his task], he can shrink from it [i.e., becoming a guardian].

אבא שאול אומר חילוף הדברים – if he court appointed him, he should take an oath, since the benefit [he receives] has a voice that he is an honorable person [by not stealing from the funds in his care] for the Jewish court relies upon him and because of the oath taken, he will not shrink [from his duties in becoming a guardian]; [on the other hand], if the father of the orphans appointed him, he should not take an oath, as it is a gratuitous favor that he does for him to go to the trouble [of caring for] his children, and if they were to raise a dispute against him [by requiring that] he take an oath, he would shrink from his duties [of serving as a guardian]. And the Halakha is according to Abba Shaul.

המטמא – [he defiles] the pure objects of his fellow.

המדמע – he mixes the heave-offering/sacred donation for the Kohanim with unconsecrated foods and causes it to lose value, as it is necessary to sell it to the Kohanim cheaply.

המנסך – mixing wine poured for libations with kosher wine and it is forbidden to derive benefit [from it].

במזיד חייב – but by law, he would be exempt, for damage that is not discernible in the object itself is not itself called damage (see Talmud Gittin 53a), but for the sake of the social order [we do not do this], so that every person would not go and defile his fellow’s pure objects, and say that I am exempt.

הכהנים שפיגלו – [because of an improper intention in the mind of the officiating Kohen making] the sacrifices [rejectable] in that they slaughtered [the animals] and sprinkled their blood with the thought of eating from them at an inappropriate time, and it as not acceptable to the owners [of the sacrifices].

מזידים – that they knew that they would be invalid by doing this.

חייבים – to pay their value to the owners, for they would have to bring other [sacrifices]; alternatively, it is a donation and is not obligated for indemnity payment. Nevertheless, it is difficult in his eyes that he would not make the sacrificial offering, for he was requested to bring a gift.