Bava Batra 55 - August 19, 15 Av

Rav Huna bought land from a gentile, but after he paid for the land and before a document was written, another Jew came and acquired the land through chazaka, by plowing a bit in the field. Rav Nachman ruled as per Shmuel’s ruling that the land belongs to the other Jew. Rav Huna challenged Rav Nachman by suggesting that if Rav Nachman were to hold by Shmuel, then he should also hold by Shmuel’s other ruling that if one plows in an ownerless field, one only acquires the area where one plowed. However, Rav Nachman responded that on that issue he holds like Rav Huna himself who held like Rav that the entire field belongs to the one who plowed, even if one plowed in a very small area. Rabba quoted three laws he heard from Ukvan bar Nechemia the exilarch in the name of Shmuel. The first is that dina d’mlachuta dina, that the law of the land is the law. The second and third are based on the first. In Persia, a chazaka can be created on land if one lives on a property for forty years. The commentaries disagree about the relevance of this halakha in Jewish law. If the king seizes the property of one who does not pay the land tax and sells it to another Jew, the sale is valid, as that is the law of the land. There is a debate about whether this applies only to land seized from those who did not pay the land tax or also to those who did not pay the head tax. If there is a border or a sea quill plant in the middle of a field, this is considered a separation for various laws. However, there is a debate whether the separation is only for the purposes of acquiring land that was ownerless, or also for pea’h and ritual impurity, and possibly also for laws of carrying on Shabbat. The Gemara explains the halakhic relevance of a separation between fields for pea’h, ritual impurity, and Shabbat.