Bava Batra 154

On today’s daf, we’re presented with a situation in which someone has been working a field and is therefore presumed to be the owner. Another individual challenges their claim to the land, so the presumptive owner produces a deed to prove that the challenger transferred the land to them legally. But rather than recognize the document as legitimate, the challenger responds:

This is a document of appeasement or a document of trust — which means that I sold the field to you and provided you with the deed, trusting you to pay later — and since you did not give me the money the sale is void.

Let’s look at the first possible claim: That the person occupying the land has produced a document of appeasement, a shtar pasim. The medieval commentator Rashbam explains what this is: In an effort to make someone look more wealthy than they actually are, the real owner writes them a document that falsely states that they own the land. This is a shady way to help a friend, giving the impression that the holder of the document has good credit and enabling them to borrow a large sum of money.

The shtar pasim comes up three other times in the Talmud, once in Gittin and twice in Ketubot. On Ketubot 79a, Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel suggests that a wife-to-be write a document of appeasement to protect her property from her husband’s control by assigning it to a third person, who never intends to take possession. In this case, the shtar pasim is a rabbinically sanctioned tool that protects an otherwise vulnerable woman. But this is the only time we see the rabbis recommend it. Gittin 19b describes a complicated scenario in which a woman blindly destroys a document she has received from her husband, believing it is a divorce document (get). Later, her husband tells her it wasn’t a real get, but a shtar pasim — a document designed to make it look like she had received an infusion of funds from her ketubah. In this case, the rabbis conclude that the divorce is still effective.

The shtar pasim is slippery and morally problematic, as Ketubot 19b states: 

In the West (the land of Israel), they say in the name of Rav: “If iniquity be in your hand, put it far away” (Job 11:14) — this is a document of trust and a document of appeasement.

This brings us to the other document mentioned by the land challenger in today’s scenario: a document of trust, or shtar amana. This is a deed that someone writes and delivers before receiving payment, trusting that the funds will be forthcoming.

So what do we do when a presumptive owner of the land produces a deed to prove their ownership, but the other claimant insists they are only holding a shtar pasim (meaning the first person never owned the property) or a shtar amana (meaning they never paid for it). Today’s daf gives the following answer:

If there are witnesses, follow the testimony of the witnesses, and if not, follow the deed.

The deed is upheld in court, despite the claim that it is a shtar pasim or shtar amana, unless witnesses testify otherwise.

This is all that the Babylonian Talmud says on the matter. The Jerusalem Talmud, however, given the inherent problems with a shtar amana and a shtar pasim, raises doubt about whether to believe those witnesses:

Rav Huna in the name of Rav: The witnesses can be trusted…

But Rav said: It is forbidden to sign a document given in good faith (the Jerusalem Talmud’s term for a shtar pasim)…

One word of Rav contradicts a word of Rav! Rabbi Haggai said: Rav did not say it is forbidden to sign but it is forbidden to keep.

One tradition of Rav teaches, like the Babylonian Talmud, that witnesses to a shtar pasim or shtar amana can be trusted. But another teaching cited in his name suggests that signing such documents is forbidden, and therefore we should not trust those witnesses. Rabbi Haggai resolves the contradiction by correcting the record on what Rav said: It is not forbidden to sign a shtar pasim or shtar amana, but it is forbidden to keep it lying around.

The rabbis clearly have contempt for these unscrupulous documents. They’re inherently deceptive and don’t reflect the reality of a person’s situation, making it understandable why they’d urge us to relegate them to the garbage bin and get them out of the house — and even cast doubt on the witnesses who testify to them.

Read all of Bava Batra 154 on Sefaria.

This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on November 29, 2024. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.