On yesterday’s daf, we established that any document with two or more blank lines between the end of the text and the witnesses’ signatures is invalid. The Gemara on today’s daf, in typical fashion, demands clarification:
A dilemma was raised before the sages: With regard to the two blank lines, which the sages said invalidates the document, does this refer to the lines with the space between lines added? Or is it perhaps without their spaces?
In all documents, there’s vertical space occupied by the letters themselves and additional vertical space between the lines — in typography, this is called leading — for legibility and to make room for occasional letters that extend above or below the others. It is clear that leaving a gap the width of two lines with typical spacing invalidates the document. But what if the gap is a bit narrower — the width of two lines without that typical spacing between lines? In other words, there is space for two lines of text tightly crammed above the signature.
Rav Nahman bar Yitzhak provides an answer:
It stands to reason that it is referring to the lines with their spaces. As, if it were to enter your mind that it is without their spaces, what is a line without its space fit for? Rather, one may conclude from this claim that the reference is to two lines with their spaces.
Recall that in the same beraita which taught that a document is invalid if it leaves space for two lines between the text and the signatures, we learned that a document with only a one-line gap is kosher. If this single line had no space around it, argues Rav Nahman, it would in fact be impossible to write anything in that space. In that case, the ruling would be so obvious it would not need to be stated. Therefore, we can safely conclude that the rule permitting a one line gap is referring both to the height of the line and the extra space that pads it. From here, we can infer that the impermissible two-line gap described in the beraita also includes the space taken up by two lines, as well as the padding around them.
You may be thinking: While today we can measure type size and leading with remarkable precision, rabbinic documents were written by hand — and not all people write letters the same size. So how do we measure whether the space is in fact wide enough for two lines of text with spacing? The Gemara has the same concern.
Rabbi Shabbtai says in the name of Hizkiyya: The gap of two blank lines, which the sages said invalidates the document, is measured by the handwriting of witnesses, and not by the handwriting of a scribe. What is the reason for this? Anyone who forges a document, would not go to a scribe and ask him to forge.
While we can’t account for all individual handwriting styles, Hizkiyya clarifies that line width is measured according to the handwriting of a normal, non-scribe — so we take our cue from the witnesses. The presumption is that scribes write smaller letters; however, we feel confident that an attempted forger, who wants to add additional content in the final lines of a document, would not go to a scribe to get this done, perhaps because they’d be afraid the scribe, whose livelihood depends on his reputation for integrity, would turn them down and turn them in. Therefore, if the two line-gap is small enough that only a scribe could write two lines of text within it, the document is still valid. And if John Hancock signs the document, there’s room for a comfortable gap without invalidating the document.
From here, the Gemara on today’s daf continues to examine how interlinear spaces are measured. As we often find, a seemingly straightforward statement — that any document with two empty lines between the end of the text and the signatures is invalid — can become incredibly intricate once we examine all the practical, particular concerns that will arise when trying to apply and adjudicate such a ruling.
Read all of Bava Batra 163 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on December 5, 2024. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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