As the Talmud tells it:
A man went to betroth a woman. She said to him: “If you write a document signing over all of your property to me, then I will be your wife, and if not, I will not be your wife.” He went and wrote a document signing over all of his property to her.
Before the document signing over all of his wealth was delivered, the man’s eldest some accosted him:
“What will become of me if you give all of your property to this woman?”
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The father said to two witnesses: “Go hide in Avar Yemina and write a document for my son, giving him my property as a gift.”
It seems this spineless man is dangerously susceptible to the manipulations of those closest to him. The woman he wants to marry convinces him to hand over his wealth and his son does likewise — and convinces the would-be groom to hide it from his future bride. While inquiring minds and reality TV show enthusiasts may want to know about what happens when she finds out about the secret document that made her groom penniless, the Gemara is far more concerned about whether or not such a document is enforceable.
Rav Yehuda says: “With regard to a document detailing a concealed gift, we do not collect with it.”
But Rava says: “A concealed gift is effective as a preemptive declaration for another gift.”
While Rav Yehuda says the gift to the son is not enforceable, and enables the bride to sue for the property, according to Rava even a concealed gift of property to one party that predates a public gift of the same property to a different party renders the public gift null and void.
It seems odd that Rava would support an ethically dubious practice that makes it possible for a person to announce a gift in public that they have no intention of giving. Rav Pappa suggests that what appears to be a dispute between Rava and Rav Yehuda on this point is really something else entirely. According to Rav Pappa, Rava never actually said anything about the matter directly; rather, this position was attributed to him mistakenly based on a judicial ruling that he once made.
The Gemara reports that the case involving the man, the woman he was courting and his son came before Rava, who actually ruled that neither the son nor the woman had acquired the man’s property. The Gemara then speculates that:
One who observed this incident assumed that Rava invalidated the wife’s acquisition because the concealed gift to his son was a preemptive declaration to the other gift.
But this assumption, suggests Rav Pappa, is erroneous. When Rava invalidated the wife’s acquisition, he did so not because the concealed gift preempted the public one, but rather because the woman had coerced her husband into signing over his possessions to her. And he invalidated the son’s acquisition because, like Rav Yehuda, he holds that concealed gifts are not enforceable.
From all of this we learn that there is agreement between the rabbis that gifts and the documents that record them must be made public if they are to be upheld in court. And, in that same spirit of transparency, Rav Pappa reminds us that it is equally important to know the process through which legal positions became attributed to rabbinic authorities — doing so can help prevent errors from creeping into the system.
Read all of Bava Batra 40 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on August 4, 2024. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
