At what point in a purchase does an item actually change ownership? When the buyer hands over the cash or credit card? When the cash is put in the till, or the credit card is swiped? When the seller places it in a bag? Or hands it over? In most everyday transactions, we don’t think about these questions, but they matter. After all, if the item breaks halfway through a transaction, there’s a question of who eats the loss. And if the buyer or the seller changes their mind midway through the transaction, we might wonder whether they still have the right to renege.
On today’s daf, the rabbis articulate a principle:
Before the measuring cup has been filled — (it belongs) to the seller. Once the measuring cup has been filled — (it belongs) to the buyer.
A seller of grain or liquid would use a measuring cup to assess its weight or volume before handing it to a customer. According to this beraita, before the produce is in the cup, it belongs to the seller, but once the cup is full, it belongs to the buyer. The Gemara next offers some qualifications:
In what case is this statement said? With a measuring cup that does not belong to either of them. But if the measuring cup belonged to one of them, the buyer acquires one by one.
The rabbis clarify that if the measuring cup is borrowed or communally owned, the merchandise transfer happens all at once, as soon as the cup is full. But if either the buyer or the seller owns the cup, then the transfer happens over time as each item (or grain) is measured into it. There’s another qualification:
In what case is this statement said? In the public domain or in a courtyard that does not belong to either of them. But in the domain of the seller, the buyer does not acquire until he lifts the cup or until he moves it out of the domain. If it is in the domain of the buyer, once the seller accepts upon himself to sell, the buyer acquires it.
Apparently, who owns the measuring cup only matters in a public space. In the seller’s space, transfer happens at a different moment: The merchandise is presumed to belong to the seller until the buyer physically lifts or moves it — even after paying! (So if you leave your groceries in the store, beware!) In the buyer’s space, however, the buyer acquires the item as soon as the seller decides to sell and even before it has been measured out.
The moment of purchase shifts yet again if buyer and seller are conducting the transaction in a space that is owned by a third party who was charged with guarding the merchandise for the seller:
In the domain of this one with whom it had been deposited, the buyer does not acquire it until (the third party) accepts upon himself or until the buyer rents the place.
In this setting, the third party, who has been charged with protecting the merchandise, must also agree to the sale or, alternatively, rent the buyer a place to store the merchandise between the moment of sale and when the buyer comes to pick it up.
So then when is the actual moment of sale? It turns out that there is no single moment at which all merchandise changes hands. Instead, it depends on the location and whose tools of sale (like a measuring cup) are used. For the rabbis, context matters.
Read all of Bava Batra 85 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on September 18, 2024. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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