Sunday, January 03, 2010

Baba Basra 136b - Kinyan Guf and Kinyan Peiros

We once again have the machlokes between R' Yochanan and Reish Lakish whether a kinyan peiros qualifies as a kinyan ha'guf. The gemara has 2 applications of this argument. One is that if a father gifts the guf of property to his son, retaining for himself the fruits for the duration of his lifetime, and the son would sell what he owns, if the father would out live the son then the question becomes whether the father's retention of peiros would entitle him to take the property back from the buyer. The second application is in the context of bikurim, whether one is able to read the parsha when they only have a kinyan peiros.
The Rashbam explains that according to Reish Lakish that kinyan peiros wouldn't entitle someone to read the parsha is because they couldn't say האדמה אשר נתתה לי, but they would be obligated to bring the fruits even m'doraysa because they are included in אשר תביא מארצך. Tosafos rejects the rashbam because if they aren't included in the pasuk of "nasata li", they shouldn't be included in "artzecha" either? Tosafos concludes that the entire obligation to bring the fruits according to this opinion is only rabbinic.
The Ketzos HaChoshen (257:3) answers a major question and with it explains the rashbam. The gemara in Yevamos says that unless we accept R' Yochanan that kinyan peiros is like kinyan haguf, no one would ever be able to read the parsha of bikurim unless they come from a chain of only sons (because if there are multiple sons, we view their inheritance as purchasing from one another so they only own kinyan peiros). How then can we hold like reish lakish? Tosafos in Yevamos raises this question and says that we only hold like reish lakish in the context of the father gifting property to the son because a father will be mochel to the son and leave over a very weak share of kinyan peiros, but in general we follow r' yochanan that a standard kinyan peiros would be like a kinyan haguf.
The ketzos offers another approach. Kinyan peiros can sometimes refer to a weak ownership but sometimes can refer to a standard ownership which expires with time. A kinyan l'zman is a very powerful kinyan peiros because the "owner" can do whatever he wants, even ruin the field, just that his ownership will expire, whereas a true kinyan peiros cannot ruin the field. One who owns a field until yovel is considered to have a "kinyan peiros", but it is a very strong kinyan peiros which would enable him to even read the bikurim because it is like a kinyan haguf until it expires. But, when one only has a kinyan peiros, they cannot read the parsha of bikurim.
The Rosh in a teshuva quotes Rabbeinu Avigdor who says that one who has a lulav for kinyan peiros, namely only to fulfill the mitzvah, cannot fulfill the mitzvah since it doesn't qualify as לכם. But if they have a matana al m'nas l'hachzir it is like a kinyan haguf that expires and they can fulfill their obligation with it. Therefore, one who has a kinyan haguf on a field that will expire such as a purchased field that will return with yovel, qualifies as אשר תביא מארצך because for the time being when he brings the bikurim he "owns" the land [similar to the requirement of לכם, which is fulfilled by a kinyan haguf that will expire]. But, the requirement for reading the parsha is האדמה אשר נתתה לי which means it is his forever, which is not the case, so he cannot read the parsha.
It seems based on the ketzos that the distinction between the two pesukim is that one can consider a land which he is now an owner but his ownership will expire, to be "your land" since it is not his. But, from the perspective of the giver, it is not a "land that Hashem gave me", because it was only given temporarily.

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