Talmud Shiur 5784 #7

(A mnemonic representing those proofs: Peh, mem, gimmel, shin; mem, mem, kuf, gimmel, tet, yod; kaf, kaf, samekh, ayin, zayin.)

1. Come and hear: If one found scattered produce, it belongs to him.
   1. Isn't the owner unaware that they fell from him?
      1. Didn’t Rav Ukva bar Ḥama say: We are dealing with kernels of wheat that remained during the gathering of grain on the threshing floor?
      2. That is a deliberate loss.
2. Come and hear: If one found scattered coins, these belong to him.
   1. Why do they belong to the one who finds them? Isn’t the owner unaware that they fell from him?
      1. There too, it is not a case of unconscious despair, in accordance with Rabbi Yitzḥak, who says: A person is prone to feel his money pouch constantly.
      2. Here too, a person is prone to feel his money pouch constantly.
3. Come and hear: If one found round cakes of pressed figs or baker’s loaves, these belong to him.
   1. Why? Isn't the owner unaware that they fell from him?
      1. There too, since these items are heavy he knows that they fell.
4. Come and hear: If one found strips of purple wool, these belong to him.
   1. And why? Isn’t the owner unaware that they fell from him?
      1. There too, since they are significant, the owner feels around for them, and it is in accordance with Rabbi Yitzḥak.
5. Come and hear: One who finds coins in synagogues, and in study halls, and in any place where the multitudes are found, these coins belong to him due to the fact that the owners despair of their recovery. Why do they belong to him; isn’t the owner unaware that the coins fell from him? Rabbi Yitzḥak says: A person is prone to feel his money pouch constantly; therefore, it is reasonable to assume that shortly after the coins fell, the owner became aware of his loss.

That is a deliberate loss - As it did not fall from him, and he knowingly placed them down [to be] ownerless.

Prone to feel - So before this one finds it, it is known to the owners that they fell and they abandon it.

Are heavy (literally, weighty) - A load that is heavy.

Come and hear, who finds coins etc. -

1. It is a wonder: Since it already brought a difficulty from our mishnah about scattered coins, why does it also challenge from this baraita?
   1. And also why did Rabbi Yitzhak not say his piece about our mishnah?
2. And it can be said that it was stronger for it to raise a difficulty on the baraita,
   1. Since it implies that it is the [finder's] in all cases - even in the case where there is an identifying mark,
      1. since it establishes the reason to be because the multitudes are found there.
   2. And it is also implied [that this is the case] even when [the finder] picked it up while the owner of the lost object was still in the study hall, and he didn't know that it had fallen from him.

1. Come and hear:
   1. From when is it permitted for any person to collect gleanings? Once the nemushot have walked in the field.
2. And we say:
   1. What are nemushot?
      1. And Rabbi Yoḥanan said: The elderly people who walk leaning on a cane.
      2. Reish Lakish said: The gleaners after gleaners.
   2. And why?
   3. Although the poor who are here renounce ownership, there are poor people in another place who are unaware of the passing of the nemushot and do not renounce ownership?
      1. The Sages say: Since there are poor people here, those despair from the outset,
      2. and they say: The poor people who are there gather the gleanings.
3. Come and hear:
   1. If dried figs are found on the path,
      1. and even at the side of a field where dried figs are spread to dry,
   2. and likewise, a fig tree whose branches extend over a path
   3. and one found figs beneath it,
      1. those figs are permitted due to the prohibition of robbery, and one who finds them is exempt from tithes.
   4. With olives or carobs,
      1. it is prohibited.
   5. Granted, the first clause. It is not difficult according to Abaye.
      1. Since dried figs are significant, one feels for them to ensure that they have not become lost. In the case of the fig tree, too, one knows that the fruit of the fig tree fall from the tree.
   6. But the latter clause is difficult according to Rava,
      1. as it teaches: In the case of olives or of carobs, it is prohibited.
      2. Rabbi Abbahu said:
         1. The halakha of an olive is different, since its appearance proves the identity of the owner.
         2. And even though the olives falls, the one who finds the olives knows that an olive tree that is located in a place that is owned by a specific person belongs to that person.
      3. If so, then even in the first clause as well!
         1. Rav Pappa said: A fig becomes disgusting with its fall.

"Elderly people who walk [with] a cane - Poor elderly men walk slowly with their canes, so they see each and every sheaf. And the expression, nemushot, is like [its usage], "shall not depart (yamushu)" (Isaiah 59:21) - since they feel and [then] they go.

The gleaners after the gleaners - The expression, nemushot, is like [its usage], "not feel (yamish)" (Exodus 13:22) - as they take and feel everything from in front of them.

And why - if abandonment without awareness is not [considered] abandonment.

Given that - concerning the poor people from here, it is abandonment with awareness; since they saw the nemushot walked through it. But the poor of another city do not yet know - so how is it that we are permitted it. Rather it is because their abandonment, when they do know, is [considered] abandonment from the time [the nemushot] left it. So it was permissible when it came to the hand of this one.

Dried figs - Figs that are cut off with a scalpel, such that their sap flows out; and we spread them out on the field to dry.

And even in the side of a field of dried figs - A field in which we spread out figs to dry, as he knows that they came from them.

Permitted [regarding] robbery - Even though he did not know when they fell; since once he will know, he will abandon [them], the abandonment is from now - like Rava.

Exempt from tithes - like the law of ownerless property. As ownerless property is exempt form tithes.

In [the case of] olives or of carobs, it is prohibited - like Abbaye.

Granted, the first clause [to] Abbaye - he can find to answer, that he knew from the beginning - as it continues to explain.

As it teaches, olives or carobs are prohibited - And you would think it is because they are not prone to fall and it cannot be said that [the finder] knew that [the owner] abandoned [them]. So even though once he will know, he will abandon [them], it is not [considered] abandonment from now.

Its appearance proves about it - It is known whose it is from its appearance. Hence once its owner knows that it fell, he will not abandon [it]. For he will surely say, "Everyone knows that they are mine and they are not ownerless, so they will not take them."

Becomes disgusting with its fall - Hence since he know that they fall, he abandons [them] from the beginning because of [their] disgust. As from when it falls, it is not significant to him and he renders it ownerless.

(1) From when are all people permitted to take gleanings, [forgotten sheaves and peah]? After the old ones of the poor have gone. And in the case of peret and defective clusters? After the poor have gone into the vineyard and come back again. And in the case of the olive trees? After the descent of the second rainfall. Rabbi Judah said: But aren’t there those who do not harvest their olives until after the second rainfall?” Rather, once the poor man has gone out [to gather the agricultural gifts taken from olive trees] and cannot bring back with him [more than the value of] four issars.

(4) If one found cut figs on the road, or even beside a field [where cut figs] have been spread [to dry], and similarly, if a fig tree overhangs the road, and he found figs beneath it, they are allowed [with regard to the laws] of robbery, and they are exempt from tithe. But if they were olives and carobs, they are liable. If one found dried figs, then if the majority of people had already trodden [their figs], he must tithe [them], but if not he is exempt. If one found slices of fig-cake he is liable [to tithe] since it is obvious they come from something whose processing had been fully completed. With carobs, if they had not yet been on the top of the roof, he may take some down for his animals and be exempt [from tithe] since he returns that which is left over.