Bava Batra 167a (קסז.) — the Talmud in English

And he converts them into zuz.

The perutot are totaled and included in the dinarim; instead of one hundred ninety-two perutot, one dinar is written.

What do you say?

Rather, what would you say—that the intention is

six hundred isteri and one zuz,

six hundred sela and one zuz? But since it is also possible to interpret the statement as referring to six hundred zuz—which is a quarter of a sela, as a sela is four dinarim—then

the holder of the document has the lower hand,

and he collects only zuz.

Abaye said: With regard to one who wishes to display his signature before the court,

a person who wishes to present a sample of his signature before the court so that they can compare it with his signature on the document,

he should not display it at the end of a scroll.

He should not sign at the bottom of the parchment and send it to the court,

lest another person find it,

lest a dishonest person find the parchment,

and it be written that he owes him money,

as perhaps he will write at the top of the parchment, above his signature: “I, the undersigned, borrowed such-and-such an amount of money from so-and-so,” and on that basis he will be able to collect from him, since

we learned

below [175b]:

If he produces his handwritten document against him,

if one produces against another a document bearing only his handwritten signature, without the signatures of witnesses,

that he owes him

money, then

he collects

the creditor

from unencumbered property

of the debtor, but not from encumbered property, because the legal status of such a document is not that of a full-fledged document, but merely that of an oral loan, from which one does not collect from encumbered property.

Therefore, he should sign only at the top of the parchment, so that no one will be able to write anything above his signature.

There was a certain tax collector

who came before Abaye.

It happened that a tax collector came before Abaye.

He said to him,

the tax collector said to Abaye:

“Let the Master show me his signature,

show it to me; write your signature,

so that when the Sages come and show it to me,

when the Sages reach the other side of the tax station and present me with a request bearing your signature to release them from paying the tax,

I will let them pass without a tax,”

I will let them pass without paying the tax, based on my comparison with the signature of yours in my possession.

He showed it to him at the top of the scroll.

Abaye wished to sign at the top of the parchment.

He began pulling it

the tax collector pulled the parchment so that Abaye would sign at the bottom.

He said to him,

Abaye said to him:

“The Sages have already preceded you!”

They already warned against signing only at the top of a parchment, out of concern for dishonest people like you.

Abaye said: From three through ten,

from the number three through the number ten,

one should not write at the end of a line,

so that a person should not write in a document, at the end of a line, that he borrowed an amount of three or more units of a certain coin,

lest he forge it and write,

lest the creditor forge the document and turn three into thirty or four into forty, and similarly for the numbers up to ten. But from eleven onward there is no concern about writing it there. If the creditor wishes to forge eleven into twenty-one, he would also have to insert a vav between the one and the ten, so that it would read twenty-one. Since the vav would be inserted there with difficulty, the forgery would be recognizable.

And if it happens to him,

and if nevertheless he happens to write the number three or four at the end of the line,

let him repeat the statement two or three times,

he should repeat the amount later in the document, even two or three times, and then

it is impossible that it will not happen to him in the middle of a line.

It is inevitable that at least once the amount will appear in the middle of a line, where it is impossible to forge the document by adding letters. Then, even if the creditor forged the earlier occurrence, the amount will not be learned solely from the lower one, as explained in our Mishna.

There was a certain document in which it was written

that so-and-so sold to so-and-so “

a third in the orchard.”

That is, a third of his orchard.

He went and erased part of the roof of the bet and its leg,

the purchaser went and erased part of the roof of the letter bet and its leg,

and made it

into

“and the orchard.”

Instead of a bet, there was now a vav, and the meaning was that he sold him a third of his field and, in addition, the entire orchard.

He came before Abaye.

He said to him,

Abaye said to the purchaser:

“Why is there so much space around this vav?”

Why is the space occupied by the vav in “and the orchard” so wide?

He restrained him, and he confessed!

Abaye compelled him to admit the forgery he had committed.

There was a certain

document

in which it was written

that so-and-so purchased

“the shares of Reuven and Shimon, brothers,”

the shares of the brothers Reuven and Shimon in a field that they had inherited from their father.

They had another brother whose name was Ahi.

Reuven and Shimon had another brother named Ahi, who also owned a share in that field.

He went and wrote a vav in it,

the purchaser went and added a vav before the word “Ahi,”

and made it

“and Ahi.”

That is, he claimed that he had also purchased the share of the third brother, whose name was Ahi.

He came before Abaye.

He said to him,

Abaye said to him:

“Why is the space so constricted around this vav?”

Why was the vav inserted there with such difficulty?

He restrained him, and he confessed

that it was a forgery.

There was a certain document that was signed by Rava and Rav Aha bar Adda,

both of whom had signed it.

It came before Rava

the document was shown to Rava.

He said to him,

Rava said to the holder of the document:

“This is indeed my signature,

this is certainly my signature,

but I never signed in the presence of Rav Aha bar Adda!”

Rather, I never signed before Rav Aha bar Adda as it appears in this document.

He restrained him, and he confessed!

Rava compelled him to admit that he had forged Rava’s signature.

He said to him,

Rava said to the forger:

“Granted, you forged mine,

it is understandable that you succeeded in forging my signature.

But

his signature,

that of Rav Aha bar Adda, whose hand trembles,

whose hands tremble and whose writing is broken,

how did you do it?”

How did you succeed in forging it?

He said

to him:

“I placed my hands on a rope,

I placed my hands on the rope stretched across the river from bank to bank. It was constantly swaying because those crossing the bridge held onto it, and in this way I succeeded in forging Rav Aha bar Adda’s trembling hand as well.

And some say,

there are those who say that he succeeded in forging it by

standing on a bucket,

the bucket used to draw water from the well, while his entire body trembled,

and writing.

In this way he forged Rav Aha bar Adda’s signature.

Mishna:

Witnesses may not sign a document unless it was prepared with the consent of the party undertaking the obligation recorded in that document. When does this apply? When the party undertaking the obligation has the right to object to its being written. But if he has no right to object, or if the document grants him a benefit and it is clear that he wants it, the witnesses write and sign the document even without his consent. Therefore:

They write a get for a man, even though his wife is not with him.

A get may be written for a husband divorcing his wife, and the witnesses may sign it even without the wife’s presence or consent; the husband may then divorce her with it whenever he wishes. This is because the woman’s consent is not required for her divorce.

And

the witnesses write and sign

the receipt

a receipt for payment of her ketuba

for a woman, even though her husband is not with her.

She will safeguard it until her husband pays her ketuba, at which point she will give him the receipt in her possession. Since the receipt benefits the husband, his consent is not required for it to be written.

Provided that they recognize him.

This will be explained in the Gemara.

And the husband gives

the

fee

to the scribe who writes the get, for the reason that will be explained in the Gemara. He likewise pays the fee of the scribe who writes the receipt, because the receipt benefits the husband: through it, the woman will no longer be able to claim her ketuba from him. Therefore, he must pay the expenses of writing it.