Bava Batra 85a (פה.) — the Talmud in English

His vessels

acquire it for him,

in an alleyway and

in every place,

even in the seller’s domain,

except in the public domain

or in the domain of a third party ; there, his vessels do not acquire it for him, even if the seller explicitly said to him: “Let your vessel acquire it for you.”

And Rabbi Yohanan and Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish both say:

a person’s vessels acquire an item for him in every place,

even in the public domain.

He said,

he explained,

Rav Pappa: They do not disagree;

there is no dispute here between Rav and Shmuel and Rabbi Yohanan and Reish Lakish.

Here,

when Rav and Shmuel said: “except in the public domain,” they were speaking

of the actual public domain;

and in the actual public domain, everyone agrees that a person’s vessels do not acquire an item for him.

Here,

when Rabbi Yohanan and Reish Lakish said: “even in the public domain,” they were speaking

of an alleyway;

and in an alleyway, everyone agrees that a person’s vessels acquire an item for him.

And

if you will wonder:

Why did they call it

Rabbi Yohanan and Reish Lakish, by that name,

“the public domain”!?

Your answer is: Since

it is not

it

an actual “private domain”

in the literal sense, there is room to call a side street “the public domain.”

in the true sense, there is therefore room to call an alleyway “the public domain.” And the Gemara adds:

This too is evidently so,

in accordance with Rav Pappa’s statement, that Rabbi Yohanan did not say that a person’s vessels acquire an item for him in the actual public domain.

For

this

is what Rabbi Abbahu said in the name of Rabbi Yohanan: A person’s vessel acquires an item for him wherever he has permission

to place it.

This implies that specifically in a place where

he has permission

to place it,

yes,

his vessel indeed acquires the item for him; but if

he has no permission

to place his vessel there,

no,

his vessel does not acquire the item for him.

Learn from this:

In the actual public domain, Rabbi Yohanan and Reish Lakish agree that a person’s vessel does not acquire an item for him, since he has no permission to place his vessel there.

And we challenge this:

Come and hear

from a beraita that even in the actual public domain a person’s vessel acquires an item for him:

There are four measures,

four distinct laws, that were stated

with regard to sellers

concerning acquisition through vessels:

When a person lends a measuring vessel to a seller so that the seller may measure with it for the buyer, his intention is that until the seller completes the act of measuring, the vessel is lent to the seller, and immediately when the measuring is completed, the vessel is lent to the buyer, until he puts away his purchase or transfers it to his own vessel. When the seller measures produce for the buyer, the law is as follows:

Before the

has

measure

[the measuring vessel] is filled, as long as the seller is occupied with measuring, the measure is in the domain

of the seller,

and the buyer has not yet acquired the produce.

Once the

measure

measure

is filled and the seller is no longer occupied with measuring, the measure is in the domain

of the buyer

to take his purchase with it, and the buyer has acquired the produce as though the measure were actually the buyer’s vessel.

When are these matters stated? With regard to a measure belonging to neither of them,

but to a third party who lent them his vessels.

But if the measure belonged to one of them,

whether to the buyer or to the seller —

the owner of the measure acquires it incrementally

as it enters the vessel.

If the measure belongs to the buyer, he acquires it “incrementally,” meaning that he acquires each small quantity as it enters the vessel, even before the measure is filled and while the seller is still occupied with measuring. In any event, the buyer acquires it because the vessel was his from the outset, and a person’s vessel acquires an item for him.

And if the measure belongs to the seller, the buyer does not acquire the produce even after the measure has been filled; the produce remains in the seller’s domain forever, until the buyer performs meshikha.

And

when are these matters stated? In the public domain

and in a courtyard

[or in a courtyard]

that belongs to neither of them,

but to a third party who did not give them permission to measure there.

This concludes the first and second laws of the beraita:

a. With a measure belonging to neither of them, in the public domain or in a courtyard belonging to neither of them, once the measure is filled, the buyer acquires the produce.

b. With a measure belonging to one of them, in the public domain or in a courtyard belonging to neither of them, the owner of the measure acquires the produce incrementally.

And the third law:

But

if the seller measured for the buyer

in the seller’s domain, the buyer does not acquire it

until he lifts it,

and acquires the produce through the act of lifting

or until he removes it from the seller’s domain

to the buyer’s domain or to an alleyway.

And the fourth law:

And if the seller measured for the buyer

in

the domain

of the buyer, once the seller has accepted

the

sale,

meaning that he agreed to the transaction and said to him: “All this produce is sold to you, at such-and-such a price per se’a,”

the buyer acquires

the

produce

immediately, even without measuring.

And the beraita adds: If the seller measured for the buyer

in his domain,

of

the other party

[that person] with whom the

produce

was

deposited, the buyer does not acquire it

until the custodian accepts upon himself

the produce, until the custodian accepts responsibility

to designate a domain for the buyer in which to acquire the produce, or until the buyer rents

its place

where the produce is located, and acquires it through “acquisition by means of a courtyard.”

Now the Gemara returns to the issue of whether a person’s utensils acquire for him in the public domain:

in any event, it states

[at least, we learned] in a beraita: If the measuring vessel belonged to one of them, the first one acquired each measureful as it was measured,

in the public domain and in a courtyard that belongs to neither of them.