When does my basket effect acquisition? TB Baba Batra 84-86

The Mishnah on daf TB Baba Batra 84 reopens the topic when a person acquires an object. Obviously before the item is sold, both the seller and the buyer have to have the same mind about the object. The seller wants to sell it and the buyer wants to buy it. Nevertheless, handing over the money of the agreed purchase price is insufficient for the buyer to actually acquire the item. The buyer has to do an act of acquisition.

“This mishna discusses several methods of acquiring movable property. With regard to one who sells produce to another, if the buyer pulled the produce but did not measure it, he has acquired the produce through the act of acquisition of pulling. If he measured the produce but did not pull it, he has not acquired it, and either the seller or the buyer can decide to rescind the sale. If the buyer is perspicacious and wants to acquire the produce without having to pull it, and he wishes to do so before the seller could change his mind and decide not to sell, he rents its place, where the produce is located, and his property immediately effects acquisition of the produce on his behalf.” (TB Baba Batra 84b, Sefaria.org translation)

Because this Mishna is too vague, the Gemara litigates where the selling takes place and when the buyer’s vessel acquires the produce. First of all, everybody agrees that when the transaction happens in the public domain, the buyer’s vessel doesn’t automatically acquire the item that is put into it. “A person’s vessels effect acquisition of any item placed inside them for him, in any place in which they are situated, except for the public domain.” (TB Baba Batra 85a, Sefaria.org translation) Rashbam explains that the basket in the public domain creates a public hazard as people may trip over it; consequently, it has no right to be there.

When the buyer’s basket is in a neutral territory like an alleyway or court your where neither the buyer nor the seller own, the buyer’s vessel effects the acquisition of the goods. “Rabbi Asi says that Rabbi Yoḥanan says: If the seller measured the produce and placed it in an alleyway, which is not the public domain but a location where people can keep their belongings, then even if the buyer did not pull the produce, he acquires it..” (TB Baba Batra 84b, Sefaria.org translation) Rashbam explains the buyer can temporarily acquire the land upon which the basket sits and that spot acts like a kinyan khazarot (קנין חצרות).

Obviously when the buyer’s basket is in the buyer’s domain, the items in the basket belong to the buyer.

What happens when the buyer’s basket is in the seller’s domain? This question is never definitively answered. One position asserts that my vessel actually can acquire the items put in it even in the seller’s domain. The other position argues that the vessel status becomes subsumed or nullified by the larger sellers domain. Halkhically, it is as if not my vessel at all. The only time the buyer’s vessel can definitely acquire the items put into it in the sellers domain is when the seller says, “Go and acquire it.” “Ravina said to Rav Ashi: Come and hear a resolution, as Rav and Shmuel both say: A person’s vessel effects acquisition for him of any item placed inside it, in any place that it is situated. What is added by the phrase: In any place? Does it not serve to add the domain of the seller? Rav Ashi answered: There, it is referring to a specific case, where the seller said to him: Go and acquire it. In that situation, the buyer does acquire the merchandise. This does not refer to a standard case where the buyer’s vessels are located in the domain of the seller.” (Sefaria.org translation)

The Gemara goes on to teach us other rules of acquisition. “§ We learned in a mishna elsewhere (Kiddushin 26a): Property that is guaranteed, i.e., land, is acquired by means of money, or by means of a bill, or by taking possession of it. And property that does not have a guarantee, i.e., movable property, can be acquired only by means of pulling. In Sura they taught this following halakha in the name of Rav Ḥisda, while in Pumbedita they taught it in the name of Rav Kahana, and some say in the name of Rava: They taught that movable property is acquired by means of pulling only with regard to items that are not typically lifted due to their weight or for some other reason. But in the case of items that are typically lifted, then yes, they are acquired by means of lifting, but they are not acquired by means of pulling.” (Sefari.org translation)

The rabbis made an exception with small domesticated animals. You might think that small domesticated animals need to be lifted in order to acquire them. “Domesticated animals are different, as they cling to the ground and it is difficult to lift them. Therefore, the usual manner of moving animals is to pull them.” (Sefaria.org translation) Because these animals are difficult to hold even though they are light enough to pick up, the rabbis decreed leniently a person may acquire them through pulling.