Resources for Kesubos 85
1. The גמרא discusses the case where people were תופס a boat for a debt that was owed to them. The גמרא explains that they were תופס it in רשות הרבים or else the תפיסה wouldn’t have helped since the יתומים would have already acquired the boat before the תפיסה had happened. The הפלאה asks a very basic question: if it was in רשות הרבים, how in the world did they do משיכה?! משיכה isn’t קונה ברשות הרבים! The מאירי proves from here an incredible חידוש: you don’t need to make a valid קנין in order for תפיסה to work. You just need to do something that shows you are being תופס. The הפלאה did not agree with this.
2. The גמרא says that if a person sells a שטר חוב to someone else, the original lender can be מוחל the loan even after he has sold it. The גמרא adds that not only can the lender be מוחל the loan but even the יורש of the lender can be מוחל the loan after the lender has died. The קצות החושן in סימן ס"ו אות כ"ו has a lengthy discussion of our סוגיא and says there are three שיטות הראשונים about why you can’t fully sell a שטר חוב where the original lender would be totally out of the picture. The שיטה of the רי"ף and רמב"ם in הלכות מכירה פּרק ו הל׳ י"ב is that קנין שטרות is only דרבנן since the loan is not a tangible thing that can be transferred with a קנין. Therefore, מחילה still works. The שיטה of ר"ת brought by the ר"ן and ריטב"א is that while the selling of the שיעבוד נכסים is דאורייתא since that is tangible, the selling of the loan is not tangible and cannot be sold. Therefore, the שעבוד נכסים which was successfully sold is only like an ערב on the loan so if the lender was מוחל the original loan then there is ממילא no ערב that you can collect from. The שיטה of the ראב"ד is that the there is no difference between שיעבוד נכסים vs. שיעבוד הגוף. Rather, the issue is that once the lender was מוחל, the borrower can tell the person who bought the שטר that his שעבוד הגוף was to the lender and not him. In other words, he can say לאו בעל דברים דידי את. The קצות says that this is also רש"י’s שיטה in our סוגיא since רש"י says in ד"ה מחול exactly those words of לאו בעל דברים דידי את. What is unclear from the ראב"ד is that if he holds that the borrower can say לאו בעל דברים דידי את then how can the person who bought the שטר ever collect even if the lender wasn’t מוחל? The ריטב"א in קידושין דף מ"ז ע"ב as well as the בעל התרומות brought in the קצות say that אין הכי נמי and the lender must write a שטר הרשאה. The גר"ח על הש"ס says that this is exactly what the קנין of selling the שטר חוב was about! In other words, the lender was מקנה the right to collect on behalf of the lender to the buyer. Of course, the buyer keeps the money but in principle the owner of the שעבוד הגוף remains the מלוה which is why he can be מוחל it.
3. The ר"ן asks on the above שיטת ר"ת why if the borrower dies can the person who bought the שטר still collect the debt? If the שיעבוד הגוף remained with the מלוה and he is dead then how can the person who bought the שטר חוב collect now when the שיעבוד הגוף is gone? The ר"ן answers, based on the way the above mentioned קצות explains him, that the שעבוד נכסים includes in it ערבות which means you can collect as long as the borrower is not here. This is different from מחילה which is considered like the borrower paid. ערבות says that you can collect when the borrower is not here until payment or מחילה happens.
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