Kesubos - Daf 99
- What is the status of a sale when the shaliach sells less land than was instructed?
The Gemara on Daf 98b discussed the case of a shaliach who sells more than he was authorized to sell and the question whether the sale is valid. The Gemara here presents an alternative version of the discussion, where it is given that in that case the sale is valid, and instead the question is in a case when the owner of the land told the shaliach to sell a kor of land, and the shaliach went ahead and only sold a lesech. Do we say that the shaliach can tell the owner: דטבא לך עבדי לך – “By selling only a lesech of the property, I did for you what was good for you, for if I had sold a full kor as you requested and it turned out that you did not need the money, לא מצית הדרת ביה – you would not be able to rescind the sale, and therefore you would have suffered a needless loss of land. Therefore, the shaliach should be viewed as one who added to the owner’s instructions, and the sale is valid. Or perhaps, the owner can tell the shaliach: לא ניחא לי דליפשי שטרי עילואי – “It is not pleasing to me that shtaros should increase against me.” The Rishonim explain that since the owner will have to sell land again and need to write a shtar, it is humiliating to him, since he appears as someone who needs to keep selling off land. In this case, the shaliach would have violated the owner’s instructions and the sale is null and void. After extensive discussion, the question is left unresolved.
- לאחד ולא לשנים ולאחד סתמא
The Gemara says that it is obvious that if one said to his shaliach: לאחד ולא לשנים – “Sell a kor of my fields to one person and not to two people,” that if the shaliach went ahead and sold the land to two people, the sale is null and void. But what is the halachah if the owner said: לאחד סתמא – "Sell it to one person" without specifying, “and not to two people,”? Rav Huna said: לאחד ולא לשנים – The owner means that the shaliach should only sell it to one person and not to two people, but Rav Chisda and Rabbah bar Rav Huna both say: לאחד ואפילו לשנים לאחד ואפילו למאה – that the owner means that the shaliach can sell it to one person, and even to two people, and even to a hundred people. When Rav Nachman told Rav Chisda and Rabbah bar Rav Huna that the halachah is that the sale is valid if the shaliach sold the land to more than one person, they asked him if that means that a sale is also valid if the shaliach made a mistake and undersold land, and he told them that he was not discussing where the shaliach erred in price for there the sale is certainly void. Even though the din is that אין אונאה לקרקעות – there is no law of price fraud with land, that is only where the owner made a mistake. But where the shaliach made a mistake, the owner can say to him: לתקוני שדרתיך ולא לעוותי – “I sent you to improve my situation, not make it worse. Since you misrepresented me, you have lost your authority to act on my behalf.”
- What is the status of a sale when Beis Din errs in their appraisal of the property?
The next Mishnah states: שום הדיינין – If property was sold according to the appraisal of the judges, שפיחתו שתות או הוסיפו שתות מכרן בטל – who undervalued it by a sixth or overvalued it by a sixth, the sale is void. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: מכרן קיים – The sale stands, אם כן מה כח בית דין יפה – for if it were so that the sale is void, what is the authority of the Beis Din worth? אבל אם עשו אגרת בקורת בינהן – But if Beis Din made a letter of inspection among them, advertising the sale of the property leading to people inspecting the land, then even if they sold property worth a maneh for two hundred zuz, or property worth two hundred zuz for a maneh, the sale stands.
