Study Bava Batra folio 71B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
if it is so that the prior owner did not retain some of the land for himself, let the buyer say to him: Uproot your trees, take them, and go, as the trees draw water and nutrients from the soil, causing damage to the buyer’s land. Therefore, the seller must have retained for himself the land needed
The Talmud raises an objection: We learned in the Mishnah here that R' Shimon says: One who consecrates a field has not consecrated any of the items that are ordinarily excluded from a sale except for the grafted carob tree and the sycamore trunk. And it is taught with regard to this in a baraita: R
And if it enters your mind, as Rav Huna claims, that when the seller retains certain trees for himself, he also retains the land around them so that they will be nurtured from soil that belongs to him, what is the reason for R' Shimon’s ruling? When these trees draw their nutrients, they draw their
The Talmud answers: The assumption that Rav Huna’s statement is true according to everyone must be reconsidered. Rather, R' Shimon, who says that one who consecrates his field does not retain for himself the land around the trees, holds in accordance with the opinion of his teacher, R' Akiva. Accor
The Talmud asks: If Rav Huna’s statement is only in accordance with the opinion of the Rabbis, then isn’t his statement obvious? What novel idea is he adding? The Talmud answers: The practical difference is that while one might have thought that the prior owner retains a right to the land only for