Jun 182017
 

Study Guide Bava Batra 147

What kind of assumptions can we make about a declaration on one’s deathbed?  If he/she gives away all of his/her property and then gets better, we can assume that he/she didn’t mean to give away all their possessions.  But if they left over something for themselves, we can then assume the gifts are valid.  This is based on “umdana” – assessing what they thought even though they didn’t say so explicitly.  The gemara tries to match the opinion in our mishna to tannaim who said the same thing regarding other cases in other places in order to determine who the author of the mishna is.  Various sources are brought to derive where we learn that a gift of a one on our deathbed is valid.  Rav Nachman says it has validity on a rabbinic level in order not to upset the person on their deathbed.  The gemara questions that from another case where it seems Rav Nachman holds that is valid on a Torah level.

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