Our Gemara on Amud Aleph discusses the legal and mercantile determination of Ayin Yaffa, which we can translate as “generous attitude and terms of sale”. This is expressed in the opinion of Rabbi Akiva, who says: 

One who sells, sells generously, and he is presumed to have included in the sale even items that were not explicitly specified. For example, if one sold land and retained ownership of a pit or a cistern. In that case, Rabbi Akiva ruled that he does not retain any land, not even a path to access the pit or cistern, as he sold generously, including all of the land in the sale.

Be’er Mayyim Chaim (Bereishis 33:19) notes that the scripture makes mention of the 100 Kesita that Yaakov paid to purchase the land near Shechem. This is similar to the full payment that Avraham gave for the Machpela cave (Bereishis 23:19). Be’er Mayyim Chaim explains that because a righteous person understands that each possession is a divine connection to God’s will (as we saw in a prior  blogpost, Psychology of the Daf, Bava Basra 34), therefore, the righteous person endeavors to pay the fullest price so that the prior owner has absolute generosity with no qualms, releasing his emotional and spiritual attachment to the object. This is even more important if the prior owner was an idolator, as there may be contaminants that linger, and if there is still some prior claim of ownership, it will allow that prior owner’s spiritual power (good or evil) to have some impact.

There is something humble and wholesome about this mystical idea that we are in a relationship with our possessions. Nothing is taken for granted. Selling an object requires a ritual as much as chalitzah and divorce does. (In fact, the Zohar in the beginning of Parashas Chukas, actually makes a comparison between kinyan sudar (a method to acquire ownership), Levirate Marriage, Boaz’s actions to assume the rights of the closest relative in order to marry of Rus and redeem the fields that were part of Abimelech’s estate, and finally, transmigration of the soul and reincarnation. In other words, to the mystical mindset, everything is connected from the most inanimate object to the human soul.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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