Bava Metzia 20: Return of Different Types of Found Documents

After discussing whether or not it is likely to find two lost ketubot together, the rabbis turn again toward other found documents.  A new Mishna teaches that we must return the following found documents:

• appraisal of a debtor's property to help with debt collection
• documents concerning food to sustain another person
• chalitza (releasing a widow from marrying her brother-in-law)
• refusal (of a minor girl to remain married, given before her twelfth birthday)
• documents of beirurin, clarification (possibly representing the choice of judge by opponents)
• court enactments (promissory notes authorized by the court)
• documents in a chafisa, a container or a flask
• documents in a deluskema, a container used by the elderly

If the documents are from three different people they are returned to the debtor.  If they are all from one person they are returned to the creditor.  Documents that are not specific, with unknown debtors and creditors should be put aside until Elijah comes.  And simponot, documents of debt cancellation, should be returned to their owners.

The Gemara begins with attempts to define many of these terms.  Rav Amran and Rabba claim that each spoke to the other rudely regarding contracts that concern both monetary and ritual matters.  A cedar beam broke during this argument, and each rabbi understood that destruction as validation of their opinions.

A bundle and a roll of documents are discussed at some length.  It is agreed that three documents make up a bundle or a roll.  A bundle has all three beside each other and tied together.  A roll describes at least three documents that are rolled consecutively together.  The rabbis ask about distinguishing marks and ties.  They consider handwriting and the presence of simponot with torn documents.  They even wonder why people would go to the court together over certain issues. It seems that in these cases our rabbis are interested not only in theoretical situations but what might actually happen in their courts.