Gittin

MISHNAH. IF ORPHANS BOARD WITH A HOUSEHOLDER OR IF THEIR FATHER APPOINTED A GUARDIAN FOR THEM, IT IS HIS DUTY TO TITHE THEIR PRODUCE. A GUARDIAN WHO WAS APPOINTED BY THE FATHER OF THE ORPHANS IS REQUIRED TO TAKE AN OATH [WHEN THEY COME OF AGE],  BUT IF HE WAS APPOINTED BY THE BETH DIN HE NEED NOT TAKE AN OATH. ABBA SAUL, SAYS THAT THE RULE IS THE REVERSE. GEMARA. A contradiction was pointed out [between this Mishnah and the following]: [Thus] ye [also shall offer]:  [that means to say,] you and not partners,  you and not metayers,  you and not guardians, you and not one who tithes from property not his own! — R. Hisda replied: There is no contradiction; in the one case the produce referred to is meant for consumption, in the other for storing.  So it has been taught: 'Guardians set aside terumah and tithe [from the produce of their wards] which is meant for consumption  and not for storing. They can also sell on their behalf cattle, slaves, male and female, houses, fields and vineyards in order to purchase food with the money but not to put it aside. They can also sell for them produce, wine, oil and flour, to purchase [other] food with the money but not to set it aside. They can make for them a lulab  and willow,  a sukkah  and fringes and anything else involving a defined outlay (this includes a shofar),  and they can buy for them a scroll of the Law, phylacteries and mezuzoth  and anything involving a defined outlay (which includes a megillah).  They cannot, however, undertake on their behalf to give charity or to redeem captives or to do anything involving an unspecified outlay (which includes comforting mourners). Guardians are not allowed to enter into lawsuits concerning the property of orphans, or to entail obligations on it or to secure benefit for it.' Why can they not secure benefit? — It means, to entail obligations for the purpose of procuring benefits for the property of orphans.  'The guardians are not at liberty to sell a distant [field] of their wards in order to redeem one that is near by  or to sell in a bad [year] with the idea of redeeming in a good one,  since there is a risk that the crops may be struck with blight.  The guardians are not at liberty to sell fields and buy slaves with the proceeds, but they can sell slaves and buy fields with the proceeds. Rabban Simeon b. Gamaliel says that they may not even sell slaves and buy fields, since there is a risk that they will not be left in peaceable possession.  The guardians are not empowered to emancipate slaves; they may, however, sell them to others who can emancipate them. Rabbi says: I maintain that the slave may pay his own purchase money and become free, since then the owner as it were sells him to himself.  The guardian must give an account of his guardianship at its close. Rabban Simeon b. Gamaliel, however, says that this is not necessary. Women, slaves and minors should not be made guardians: if, however, the father of the orphans chooses to appoint one, he is at liberty to do so.' There was a certain guardian in the neighbourhood of R. Meir who was selling land and buying slaves [with the proceeds], but R. Meir forbade him. A voice said to him  in a dream, 'l want to destroy, and will you build'? Even so, however, he paid no heed, saying, Dreams are of no effect either one way or the other. There were two men who, being egged on by Satan, quarrelled with one another every Friday afternoon. R. Meir once came to that place and stopped them from quarrelling there Friday afternoons. When he had finally made peace between them, he heard Satan say: Alas for this man  whom R. Meir has driven from his house! A certain guardian in the neighbourhood of R. Joshua b. Levi was selling land and buying cattle with the proceeds. [The Rabbi] said nothing to him, being of the same mind as R. Jose, as it has been taught: R. Jose said: All my life I have never called my wife my wife nor my ox my ox but my wife my house and my ox my field. Certain orphans who boarded with an old woman had a cow which she took and sold. Their relatives appealed to R. Nahman saying, What business had she to sell it? He said to them: We learnt: IF ORPHANS BOARD WITH A HOUSEHOLDER.  [But, they said, the cow] is now worth more  [than she sold it for]. [He replied,] It has become more valuable in the possession of the purchaser. But, they said, they have not yet received the money. If so, he replied, we can apply the rule of R. Hanilai b. Idi following Samuel. For R. Hanilai b. Idi said in the name of Samuel that the property of orphans is on the same footing as that of the Sanctuary, and is not transferred save on the payment of money. The wine of Rabbana 'Ukba the orphan was 'pulled'  [by purchasers who bought it at] four zuz [the cask]. The price [of wine] subsequently rose, so that it was worth six zuz. The case was brought before R. Nahman who said: Here the rule of R. Hanilai b. Idi applies; for R. Hanilai b. Idi said in the name of Samuel that the property of orphans is on the same footing as that of the Sanctuary, and is not transferred save through money payment. If purchasers have 'pulled'  the produce of orphans [without paying], and [the price subsequently] rises, the rule of R. Hanilai b. Idi applies.  If [the price] falls, then surely a layman should not be more privileged than the Sanctuary.  If vendors have sold produce to orphans by 'pulling',  and [the price subsequently] rose, then we say that the layman should not be more privileged than the Sanctuary.  If [the price] falls, the students were inclined to think that here the rule of R. Hanilai b. Idi would apply,  but R. Shisha the son of R. Idi said to them: This would be detrimental to them, since they may one day require produce and no-one will sell to them unless they pay money down. If the orphans give money for produce [without taking delivery] and [the price] subsequently falls, then we say that a layman should not be more privileged than the Sanctuary.  If it rises, the students were inclined to think that the rule of R. Hanilai b. Idi would apply,  but R. Shisha b. Idi said to them: This might be detrimental to them,