Bava Batra

Bava Batra (also Baba Batra, Hebrew בבא בתרא "the last gate") is the third of the three tractates in the Talmud in the order Nezikin; it deals with a person's responsibilities and rights as the owner of property. It is part of Judaism's oral law. Originally it, together with Bava Kamma and Bava Metzia, formed a single tractate called Nezikin (torts or injuries).

This "massekhta" (treatise) is not, like Bava Kamma and Bava Metzia, the exposition of a certain passage in the Torah. It is divided into ten chapters, the contents of which may be described as follows: (1) Regulations relating to property held by more than one owner (ch. i.); (2) responsibilities of an owner of property with regard to that of his neighbor (ch. ii.); (3) established rights of ownership and rights connected with property (ch. iii.); (4) laws referring to the acquisition of property by purchase (ch. iv.-vii.); (5) laws of inheritance (ch. viii.-ix.); (6) laws concerning documents (ch. x.).

Joint Ownership

1. Joint owners of property may dissolve partnership and divide the property, if the parties consent, except in the case of a volume of the Scriptures, which may not be divided under any circumstances. Things which lose their value on division can only be divided if all the owners consent. Except in these cases, either party has a right to insist on a division of the property. In the case where a courtyard ("ḥaẓer") is owned by several partners, each of them...
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