Take Ten for Talmud
1654BabaBasra20- Safety and damage, may depend on locale
A very good morning on behalf of Teach 6-13. We welcome you to take 10-5th Talmud, Baba Basra, Dafchaf, Baba Basra, 20b, pagination is 40. Starting from the middle of the page, Masnissin, the new Mishnah. Amisar to begin by considering cases where damage was being done from one yard to the next because of Hezek, Re'eah, because they were able to see from one to the other, and the Mishnah demanded that they rectify it by building a wall between them. We then continued in the beginning of our parak and discussed damage that might be done to that wall, and how far distant they had to be so that they didn't damage it. We continue now with a discussion of potential damage between the person living on top and the person living on bottom, the expression Bayes Valiyah, person in the house, and the person in the attic, the upper story, and likewise by extension damage that might be done to the neighbors if people aren't careful. For example, with an oven that things don't catch fire from the high heat that's involved, and the other potential damage done by an oven is the heat in that it sends heat up to the second story, and it depends what the person uses that upper story for. Interestingly, the damage, if it will be something we'll discuss or not, may actually depend on what, within the range of liberty that you're allowed to use property for, what the person is actually using it for. If he's using it for something that could get damaged by the heat, then there may be a restriction on the person underneath not to do those types of things. If however, the person on top is not using it for something that would get damaged by it, the person downstairs could perhaps proceed to use it for this use that has heat. It's within his liberty, his range of things he could use his property for, and if the other person later decides to do something that would get damaged by that, it may be too late for him to claim cease and desist from your behavior of heat, because it's going to damage what I would like to do with my property, that's already in place. In other words, there's a range of operation of what you're allowed to use your property for. If you proceeded, you may actually restrict the other person from the type of use that he'll be able to do. If you didn't proceed, then he's already doing it. You might not be able to stop him from doing it. In Shoshan Arasim and Kufnun Hei, if Gimmel, the interesting case is given, if the person realizes that the downstairs neighbor is thinking of doing something of heat, can he proceed and start making declarations that he intends to use it for storage of things that would get damaged by heat to stop the bottom person from doing it? In other words, how much does he have to do to be considered the first person in place? I'm not talking about a trick, just stopping the bottom person, but if he proceeds, sweeping it, does he have to actually get the produce into the space to be considered the first person in place? So let's start with basics. The Mishnah says, "Loyamid Audum Tanur Bizokhabayyas, a person should not place an oven within his house. Eluim Cain, unless Yeish Algabov, there is space above his oven, Gova Arba Amos, a distance of Arba Amos, so that the wood of the house should not catch fire. Hoyamah Amidobah Aliyah, if he's doing it on the upper floor, so that there's wood underneath him as well, Tarok Shiyetah, Tama Azzivah Shloshat Phachim, there has to be a separation of three Phachim, a certain type of material that would protect the wood. Ovikira Tefach, if it's a different type of oven, it just needs one Tefach, then Hisik, Michelle Amashah Hisik, and if a person damaged, then they have to pay whatever they damaged, nevertheless, as described in Shoshan Arachim and Khufnun Heis. If Alif, even though you're obligated to pay your damage, if it did damage, the neighbors have the right to enforce this separation, because they say we don't want to have to deal with that possibility that you're going to have to pay us for the damage that is done, we want to stop it and they can enforce these effectively safety laws, zoning laws on their neighbors. Tarok Hashem in our time, for the most part, ovens are considered certified by government authorities that it's considered safe. The one interesting application that's straightforward ovens might be a case of a self-cleaning oven where there's this understood protocol that a person should be in the house during a self-cleaning cycle, because the heat is an enormous level, and if anything were to go amiss, you want to be able to shut it before any damage occurs. Likewise, perhaps not particularly limited to ovens, but electrical work to be done by a certified person so that it is done safely, even if the homeowner wants to live risky, but the neighbors, at least in concept if they knew, would be able to object. Let's continue a line later with the description of heat causing damage even without Hashem a fire. A person should not open a store of bakery. Tarok Hashem Ozzarosho Haveru underneath the storehouse of his friend where he's got produce because he would damage the produce with consistent heat. Our mission says, "By Yayin Hittiru, if the upper story has wine, then it's fine." And the reason that's given, if you look in the Gomorrah about 15 lines up, "By Yayin Hittiru Mepneishamashbiho, because the place where this mission was authored, the wine would benefit from the heat," however, Reviosif continues and says, "Didan Arwain gets damaged by heat, and therefore you wouldn't be able to do this. And what emerges quite clearly and is codified in Semenkofnunheis, if base, is that things depend on their location and what the circumstances of that particular produce are." The Ramam mentions, "Bimakom, if it's a place, Shekol, that sound, Vinidnud, or movement, Koshim Leyayin are bad for the wine, then Sarakhla Haveruik, then in that case as well, you would have to distance, and you wouldn't be allowed to do damage, and the idea here is that there could be things that intrinsically you're allowed to do, but the circumstances of your neighbor and his liberties might infringe depending on who came first. Again, intrinsically it's a permitted activity, but it depends what the current usage for your neighbor's location is at the time you consider doing this activity. Yeshikah, thank you for joining.