daf bit: Bava Metzia 19

[cellio]

Rabbah b. Bar Chanah once lost a bill of divorce in the beit midrash. When it was found, he said to the finders: there is a distinguishing mark that shows it is mine, and if you don't accept that, I would know my document by sight. The document was returned to him. The g'mara teaches that a distinguishing mark is sufficient identification of a lost object under biblical law, while recognizing one's property on sight is acceptable proof only for a torah scholar, whose word can be trusted. For this reason, Rabbah did not know which reason applied when his document was returned. (19a)

(Torah scholars get special privilege? I wonder how they reconcile that with the torah's various instructions to treat people equally regardless of circumstances.)

This story is tangential to a larger discussion of lost documents, but it does make me wonder: doesn't a divorce document contain the names of the spouses and issuers? Wouldn't that be a de-facto distinguishing mark?

Comments

[cellio]

s it perhaps more likely that at this (unspecified) time period, few if any people other than rabbis or torah scholars could *read* the (names on the) document?

I'd say that's likely. But that doesn't mean you need special rules for the owner and finder; it just means you need a literate person to ajudicate.

(browngirl is right; that's a lovely userpic.)