In your Outline of the Daf you write:
(d) Question: Can one sell Metaltelim Agav a gift of land?
(e) Answer (Mishnah): 'The tithe I will measure off is given to R. Yehoshua, and I rent to him the area it rests on'. (Rental is as a sale.)
Questions:
(1) I don't understand your rendition of the Gemara (sell Metaltelim Agav, a gift of land). It seems like the reverse of the reference Braisa in which Rabban Gamliel rents ("sells") the land and gives the maaser. Or, did you mean that there's no difference between selling and giving -- only that the Gemara is examining the case where two transactions are happening at once?
(2) What is the fundamental difference (nafka mina) between two simultaneous transactions (sale/rent and gift) and kinyan agav? At the end of the day, the recipient still ends up with karka and metaltelin, having paid a certain amount of money?
[I hope these sound like reasonable questions.]
Thanks!
Boruch Wolf, Baltimore, MD, USA
I am not sure what is bothering you, so let me explain what "Kinyan Agav" is and how it works. Perhaps I will manage to answer both questions in one go.
The problem with acquiring Metaltelin (movables) is that most Kinyanim (acts of acquisition) can only be performed if both the seller and the purchaser are in the same location as the articles.
Karka, which can be acquired by means of money or a Shtar (document) are easily acquirable, irrespective of where the two parties are located.
Consequently (or perhaps for another reason), the Torah makes it possible to acquire Metaltelin with the Kinyan that one makes on Karka (provided of course, this is previously specified and both parties agree).
It makes no difference whether the Karka is given as a gift, sold or rented, since the Kinyan is the same.
Consequently, if Reuven gives Shimon a Shtar stating that he has given, sold or rented him a piece of land, and the Shtar contains a clause that he is also giving or selling him Metaltelin, Shimon acquires the Metaltelin together with the Karka, even though he made no independent Kinyan on them, and what's more, he would not have been able to acquire the Metaltelin on their own by means of a Shtar).
Be'Virchas Kol Tuv
Eliezer Chrysler