✦ ❖ ✦ D A A T · L E V E L 3 — S Y N T H E S I S / R E V I S I O N ✦ ❖ ✦
Siman 174 — The sale on condition of return
דין המוכר לחבירו על מנת להחזיר
Eight seifim, reduced to one question: did this money buy, or was it lent?
שולחן ערוך יורה דעה סימן קע״ד · ח׳ סעיפים
ש״ך · ט״ז · באר היטב · פתחי תשובה · נקודות הכסף · טור · בית יוסף · רמב״ם
DAAT · הרב יוסף חיים סממה
1. The axiom: a payment that must come back has bought nothing
The axiom. What distinguishes a buyer from a lender is neither the deed, nor the price, nor the name given to the transaction: it is whether the money paid is expected back. If it is, the property served only as security, and everything the acquirer drew from it is the price of time.
Three immediate consequences, and they carry the whole siman. (1) The name does not count: “sale”, “deed”, “kinyan” change nothing. (2) Nor does intention: what counts is the effect of the clause on ownership. (3) What counts is who made the clause and when — hence seifim 1 to 3.
2. The three reflex questions
1. Who set the clause of return? The seller — the sale does not acquire. The buyer alone, without the seller making it firm — the sale is full.
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2. When was it set? Before the sale or during it — it is a loan. After, even by an hour — it is a kindness, and the sale stands.
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3. Was the price paid in full? Yes — the question is closed. No — one must know which of the three formulas was used: קנה כשיעור מעותיך, תקנה מעכשיו, or plain תקנה.
3. Master table — the eight seifim clause by clause
| Seif | The clause of the Shulhan Arukh | What it decides |
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| 1 | « מכר שדה לחבירו ואמר לו לכשיהיו לי מעות תחזיר לי קרקע לא קנה » (שו״ע יו״ד קע״ד:א) | The seller’s condition: no acquisition |
| 1 | « וכל הפירות שאכל רבית קצוצה הוא ומוציאין אותם בדיינים » (שו״ע יו״ד קע״ד:א) | The produce: fixed interest, recovered in court |
| 1 | « ואפילו לא התנה כך אלא שהמנהג כן בעיר שכל מי שקונה צריך להחזיר כשיהיו למוכר מעות » (רמ״א יו״ד קע״ד:א) | The town’s custom counts as a condition |
| 1 | « אבל אם אמר לו הלוקח מדעתו כשיהי׳ לך מעות אחזיר לך הקרקע אינו תנאי והמקח קיים מיד לפיכך הלוקח אוכל פירות » (שו״ע יו״ד קע״ד:א) | The buyer’s promise does not touch the sale |
| 1 | « ואם כשאמר כן הלוקח חלטו ממנו המוכר וחזקו הרי הוא תנאי » (שו״ע יו״ד קע״ד:א) | Unless the seller made it firm |
| 1 | « וכן אם מכר לו קרקע מעכשיו והמתין לו המעות הלוקח מותר לאכול הפירות והמוכר אסור דבשכר המתנת מעותיו קא אכיל » (רמ״א יו״ד קע״ד:א) | “From now”: it is the seller who is forbidden |
| 2 | « אם נעשה תנאי זה קודם המכר או בשעת המכר אין לו דין מכר אלא דין הלואה והלוקח חייב להחזיר כל מה שאכל » (שו״ע יו״ד קע״ד:ב) | A prior or simultaneous clause: a loan |
| 2 | « חסד הוא שרוצה להתחסד עמו ולהחזיר לו מקחו » (שו״ע יו״ד קע״ד:ב) | A later clause: a kindness, not a price |
| 3 | « ואמר המוכר לשליח אני מוכר לך על תנאי שיחזירנו לי כשיהיו לי מעות » (שו״ע יו״ד קע״ד:ג) | A condition set to the agent holds |
| 4 | « אם אמר ליה מוכר ללוקח קנה כשיעור מעותיך כל אחד מהם אוכל פירות כשיעור מעותיו » (שו״ע יו״ד קע״ד:ד) | A real division: each enjoys his share |
| 5 | « אם אמר המוכר ללוקח לכשתביא שאר המעו׳ תקנה מעכשיו שניהם אסורים לאכול הפירות אלא מניחים אותם ביד שליש » (שו״ע יו״ד קע״ד:ה) | Suspended acquisition: deposit with a third party |
| 5 | « ואם יאמר הלוקח אוכלם ואם לא יגמר המקח כשיבוא המוכר להחזיר לי מעותי אנכה דמי הפירות מותר » (שו״ע יו״ד קע״ד:ה) | The deduction clause opens the way out |
| 5 | « ודוקא שאמר אנכה לך מן הדמים אבל אם אמר אשלם לך הפירות שאכלתי אסור דסוף סוף רבית קא נוטל אלא שחוזר ומשלם לו » (רמ״א יו״ד קע״ד:ה) | Deduct yes, reimburse no |
| 6 | « אמר ליה המוכר כשתביא שאר המעות קנה ולא אמר מעכשיו המוכר אוכל פירות עד שיביא הלוקח ואם אכל הלוקח מוציאין ממנו » (שו״ע יו״ד קע״ד:ו) | Without “from now”, nothing has moved |
| 7 | « זבין ולא אצטריכו ליה זוזי דאמרינן דהדרי זביני » (שו״ע יו״ד קע״ד:ז) | The sale reverts of itself — two cases |
| 7 | « א״א ללוקח למיכל פירות אפי׳ בתנאי עד דידע דליקום זביני » (שו״ע יו״ד קע״ד:ז) | An uncertain title does not feed |
| 8 | « ינכה שכר הזמן שהיה הקרקע תחת ידו כמו שפסקו ויחזיר לו קרקעו מותר » (שו״ע יו״ד קע״ד:ח) | Consumed rent is deducted: it is a lease |
| 8 | « ובדרך זה יהיה אחריות קרקע מנפילה או שריפה על בעל הקרקע » (שו״ע יו״ד קע״ד:ח) | Liability with the owner — the mark of a lease |
4. The mouth and the date — the two tests at the head of the siman
| Who speaks, and when | Effect | Source |
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| The seller, at the sale | A loan — the sale does not acquire | שו״ע יו״ד קע״ד:א |
| The buyer alone, the seller silent | A full sale — פטומי מילי | שו״ע יו״ד קע״ד:א |
| The buyer, and the seller makes it firm | It is a condition | שו״ע יו״ד קע״ד:א |
| The buyer, at the opening of the talks | Per the Perisha: it counts as a condition | ש״ך יו״ד קע״ד ס״ק ב |
| The agent answers “we shall settle” | This is no refusal: the condition stands | ט״ז יו״ד קע״ד ס״ק ב |
| After the sale, even by an hour | A kindness — the sale stands | שו״ע יו״ד קע״ד:ב |
| “He will sell it back to me” instead of “he will return it” | No retroactive annulment | פתחי תשובה יו״ד קע״ד ס״ק א |
| Nothing was said, but the town’s custom requires it | Custom counts as a stipulation | רמ״א יו״ד קע״ד:א |
5. The partial price — the three formulas and their effects
קנה כשיעור מעותיך — “acquire according to your money”. The sale is made, in part. Each owns his share and eats its produce. Both are permitted.
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לכשתביא שאר המעות תקנה מעכשיו — “when you bring it, you acquire from now”. Suspended both ways. Both are forbidden; the produce goes to a third party, unless a deduction clause is made.
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לכשתביא שאר המעות תקנה — without “from now”. Nothing is sold yet. The seller eats; the buyer does not, and what he ate is taken back.
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קני מעכשיו וזוזאי להוו הלואה גבך — “acquire from now, and my money is a loan with you”. All is sold; the balance is an ordinary debt. The buyer eats, the seller does not.
What to retain
The four formulas come from the gemara, which distributes them by the scheme “sometimes both are permitted, sometimes both forbidden, sometimes one and not the other”. They are therefore four types, not four examples: any clause in a partly-paid sale reduces to one of them, according to whether it transfers ownership at once, later, retroactively, or proportionally.
6. אנכה — the clause that saves, and the one that does not
Two wordings, one accounting result, two regimes. “I shall deduct the value of the produce from the sum returned to me”: the produce was never a gain, it was an advance against repayment. “I shall pay for the produce I ate”: I received it, so I took interest — and returning it afterwards does not erase the taking.
The pitfall. The deduction clause is no magic formula: it operates only where the sum is destined to return to the one who paid it. Where no return is in prospect there is nothing to deduct — and the arrangement falls back under seif 1. That is why the Taz extends it to seif 7, where the price does in fact come back, and not elsewhere.
7. The doubt of seif 7 — from when
Seif 7 speaks of no condition: the sale was full. Two rules of civil law undo it — the seller who in the end did not need the money, and the one who sold in order to go up to the Land of Israel and did not go. As long as this is unclear, the buyer has no certain title, and he does not harvest. The Taz specifies that the prohibition does not run from the sale: it runs from the moment the doubt arose.
8. Seif 8 — the lease that is not a loan
| The feature | Seif 1 — the sale on condition of return | Seif 8 — the prepaid lease |
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| What the money did | It waits to be returned | It buys years of occupation |
| The time elapsed | Is erased: the sale is annulled retroactively | Is consumed: the rent of the years lived in is deducted |
| Liability for the property | On the buyer, as on an owner | Stays with the owner — collapse, fire |
| Was there a loan? | Yes, under the name of a sale | Never |
| What the commentators say | ש״ך יו״ד קע״ד ס״ק ה | ש״ך יו״ד קע״ד ס״ק י · ט״ז יו״ד קע״ד ס״ק ה |
9. The vocabulary of the siman
| Term | Meaning | Where it operates |
|---|
| מכר על מנת להחזיר | A sale to which the seller attaches the duty to undo it | The title of the siman; seif 1 |
| רבית קצוצה | Stipulated interest, forbidden by the Torah, recovered in court | Seif 1; ט״ז ס״ק א |
| אבק רבית | A gain forbidden by the Sages, which the court does not undo | The Tur; ש״ך ס״ק א |
| צד אחד ברבית | An arrangement in which the surplus may arise or may never arise | ט״ז ס״ק א; בבא מציעא ס״ה ע״ב |
| מחילה בטעות | A tolerance founded on error, which does not bind | ש״ך ס״ק ה; ט״ז ס״ק ג |
| פטומי מילי | Idle words the other party did not take up | Seif 1 |
| חלטו וחזקו | The seller takes the buyer at his word and makes the promise firm | Seif 1 |
| שליש | The depositary of the produce during the indeterminacy | Seif 5 |
| מעכשיו | A formula of retroactive acquisition from the day of the first payment | Seifim 5 and 6 |
| אנכה | “I shall deduct” — the produce comes off the repayment | Seif 5; ט״ז ס״ק ד |
| זביני דהדרי | A sale the law undoes of itself | Seif 7 |
| אגר נטר | The wage of waiting — the generic name of interest | The Tur; seif 1 |
10. Golden rules, mnemonic and classic pitfalls
Five golden rules.
- 1. It is not the name of the contract that decides, but the fate of the money.
- 2. A condition exists only if the one it benefits has made it his own — the seller by making it, the buyer by not refusing it.
- 3. A later clause can no longer qualify an act already done, however solemn it may be.
- 4. To deduct is not to reimburse.
- 5. An uncertain title does not feed: in doubt, the produce waits.
Mnemonic — M · D · P · D · L
Mouth: whose clause is it? · Date: before, during, after? · Price: paid in full or in part? · Deduction: “I shall deduct” or “I shall pay”? · Liability: on whom does the loss of the property fall?
Five classic pitfalls.
- Believing the solemnity of the deed saves the case: seif 2 says the opposite, and for the later clause solemnity is what saves it, not what condemns it.
- Confusing silence with refusal: the seller’s silence undoes the buyer’s promise (seif 1), but the buyer’s silence does not undo the seller’s condition (seif 3).
- Using “I shall pay” while meaning “I shall deduct”.
- Extending the deduction clause to a case where the money is not meant to come back.
- Treating seif 8 as a device of evasion: it becomes one only if one of its three conditions is removed — a real rent, deduction of the time elapsed, and liability left with the owner.
Flash card
One sentence: a sale in which the seller reserved the power to undo is a loan, and the produce is its interest.
The word to remember: מדעתיה — of his own accord.
The way out: אנכה, not אשלם.
The permitted form: a real lease, prepaid, with rent deducted and risk left with the owner.