Translation:Shulchan Aruch/Choshen Mishpat/243

Paragraph 1- If one uses a third party to acquire a gift on behalf of another, once the person acquiring takes possession of the properties or real property, or the document reaches his possession, the recipient has acquired and the donor cannot retract. The recipient has the upper hand. If he wants, he can accept the gift, and if he does not want to, he does not have to accept. If Reuven vowed to give a gift to Shimon’s agent, Shimon may remove the item from Reuven because the agent of a person is like the actual person.

Paragraph 2- When is this true? Where the donor said, “acquire this gift for so and so.” If he said bring this maneh to so and so, however, the donor can retract so long as it has not reached the recipient’s possession. If the recipient is poor, the donor cannot retract- even if the case of a wealthy person, he would be lacking trustworthiness- if it is a small gift, as is discussed in Yoreh Deah 258:12, and, with respect to a wealthy recipient, above in 204:8 and later in Siman 249. If Shimon’s wife gave a gift while she was sick, and her husband consented, and he later wants to retract, if the gift was to a poor person he cannot retract.

Paragraph 3- The law of where someone says “give to so and so” is discussed in Siman 125.

Paragraph 4- Even if the donor said, “acquire for so and so,” the recipient would not acquire unless the item was in the agent’s possession. If it was not in his possession, however, the recipient would not acquire. Nevertheless, even if it was not in the agent’s possession, once it comes to his possession he would acquire on behalf of the recipient unless the donor retracted before it entered the agent’s possession.

Paragraph 5- The law of one who says, “bring a maneh to so and so,” and the agent finds that the recipient died, is discussed in Siman 125.

Paragraph 6- If one said two people to acquire this field for so and so, and they wrote a document on it and acquired it for him, the donor can retract the document before it reaches the recipient, notwithstanding the fact that he cannot retract the gift itself.

Paragraph 7- If one said to two to acquire this field on the condition you write a document for the recipient or on the condition you give him 200 zuz, even if they take possession of the field, the donor can retract so that they do not write a document or do not give him 200 zuz, thereby voiding the gift as well. Even if they wrote the document, so long as they have not given it to the recipient, if the donor objects from them handing it over, the gift would be void. The same is true where two parties made a kinyan that they will marry each other and they said it is on the condition that they write documents, and then one party retracted before the documents were written and objects to the writing of the document, in which case the kinyan would be void because they said it was conditional on them writing documents. See above at the beginning of 29:4.

Paragraph 8- Even if he sold his fields and told two people to acquire this field and write a document for the recipient, and they took possession of the field, the seller may still object to the writing of the document. He would still be guaranteeing the field with respect to the buyer being able to collect from properties in his possession. The buyer would not, however, be able to collect from properties sold to third parties given that the seller objected to the document. The buyer may retract and say he only purchased on the condition the seller writes a document for him.

Paragraph 9- There are those who say that this that one may retract a document is only where he tells others to acquire for so and so. If he says to the buyer or recipient himself, however, to acquire and he will write the document, once the recipient acquires, the transferor can no longer retract from writing the document.

Paragraph 10- Even if they made kinyan from him on the document where he said explicitly I am making a kinyan to write the document and I cannot object, it is a kinyan on words and he can still retract.

Paragraph 11- Even if he said write and acquire for him with a document, he would still be able to retract. There are those who say that once the document is written, they have acquired for him and he cannot retract. If he did not say acquire for him, however, he can retract, even if the document was written, so long as the document did not yet reach the gift-recipient.

Paragraph 12- If a document states that one gave real property to so and so via kinyan, even if the document did not reach the recipient until after the donor had died, the recipient would still acquire it.

Paragraph 13- If one died and a gift document stating that Reuven gave Shimon a gift of real property was discovered with his belongings, and Reuven had died, they would return the document to the donor’s inheritors.

Paragraph 14- A person cannot acquire a gift on behalf of another unless he is an adult and sane. The person acquiring can be a man, woman or slave or even a married woman or maidservant. This is only true if acquiring from somebody else, but not from her master or husband, unless she is acquiring for herself. A gentile, however, cannot acquire because he is never able to be an agent. Just as a Jew cannot be an agent for a gentile, so too he cannot acquire on behalf of a gentile.

Paragraph 15- A minor who is wise enough that when one gives him a pebble he throws it away and when one gives him a nut he takes it, can acquire for himself- so long as a third party is transferring to him but not in the case of acquiring a found item- but he cannot acquire for others. A minor at a lower level of wisdom cannot acquire for himself or for others.

Paragraph 16- A fool cannot acquire for himself or for others. One who acquires on behalf of a fool through the giving of a sane person would acquire.

Paragraph 17- A deaf-mute can acquire for himself but not for others.

Paragraph 18- One can acquire for a minor from the age of one-day old and for adult, whether in his presence or not.

Paragraph 19- There are those who say that if one obligates himself to a minor, whether via document or kinyan, because the item is not in the minor’s possession, he would not acquire until someone else acquired for him on his behalf.

Paragraph 20- A person’s courtyard acquires for him without his knowledge, even if he is not standing there. Once the gift reaches his courtyard it is as if someone else acquired for him.

Paragraph 21- When is this true? Where the courtyard is guarded. With respect to an unguarded courtyard, however, such as one’s field or ruins, he will not acquire unless he is standing next to the courtyard and says his field should acquire for him. There are those who disagree, as was discussed in Siman 200.

Paragraph 22- Similarly, a person’s four amos where he is standing next to would acquire for him in an alley, the sides of the public domain or an unowned courtyard. With respect to the public domain or another’s field, however, the four amos would not acquire for him until the gift reaches his possession.

Paragraph 23- A minor female’s courtyard and four amos would acquire for her. This is only a minor without a father. A minor male, however, cannot acquire until the gift reaches his hand or someone else acquires on his behalf.

Paragraph 24- If one throws a wallet into a house from one entrance and it went out the other entrance and he was giving it as a gift to the homeowner, and the donor retracted while it was in the airspace of the house, the law is uncertain and the homeowner would not acquire because we keep the wallet in the possession of the original owner. If he made the wallet ownerless and someone else acquired it, however, we would remove it from the original owner and give it to the homeowner.

Paragraph 25- When is this true? In an airspace where the item is not destined to land. If the item is destined to land, however, such as where the donor was standing on the roof and he threw it to the courtyard to give it to the courtyard-owner, and the donor retracted while it was still in the air, it is as if it landed, the donor cannot retract and the courtyard-owner would acquire.