Translation:Shulchan Aruch/Choshen Mishpat/273

Paragraph 1- On any ownerless item, whomever comes first would acquire, whether the item was always ownerless or it had owners who made them ownerless.

Paragraph 2- Although making something ownerless is not a vow, it is like a vow in that one is prohibited from retracting.

Paragraph 3- What is considered ownerless? Where the owner says, “these properties are ownerless to all,” whether it is a movable item or real property.

Paragraph 4- How does the rule of ownerless property work? Whomever comes first and takes possession, would acquire it for himself and it would become his. Even this person who made it ownerless would be like anyone else and if he comes first and takes possession he has acquired it.

Paragraph 4- If one makes property ownerless for the poor but not for the wealthy, the property would not be ownerless until he makes it ownerless for everyone like shmittah.

Paragraph 6- If one makes his adult slaves ownerless, they would acquire themselves. With respect to minor slaves, whomever comes first and takes possession would acquire them.

Paragraph 7- If one makes his real property ownerless, whomever comes first and takes possession would acquire it. Biblically, even if one makes property ownerless in front of one person, it would be ownerless and he would be exempt from tithing the property. Rabbinicaly, however, property does not become ownerless until the owner makes it ownerless in front of three people so that one could acquire if he wants to and the other two could be witnesses. There are those who say that even if one makes property ownerless by himself, the property would be ownerless.

Paragraph 8- If someone says, “behold this is ownerless, and this,” it is uncertain whether the second item is ownerless. If he said, “and this should be like this” or “and this too,” he has connected the second item to the first and it would certainly be ownerless.

Paragraph 9- If one makes his field ownerless and nobody acquired it, he may retract the first three days. After three days has passed, he can no longer retract unless he went ahead and acquired it, in which case it would be like he or someone else acquired ownerless property.

Paragraph 10- If one says that this property is ownerless for one day, one month, one year or one seven-year cycle, he may retract before he or anyone else acquired it. Once he or someone else acquired it, he can no longer retract.

Paragraph 11- If there was an ownerless item where one came and was guarding it and staring at it so that nobody would take it, he would not acquire it until he lifted it if it was a movable item, or took possession of real property, the way purchasers acquire real property.

Paragraph 12- Anything found in deserts, seas, river and valleys is ownerless and whomever comes first would acquire. For example, this includes grass, wood or fruits of a tree in the forest or anything similar.

Paragraph 13- If one traps fish from seas or rivers, or traps birds or types of wild animals, because they have no owners, he would acquire, so long as he did not trap in another’s field. If he did trap there, he would acquire. If the fish were in the owner’s fish-traps or the wild animals or birds were in the traps, even if the trap was very large and the animals were still lacking capture, they would belong to the owner of the traps. If one captures from there, he is a thief. If one takes fish from another’s net while it is in the sea or he takes a wild animal from another’s net that was spread out in the desert, his actions are rabbinicaly prohibited. If the net was a vessel and he took from there, he is a thief.

Paragraph 14- If one spreads out nets in another’s field and he caught a wild animal or bird, even though he did not have permission to do this, he would acquire. If the owner of the field was standing in his field and said his field should acquire for him, he would acquire and the net-owner would not receive anything. The same is true where the courtyard was guarded, even if the owner was not standing next to his field.

Paragraph 15- If fish jumped into a boat, the owner of the boat would acquire because it is a guarded courtyard. It is not a moving courtyard because the water is what is moving it and it is not moving by itself.

Paragraph 16- If a poor person was cutting at the top of the trees and fruits were falling on the ground and they came to the poor person’s hands before they fell to the ground, he would acquire them. If someone else took them after they fell on the ground, we would remove them from him. If they did not originally come to the poor person’s hand, however, there is no theft rationale to remove from the person who took them, but in the first instance he is prohibited from taking them.

Paragraph 17- Anyone is permitted to take cress plants that grow with flax because they are ownerless given that they ruin the flax. If they are standing on the border or they hardened with seeds, they would be prohibited.

Paragraph 18- If a field has a prohibited mixture and there is 1/24 of another species, the court would make the entire field ownerless.