Yerushalmi Bava Batra 3:1 ירושלמי בבא בתרא ג׳:א׳

MISHNAH: Confirmation of claim of undisturbed possession¹A person who claims legal acquisition of real estate but has no deed can defend himself against an accusation of being an illegal squatter and must be confirmed by the court in his rights if he can prove undisturbed possession for three consecutive years by witnesses.
There is a second meaning of חֲזָקָה “permanence of the status quo”, cf. Qiddušin 1:1, Note 30. of houses, cisterns, ditches, and caverns, and bath houses, and dove-cotes, oil presses, irrigated land, and slaves²Who in this respect follow the law of real estate; Qiddušin 1:3, Notes 347–355., and everything which yields continuously is three years from day to day. The claim of undisturbed possession of an unirrigated field is three years, but not from day to day³But undisturbed collection of three consecutive harvests..

HALAKHAH: “The claim of undisturbed possession of houses, cisterns, ditches, and caverns,” etc. From where confirmation of claims of undisturbed possession? ⁴A parallel argument is in the Babli, 28a/b. Rebbi Joḥanan said, we heard from those who went to Usha⁵In the Babli identified as R. Ismael. In the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba war and its consequences, the Synhedrion was reconstituted at Usha under the leadership of R. Jehudah. that they learned it from the notorious bull⁶The rules of the notorious bull only apply to an animal which gored three times. The limit of three years is popular usage; no biblical sources are claimed.. Rebbi Yose said, who holds that a bull becomes notorious after three days? Not Rebbi Jehudah? As we stated there⁷Mishnah Bava qamma 2:6. Only R. Jehudah requires that the agressive behavior of the bull be confirmed by testimony for three consecutive days; R. Meïr holds that three incidents are sufficient, not necessarily on consecutive days. But nobody holds that legal possession can be claimed on the basis of 3 incidents of interrupted squatting.: “Rebbi Jehudah said, they said three years only for the case that if he⁸The original owner of the land. is in Spain, he⁹The squatter. should be in possession for one year; they went and told him during one year, and he⁸The original owner of the land. returns within one year.¹⁰This means that intrinsically R. Jehudah only requires one year of undisturbed possession. If the institution of חֲזָקָה is based on R. Jehudah’s teaching, it is only a tenuous analogy, without any claim of Biblical origin.”

¹¹A claim of possession must be based on a claim of ownership. But transfer of ownership is only a precondition for the transfer of possession which needs a separate action. This is detailed in Qiddušin, Chapter 1, from which most of this paragraph is taken. Simeon bar Abba in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan: If someboldy is selling a house to another, when he delivered the key [the buyer] took possession¹²Cf. Qiddušin 1:4, Note 435. The text here agrees with the Babli (Bava qamma 51a/52b) against the Yerushalmi Qiddušin.. Rebbi Immi in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan: If somebody is selling a house to another, when [the buyer] stored produce there, he took possession¹³Qiddušin 1:4, Note 435.. Rebbi Samuel bar Rav Isaac said, only produce usually stored. Rebbi Joḥanan in the name of Rebbi Yannai: If somebody is selling a cistern to another, when he handed over its pails [the buyer] took possession¹⁴Qiddušin 1:4, Note 434. There, the statement is by R. Simeon bar Abba in the name of R. Joshua ben Levi.. Rebbi Joshua ben Levi in the name of Rebbi Simeon ben Laqish¹⁵Obviously, this must read: R. Simeon ben Laqish in the name of R. Joshua ben Levi. In Qiddušin 1:4 (Notes 432–433), it is in the name of R. Yannai.: If somebody sold a flock to another person, when [the seller] delivered the maškokît, [the buyer] took possession. What is maškokît? Some say, the shepherd’s staff. But some say, a pandura¹⁶Cf. Qiddušin 1:4 Note 433.. And some say, the bell-wether. Rebbi Simeon ben Laqish in the name of Bar Qappara: If somebody is selling a burial chamber to another, when that one buried there one dead it is confirmation of claim for the entire chamber. When he buried three dead in three chambers, it is confirmation of claim for the entire burial cavern^16aFor the rules of burial caverns see Halakhah 6:8..

“And slaves.” ¹⁷This paragraph is partially quote and partially reformulation of a paragraph in Qiddušin 4:2, Notes 107–111. Rebbi Simon the brother of Rebbi Jehudah bar Zavdi in the name of Rav: As long as a baby lies in the public domain, his father or his mother can testify about him. Once he has been collected from the public domain, one needs two witnesses and its father and mother are like two witnesses. Rebbi Abbahu said, can a person be suspected to say about one who is not his son that he is his son¹⁸Why should not his father alone be empowered to recognize his child?? Maybe it was said about the property of a convert¹⁹If he has no Jewish children, he has no heirs in Jewish law and all Jews are potentially entitled to inherit from him. If then he recognizes an otherwise unknown person as his son, he potentially damages other people’s claim; the recognition needs two witnesses, viz., father and mother. But once he is married in Jewish law, the Torah gives the father the sole power to recognize his child; Deut. 21:17.? He told him, but all our teachers in the Diaspora testify that in this form we heard it from Rav Ada bar Abuh²⁰In E and Or zarua‘ I §340 (end): Rabba bar Abuh. This seems to be the correct attribution.. Rav Ḥisda said: That is, if the baby is not moving. But [the case of] a baby which is moving refers to what Rebbi Joḥanan said: property rights on jumping calves and lambs which move from place to place cannot be proven by possession²¹Therefore, such a child is a foundling; his parents cannot act as witnesses since by their testimony they declare themselves his relatives and thus disqualify themselves. This conclusion is the opposite of the one reached in the longer text in Qiddušin; it parallels the conclusion reached by the Babli, 36a..

²²This is a reformulation of a paragraph in Qiddušin 1:5, Notes 502–513; cf. Babli 52b/53a. Rebbi Yasa in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan: If two fields of a proselyte were involved²³By becoming Jewish, the proselyte changed his ethnic status and severed his links with his biological family. If he failed to start a Jewish family, he died without heirs; the fields now are ownerless property. {It was characteristic of Egyption intercommunal law that inheritance across ethnic boundaries was impossible. So the daughter of a Roman missicius as Roman citizen could not inherit from her native Egyptian mother (cf. R. Taubenschlag, loc. cit. Bava meṣia‘ 1, Note 84, p. 142.)
The fields can be acquired only by performing some agricultural work, e. g., weeding. But work on a field only acquires real estate adjacent to the place on which the work was done., with a boundary strip in between. If he cut off from one of them with the intent of taking possession also of the other but not the boundary strip in between, the one was acquired by him but not the other. Rebbi Ze‘ira asked before Rebbi Yasa: If he intended to acquire starting [from]²⁴Reading of E, missing in L, confirmed by the text in Qiddušin. the boundary strip and below? Rav Ḥisda said, property of a proselyte which he took possession of in the North by cutting off with the intent of also acquiring the one to the South, but did not have the intent of acquiring the strip in the middle, he acquired the one to the North but not the one to the South²⁵This statement is really the same as the one attributed earlier to R. Joḥanan. The genuine source is Qiddušin 1:5 where the two statements refer to different situations.. There, we have stated²⁶Mishnah 5:9. This refers to a standing crop on a field. After harvest, the produce is taken into possession by the buyer by moving some of the crop. The problem is, how can standing crop be acquired while the field remains the seller’s property? Cf. Qiddušin 1:5 Note 513.: “If it was connected to the ground and he cut off anything, he acquired.” Samuel said, he acquired only what he cut off. Rebbi Eudaimon the Emigrant said, this was said concerning the property of a proselyte²⁷Since no real estate was acquired, taking some stalks can have no influence on the remainder of the ownerless crop.. Rav Ḥisda said, Rebbi Isaac: It was reported that this was said concerning the property of a proselyte, so it should present no difficulty for Samuel²⁸Since if the crop was paid for and the buyer was told by the seller to harvest it, Samuel must agree that by cutting the first stalk he takes possession of the entire crop..

²⁹This is from Qiddušin 1:4, Notes 414–417. Rav Ḥisda said, “draw this animal close to you in order to take possession,” he took possession³⁰Implied by Mishnah Qiddušin1:4.. “To take possession of its offspring,” he did [not]³¹Reading of E, missing in L, required bt the text in Qiddušin. take possession. “To take possession of it together with its offspring,” he did (not)³²Reading of L, missing in E, to be deleted with the text in Qiddušin. take possession. Rebbi Nasa³³In Qiddušin: Yose. said, that is, if it was not pregnant. But if it was pregnant, they treated [the fetus] as one of its limbs, as we did state³⁴This is a reformulation of an Amoraic text in Demay 6:3, Notes 79–83, and its slightly garbled parallel in Qiddušin 1:4, Notes 439–441.: He who sells the fetus of his animal to another person did not do anything; the future children of his slave girl to another person, he did not do anything; the tithes of his field to another person, he did not do anything; the airspace of his dry land to another person, he did not do anything. But he may sell him an animal and reserve her fetus for himself, sell him a slave girl and reserve her children for himself, sell him a field and reserve the tithes for himself, sell him dry land and reserve the airspace for himself.

³⁵This is a slight rewording of a paragraph in Qiddušin 4:2, Notes 112–117. Rebbi Abba in the name of Rav Ḥisda: Three are trustworthy immediately: a midwife, a caravan, and the one who purifies her colleagues. A midwife as long as [the woman] sits on the birthing chair, from the verse: “The midwife took and wound, etc.” A caravan, as Rebbi Simon, the brother of Rebbi Jehudah bar Zavdi, said in the name of Rav: As long as [a baby]³⁶Reading of E, missing in L, required by the parallel in Qiddušin and the context. lies in the public domain, either its father or its mother can testify about him. Once he has been collected from the public domain, one needs two witnesses; its father and mother may become its two witnesses. The one who purifies her colleagues, as we have stated there³⁷Mishnah Niddah 9:4.: “Three women sleep on one bed. If blood was found under one of them, all three are impure. If one of them checked herself out and found herself impure, she is impure and the other two are pure.” Rebbi Abba said, only within 24 hours.