Question

Can the Rabbi explain the Tosafot on Bava Metzia 34a, which explains the difference between the effective force of betrothal and the effective force of acquiring the wool and offspring of the cow, in relation to the model of legal effect that you propose in your article?
Tosafot, tractate Bava Metzia 34a, s.v. “Alternatively” — “It is difficult: let us say that it is treated as though he said to him, ‘When it is stolen and you compensate me, my cow is acquired by you from now, effective immediately prior to the theft,’ for then he acquires it even if it is standing in a marsh, as Rabbi Yohanan said in the chapter ‘The Woman to Whom Property Fell’ (Ketubot 82b and there): ‘Pull this cow and it will be acquired by you from now and after thirty days’ — he acquires it even if it is standing in a marsh. But its wool and its offspring he does not acquire, even though he says ‘from now,’ because the acquisition is not completed until immediately before its theft, as Rabbi Yohanan said in the chapter ‘One Who Says’ (Kiddushin 60a): if one came and betrothed her ‘from now and after thirty days,’ and another came and betrothed her ‘from now and after twenty days,’ and another came and betrothed her ‘from now and after ten days,’ and another came and betrothed her ‘from now’ — even if there are a hundred, all of them take effect with respect to her, because each one leaves room for the other. And perhaps one can say that betrothal is stronger, and once they find room they no longer lapse; but here, as for the wool and offspring, at the very least those that exist at the time of transfer are helped by the phrase ‘from now’ to acquire it immediately prior to its theft retroactively.”