Q&A: Bava Batra
Bava Batra
Question
Hello,
Rabbi, you often write that in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) there are no directives that were not already known in advance, because everyone reads his own approach into the Torah. I want to ask about the opposite case. Tractate Bava Batra is full of laws that reflect conceptions of property and the legal formulas of the Sages, such as: “One who sold a house did not sell the side chamber.” Is that considered Torah in the object itself, Torah of the person, or just legal archaeology?
Answer
Clearly, these are only legal norms. But if they are offered as an interpretation of a Torah-level principle, then that is its binding interpretation. And if these are rabbinic enactments, then they are binding as well (because the Talmud has formal authority), but this is not Torah, as I wrote regarding communal enactments and the modes of operation of community institutions (see my columns on rabbinic laws).