Nedarim 46

I have an ongoing debate with some friends: If someone brings a box of flavored donuts into work and you want to try them all but you don’t want to eat seven whole donuts, it seems reasonable to start dividing the donuts and serving yourself fractional portions. But what’s the smallest fraction you can take […]

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Nedarim 45

The fifth chapter of Nedarim begins on page 45b with the following mishnah: Partners who vowed not to derive benefit from one another are prohibited from entering a courtyard (that they jointly own). Rabbi Eliezer ben Ya’akov says: It is permitted, as this one enters into his own portion and that one enters into his […]

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Nedarim 44

Today’s daf continues the Talmud’s discussion of how declaring things ownerless works. We learned yesterday that the rabbis thought one could declare something ownerless and have it legally become ownerless, while Rabbi Yosei insisted that something cannot actually be ownerless. In his view, objects remain legally in the possession of their original owner until claimed […]

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