Bava Basra, Chapter 3, Mishnayos 5 and 6. We continue to discuss the meaning of a sale where the seller did not specify exactly what is included. In the previous mishnah, we learned that one who sells a courtyard does not sell the olive press (the installation for pressing olives) and the bathhouse along with it. In the mishnayos before us, we discuss the opposite case: when a person sells the olive press itself or the bathhouse, what is included in the sale.
The olive pressing process:
To understand the words of the mishnah, we must briefly clarify the method of pressing olives, which includes two main stages:
The crushing stage: The olives are placed in sacks on top of a large stone, a sort of wide installation that is somewhere between a basin and a platform. A second stone wheel, large and heavy, rolls over them, turned by the power of a donkey, and crushes the olives into that basin.
The pressing stage: The crushed olives are placed on wooden boards stacked on top of one another, and pressure is applied to them from the top down, to extract every last drop of oil from the crushed olives. The oil that is collected is the olive oil.
Two ways to apply pressure:
Lever arm: In ancient olive presses from the biblical period, one long lever arm was used, operating on the seesaw principle: weights are placed on one side, and it rests on a fulcrum and applies great pressure on the pile of crushed olives.
Screw: The second method, which our mishnah refers to, operates on the principle of a vise: two tall and massive wooden beams stand side by side, with a huge, immense screw between them. Turning the screw applies downward pressure on the boards and squeezes the oil out of the mass.
"Hamocher es beis habad":
The mishnah says: "Hamocher es beis habad machar es hayam ve'es hamamel" - one who sells an olive press installation and does not specify which components are included in the sale, the yam and the mamel are included in it. The commentators disagree regarding their identification:
According to the Bartenura: The yam is the stone basin, and the mamel is the large wheel that rolls on it. Both are included in the sale because they are essential to the olive press and it is not customary to lend them, and in every olive press there is only one of each. A person does not borrow a giant wheel from his friend for grinding, since it is too large and heavy to move from place to place, and therefore it is an essential component and is included in the olive press.
According to the Rashbam: The criterion throughout the entire mishnah is attachment to the ground. The yam is a reservoir sunken into the ground, a sort of tub into which the oil flows, and the mamel is the large stone basin located above the ground and attached to it. According to this explanation, the wheel itself is not included in the sale.
"Ve'es habesulos" - the two parallel vertical wooden beams that hold the screw. They are attached to the ground, essential for the operation of the olive press, and it is not customary to lend them, and therefore they are included in the sale.
"Avol lo machar es ha'acharim" - these are the wooden boards upon which the olive mass is placed. According to the Bartenura they were customarily lent, and according to the Rashbam the matter depends on whether they are attached to the ground, and in any case they remain in the possession of the previous owner if he desires them.
"Ve'es hagalgal" - a system of a pulley and cogwheels, which makes it possible to raise and lower the large weight over the pile of crushed olives, and some explain that the reference is to the screw itself.
"Ve'es hakorah" - the large beam, upon which the weights are placed (in the seesaw analogy: the upper part), in order to press downwards and crush the olives. It is not attached to the ground and is mobile, and therefore remains in the possession of the original owner.
"Hu vechol mah shebesocho":
However, "Bizman she'amar lo hu vechol mah shebesocho - harei kulan mechorin" - if the seller said that he is selling the olive press and everything inside it, the other components are also included in the sale: the boards, the wheel, and the large beam, since even though they are movable items, they are an integral part of the olive press.
The Opinion of Rabbi Eliezer:
Rabbi Eliezer says that one who sells an olive press, even though he did not specify all that is inside it, has sold the beam. The beam is the essential component, and the only one of the pressing components that is completely unique to that specific olive press: a massive and enormous wooden beam, and therefore it is included in the sale and remains in its place.
As a matter of practical halachah, we cannot lay down a fixed rule, since the matter depends on the accepted practice in our time and place.
In summary: When one sells an olive press without specification, the sale includes the components attached to the ground and the essential ones that are not typically lent out - the yam, the memel, and the besulos; whereas the acharim, the galgal, and the korah remain in the seller's possession. If he said to him, "hu vechol mah shebesocho" - it and all that is inside it - they are all sold. And Rabbi Eliezer holds that even in an unspecified sale the korah is included, because it is unique to the olive press.
In the next Mishnah we will discuss the law of one who sells a bathhouse.