For the source text click/tap here: Bava Batra 137
To download, click/tap here: PDF
Our daf turns to the timing of a receiving a gift. If one gives a gift on his deathbed, is the gift acquired immediately or must acquisition wait until after the one on his deathbed has actually died? And would acquisition take place at the moment of death (Abaye) or after death (Rava)? This argument is compared with a husband who gives his wife a get with the condition that he dies first. In such a case, the get is not valid.
What if a person gives another person an etrog as a gift, and specifies that the etrog belongs to someone else after the receiver dies? If the etrog cannot be used until after a person has died, then the etrog is not being used for its purpose and thus its owner has transgressed.
As part of this discussion, the rabbis agree that it is valid to give a gift and have it used (for example the etrog used for its mitzvah) and then return it.
We return to the beautiful esrog and the importance of the mitzvah to such luminaries like Rebbe nachman as well as S Y Agnon.