For the source text click/tap here: Bava Batra 160
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Steinsaltz writes:
"Contracts are instruments that seal and clarify agreements. Such documents are never mentioned in the Torah – how are they viewed and regulated by Jewish law?
This question is the central issue dealt with in Perek Get Pashut, the tenth and final perek in Massekhet Bava Batra.
Although contracts are not mentioned in the Torah, there is a lengthy description of writing a contract in a poignant story related in Sefer Yirmiyahu (Chapter 32) where Yirmiyahu, who has been imprisoned for prophesying the destruction of the Temple and the exile of the Jewish people from their land, purchases a plot of land from his uncle, symbolizing the eventual return of the people from exile. Although the Gemara concludes that we cannot learn details of contract law from the story in Sefer Yirmiyahu, nevertheless we see that during First Temple times the rules that regulated written contracts were already established.
During the times of the Mishna , there were two types of contracts, ordinary ones and special ones that were called a shetar mekushar or a “tied-up document.”
We explore the laws of didim witness to a star and famous examples of forged documents in antiquity and the famous Moses Shapira scandal and dead sea scrolls.