For the source text click/tap here: Bava Batra 41
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Our Mishna teaches about a case where someone approaches a person and says, “what are you doing on my land?!” and the accused person responds, “no one ever told me that I could not be here.” Without a claim of purchase, the accused will lose his claim to the land.
As we have learned (see daf 28), according to Jewish law, just because someone has possession of property and lives or works it, he cannot claim ownership of it. A person only becomes an owner if he receives that status from the original owner through a sale or by receiving a present, or if he claims an object that is hefker, performing a formal act of possession (a kinyan).
We continue our exploration into Possession and legal theories behind the need for documentation.