For the source text click/tap here: Bava Batra 43
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Our daf appears to assume that a person can remove his self-interest and be able to testify about real estate, but there is a baraita that appears to contradict this.
According to the baraita, if a Sefer Torah is stolen in a city, the thief who is caught cannot be tried by residents of the city, nor can they testify against him. The reason for this is, apparently, because the Sefer Torah is communal property; since everyone in the city has a share in it, they cannot testify about it.
According to the Gemara’s reasoning, however, shouldn’t two people be able to renounce their share of the Sefer Torah and act as witnesses? In response the Gemara says that a Sefer Torah is unique because it is used for public readings in the synagogue. Therefore, even someone who does not have ownership of it still has a personal interest in it.
We explore the history of stolen Sefer torah’s including the ambivalent find of Cecil Roth’s “sole" Torah in Greece.