Notes from a Class: On the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Bava Meẓ‘ia

And we heard from our master, in the beginning of Bava Meẓi‘a, when they say:

[In a dispute over ownership of an object, can the mishnah be referring to a case of] buying and selling? One could find out [from the seller] who took the money? No, here [the seller] took money from both of them—he took from one intentionally and from the other against his will—and we do not know which was willingly and which was unwillingly. [And one should take an oath that he does not have less than half; and they should split the garment, and they should split the garment’s value.¹] [b. Bava Meẓi‘a 2b]

All these words are the statements of the savoraim, not the statements of the Talmud—this occurs in tractate Kiddushin as well as in another place. And the reason for this is that all these things were in the margin of the text, and then were written into the actual text, and then the words became transmitted material. And we heard from our master that he had the three “gates” [i.e., Bava Kamma, Bava Meẓi‘a, and Bava Batra] in the handwriting of R. Nissim of al-Andalus—they were sold for two hundred Almoravid dinars, since they were correct texts and they were in the handwriting of R. Nissim—and our master told us that he searched in that place [in the text] and did not find any of these words, and that the main part is the beginning of Bava Meẓi‘a and it ends with “buying and selling” only.

Source: London British Library MS Or. 5563F.