Sale and Purchase of a Synagogue

Residents of a town who sold the town square [may purchase a synagogue with the proceeds]. Rabbah bar Bar Ḥana said [that] R. Yoḥanan said: This is the statement of R. Menaḥem bar Yosi, cited unattributed. However, the rabbis say: The town square does not have any sanctity. [Therefore, if it is sold, the residents may use the money from the sale for any purpose.] [ . . . ]

[If they sold] a synagogue, they may purchase an ark. R. Samuel bar Naḥmani said [that] R. Jonathan said: They taught [this] only [with regard to] a synagogue of a village, [which is considered the property of the residents of that village]. However, [with regard to] a synagogue of a city, since [people] come to it from the [outside] world, [the residents of the city] are not able to sell it, because it is [considered to be the property] of the public [at large and does not belong exclusively to the residents of the city]. [ . . . ]

[The Gemara] raises an objection [to R. Samuel bar Naḥmani’s statement, from a baraita]: R. Judah said: [There was] an incident involving a synagogue of bronze workers that was in Jerusalem, which they sold to R. Eliezer, and he used it for all his [own] needs. But wasn’t [the synagogue] there [one] of cities, [as Jerusalem is certainly classified as a city; why were they permitted to sell it]? That [one] was a small synagogue, and [it was the bronze workers] themselves [who] built it. [Therefore, it was considered exclusively theirs, and they were permitted to sell it.] [ . . . ]

Ravina had a certain [piece of land on which stood] a mound [of the ruins] of a synagogue. He came before R. Ashi [and] said to him: What is [the halakhah with regard] to sowing [the land]? He said to him: Go, purchase it from the seven representatives of the town in an assembly of the residents of the town, and [then you may] sow it.