The Talmud in Bava Metzia 56a
teaches that the sale of land is not subject to price fraud.
This is derived from Parsha Behar,
Vayikra 25:14:
If you sell anything to your
neighbor, or purchase something from the hand of your neighbor, do not cheat
one another.
The Talmud explains that the
expression “from the hand” indicates that the verse speaks of a thing that is
passed from hand to hand (movable objects) but land is excluded because it is
not movable.
We conclude from here that the
prohibition against ona’ah, one may not wrong their fellow, applies only to
movable objects and not land.
This conclusion does not fit in with
the next verse which is talking about land (Vayikra 25:15):
According to the number of years
after the Yovel you shall purchase land from your neighbor; According to the
number of produce years he shall sell it to you.
Rashi comments that this verse comes
to prevent cheating. When you sell or buy land you must know how many years there
are until the Yovel (50th year)…If there are only a few years
remaining, and this one sells it for a high price, the result is that the buyer
has been cheated; but if there are many years remaining and he consumes many
crops from it, behold, the seller is cheated. Therefore, the buyer must buy it
according to the time remaining before the Yovel…according to the number of
years of crops which is going to remain in the possession of the buyer.
Ramban agrees with Rashi and points
out that even though the Talmud states that the sale of land is not subject to
price fraud, the plain meaning of the verse makes it clear that it is forbidden
to cheat the buyer when selling land. The Pitchei Tshuva and Maharshal agree
with the Ramban.
The Chatam Sofer asks why Avraham
first said (Breisheet 23:4) “Grant me the possession of a grave site” and then
(verse 9) “let him give me Maarat HaMachpela” -which sounds like he was looking
for a gift, yet he was happy to pay full price!
The answer is that Avraham was
worried that Ephron would find out that Adam and Eve were buried in the cave
and then he would renege and say that he was cheated, as the land would have a
higher value if the first two people who were created directly from God were
buried there. Therefore in order to ensure that nobody would dispute Avraham’s
ownership of Maarat HaMachpela, first he asked for the land as a gift and then he
paid Ephron, even though Ephron said that the payment was not necessary.
May we all be above board in buying
and selling property and avoid fraud at all costs.
