Megillah 27 - Shabbat January 8, 6 Shvat

Can a shul be sold to be a beit midrash or can a beit midrash sold to be a shul? Can an old sefer Torah be sold to buy a new one? The Gemara brings five sources to try to answer this question but all answers are rejected and there is no conclusion. Money leftover from a sale of sanctified items, after a new items has been purchased, has the same status as the whole sum of money. However, there are exceptions to this rule. If a group of people go from one city to another and are asked to give charity, when they leave the city, they can ask for the money back to give to poor people in their city. But this is not the case of an individual. Rabbi Meir holds that an item (or shul) belonging to many cannot be sold to be used for an individual. The rabbis disagree. If one sells a shul, is the sale final or do the original owners have rights to buy it back? If so, why is this not an issue of loaning on interest as when they buy it back for the same price, the seller gets his money back and also had use of the building in the meantime? This is called “tzad eched b’ribit” – interest that is not definitely going to be collected and according to Rabbi Yehuda this is permitted. A source is brought to prove Rabbi Yehuda holds this way, but the proof is rejected. Laws are brought regarding the sanctity of an area where one prays as regarding using the space as a bathroom. A number of rabbis were asked why they were blessed to have lived a long life and they each list a number of things they did for which they believed they were rewarded.