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plete right of alienation. If the prior clauses were formulated in the
past tense (“we gave you::you gave us, you were satisfied, we with-
draw”), the Investiture clause was a present participle (“you have
right”), while the following waiver-penalty clauses and possible defen-
sion clause were in future tense.6.4 The transaction was not complete until the seller provided the
buyer with firm title insurance. In clauses that were meant to be
self-enforcing, backed up by prohibitive penalties in the range of two
hundred shekels, the seller guaranteed the buyer, his heirs, and poten-
tial recipients, against suit by himself, his children, siblings, partners,
and guarantors with regard to the property (EPE B45:24–30). A
significant feature of these clauses was the reaffirmation statement:
even though the complainant paid the penalty, the house remained
the property of the buyer. Such suits were brought in the name of
the seller. Were a third-party suit to arise, the sellers provided the
buyer with a limited three-phase warranty, promising in succession
to cleanse the property of all challenge, to replace it in case of failure
to cleanse, and to refund the purchase price in case of failure to cleanse
because the challenge came from an heir of the original owners (EPE
B37:19–23). Such a defension clause was not a standard feature but
appeared when the house in question was a piece of abandoned
property held by the seller in adverse possession.^15 If a prior document
regarding the house were available, the seller would transfer it to
the buyer and state such in the contract (EPEB25:23–27, 45:31–32).
Furthermore, he guaranteed the recipient of the property that there
existed no other document, “new [recent] or old,” that superseded
the present one (EPEB29:11–12, 45:29). The number of witnesses
in sales contracts was four (EPEB37:23–25, B45:33–34), and six
(including the transferror) in an exchange document (EPEB29:17–20).6.5 Among the other deeds of conveyance were bequests and with-
drawals. The transfer statement at the beginning of the bequest was
something like “I gave you [daughter] in my lifetime and at my
death” (EPEB25:3), “I gave you [wife] in affection” (EPE B38:4),
“I thought of you [daughter] in my lifetime...I gave it to my daugh-
ter at my death in affection” (EPEB43:2, 16–17). Bequests made in
affection were potentially revocable (“I gave it to you in affection...(^15) Porten and Szubin, “ ‘Abandoned Property...’”
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