Study Bava Metzia folio 11B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
and the place of the tithe is rented to him. R' Yehoshua paid him a token sum to rent the field, which presumably became the equivalent of his courtyard, and thereby acquired the tithe. And another 1/10th that I will measure out in the future and separate from my produce as the poor man’s tithe is
R' Abba continued: But were R' Yehoshua and R' Akiva standing next to Rabban Gamliel’s field then? All of them were on the ship. Apparently, one’s courtyard effects acquisition for him even when he is not standing next to it.
Ulla said to him: This one of the rabbis seems like one who has not studied halakha. Ulla dismissed the question entirely, as he deemed it unworthy of consideration.
When R' Abba came to Sura, he related the discussion to the local scholars, saying to them: This is what Ulla said, and this is how I challenged him. One of the rabbis said to him: Rabban Gamliel transferred ownership of the movable property, the tithes, to them by means of renting them the land.
Rava said: R' Abba did well by not accepting this response, because if Rabban Gamliel had intended to transfer his ownership of the tithes to R' Yehoshua and R' Akiva, did they not have a cloth with which to acquire the tithes from him by means of a symbolic exchange? They could have acquired the