Here we'll talk about whether a renter is allowed to deduct from the rent if the field loses certain qualities. The Mishnah says that somebody rents a field from his friend, and it's a field that requires a lot of water and a lot of irrigation systems. Rainwater alone wouldn't allow the crops to grow. In that field, there's a spring he could take water from and use to water the entire field very easily. Or he rents a field that has a tree, and that tree provides fruit for the renter. So, in addition to the crops he's growing, he now has a beautiful apple tree, for example, and gets apples from it.
What happens if the spring dries up, so he can't take water from it to water his field, or if the fruit tree somehow gets cut down? The renter is not allowed to deduct anything from the rent, even though he no longer has the advantage of having a spring or a fruit tree on the property. He's not allowed to deduct anything from the rent they agreed upon. The fruit tree or the spring wasn't specifically mentioned in their lease. The renter hadn't mentioned to the buyer that it was something he really wanted or was going to take advantage of. So therefore, it's as if it didn't exist. The fact that it gets lost or dries up, or that the tree gets cut down, doesn't really change the agreement they had.
But if he specifically mentions it to him when they are coming to terms. But if the renter, when he was talking to the owner, said, “I want to rent the field that needs irrigation and has a spring over there,” or said, “I want to rent the field that contains the tree that provides fruit,” we see that the renter cares about these things. Then, if the spring dries up or the tree is cut down, the renter could deduct from the rent because he specified these qualities of the field. The spring or the fruit tree, we see that he agrees to the price because he wants these perks of this field, and if it loses those advantages, if it loses those perks, he would be allowed to deduct from the rent because we see he's not getting everything that he agreed to. He's not getting everything that he wanted.