The Talmud has a habit of shifting seamlessly from legal analysis to biblical exegesis to narrative and back. For instance, a discussion of practices instituted year-round to mourn the destruction of the Temple—such as leaving a corner of one’s home un-plastered—appears after an especially dense series of debates about real-estate law. Rabbi Elli Fischer contends that there is a deeper connection between these topics than meets the eye, and that a debate about squatter’s rights (to use a modern term) might indeed be one about the claim of Roman occupiers to the Jewish homeland: