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Bava Basra 88a

בבא בתרא פ״ח ע״א

Bava Batra 88a

Learn Bava Basra 88a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

The storekeeper's liability and שואל שלא מדעת; when a buyer who picks up merchandise becomes responsible for it or owns it; the new משנה on cleaning measures

Overview

The amud opens with the storekeeper (חנווני) from the משנה, who is liable for a child's broken jug even after handing it back. The first answer, that he picked up the jug to measure, like רבה's rule about a lost animal, is rejected. רבא, together with רבי זירא, explains instead that the storekeeper used the jug to measure for other customers. So חכמים and רבי יהודה disagree about שואל שלא מדעת: is he a regular borrower or a גזלן? The גמרא then turns to שמואל's rule that someone who takes a vessel to examine it pays even for an אונס, but only when the price is fixed. Two stories apply this rule: meat snatched by a horseman, and pumpkins that the seller tried to make הקדש. A ברייתא then teaches that a buyer who decides in his heart to buy vegetables owns them and must tithe them, and רב הושעיא limits this to a ירא שמים like רב ספרא. The amud ends with a new משנה on how often sellers must clean their measures, weights and scales.

Opening lines

כְּגוֹן שֶׁנְּטָלָהּ לָמוֹד בָּהּ,

For example, where he took it to measure with it,

וְכִדְרַבָּה – דְּאָמַר רַבָּה:

and this follows רבה, for רבה said:

הִכִּישָׁהּ – נִתְחַיֵּיב בָּהּ.

If he struck it, he became obligated for it.

אֵימוֹר דְּאָמַר רַבָּה – בְּבַעֲלֵי חַיִּים,

Say that רבה said it about animals,

The steps (18)

  1. ResolutionTaking the jug to measure makes him responsible, like רבה's rule
  2. RejectionThe comparison to רבה does not fit a jug
  3. Resolutionרבא and רבי זירא: he measured for other customers
  4. ResolutionThe dispute is about borrowing without permission
  5. Statementשמואל: taking a vessel to examine it makes you liable
  6. StatementLimit: only when the price is already fixed
  7. StatementThe meat snatched by a horseman: רב יימר makes the buyer pay
  8. StatementThe pumpkin seller declares his pumpkins הקדש
  9. Conclusionרב כהנא: you cannot consecrate what is no longer yours, unless the price was open
  10. StatementPicking out vegetables does not make you the owner
  11. StatementDeciding to buy makes him the owner, which creates a problem
  12. StatementThe solution: tithe it and pay for the tithe
  13. ChallengeHow can a mere thought make someone the owner?
  14. ResolutionThe case is a ירא שמים like רב ספרא
  15. StatementNew משנה: how often sellers must clean their measures
  16. Statementרבן שמעון בן גמליאל reverses the rule
  17. StatementHow often a storekeeper must clean his measures, weights and scales
  18. StatementThe cleaning rule applies only to moist goods