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Bava Metzia 104b

בבא מציעא ק״ד ע״ב

Learn Bava Metzia 104b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Bava Metzia 104b in Gemara Clarity

Topic

How common people's wording and local custom decide what a document means: a clause that protects a lender if land loses value, and how much a wife collects for her dowry when the כתובה lists an inflated amount.

Overview

This amud shows how the חכמים read people's words and documents the way ordinary people mean them. רבי יוסי teaches that where custom inflates the dowry number in a כתובה, the wife collects only the real amount. The exception is when a קנין was made with the bride's father, as מרימר rules and as רבינא's own story shows. Next comes a man who told his heirs to give his daughter 400 זוז. The final rule is that any mention of the כתובה means a written number worth half, and only a plain 'give her' means real money. Then come sharecropper cases. רבא rules that an exaggerated penalty promise of 1,000 זוז is an אסמכתא and does not bind. When wheat was planted instead of sesame, the sharecropper gets no credit for sparing the land, and he does not keep all the extra profit, because the land helped too. Finally, נהרדעי define an עיסקא as half loan and half deposit. רבא uses the name עיסקא to show the money is for business only and does not become the manager's children's movables. רבא also rules that one עיסקא written in two documents works to the investor's loss.

Opening lines

אַהֲנַי כְּתִיבָה לְגֵירָעוֹן.

The writing is effective for depreciation.

רַבִּי יוֹסֵי הָיָה דּוֹרֵשׁ לְשׁוֹן הֶדְיוֹט.

Rabbi Yosei would expound common language.

דְּתַנְיָא, רַבִּי יוֹסֵי אוֹמֵר:

As it is taught: Rabbi Yosei says:

מָקוֹם שֶׁנָּהֲגוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת כְּתוּבָּה מִלְוָה –

In a place where they were accustomed to make a marriage contract like a loan –

The steps (27)

  1. ResponseThe written clause helps if the land loses value
  2. Statementרבי יוסי reads a כתובה by local custom
  3. Statementנהרבלא collected one-third; מרימר collected the added amount too
  4. Challengeרבינא challenges מרימר from the ברייתא
  5. ResolutionA formal קנין makes the full amount binding
  6. Statementרבינא refuses to make a קנין on a doubled dowry
  7. QuestionDoes 400 in her כתובה mean real 400 or written 400?
  8. Responseרב אשי: give her versus write for her
  9. ResponseAnother version: for her כתובה versus in her כתובה
  10. RejectionRejecting the second version: only a plain give her means real money
  11. StatementThe sharecropper who promised 1,000 זוז
  12. StatementThe נהרדעי: he pays one third
  13. Statementרבא: the promise is not binding
  14. ChallengeChallenge to רבא from the משנה
  15. ResolutionExaggerated versus normal promise
  16. StatementWheat planted instead of sesame
  17. Statementרב כהנא: credit for sparing the land
  18. Rejectionרב אשי: owners prefer money over land
  19. StatementA sharecropper plants wheat instead of sesame and earns more
  20. Statementרבינא thinks the sharecropper gets the extra profit
  21. Rejectionרב אחא מדפתי says the land helped too
  22. Statementנהרדעי: an עיסקא is half loan and half deposit
  23. StatementSince half is a loan, the manager may spend it on drink
  24. Rejectionרבא: the name עיסקא means it is for business only
  25. Statementרב אידי בר אבין: if the manager dies, the money becomes his children's movables
  26. Rejectionרבא: the name עיסקא keeps it from becoming the children's movables
  27. StatementOne business deal written in two documents is the lender's loss