Bava Metzia 67b

בבא מציעא ס״ז ע״ב

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Topic

The laws of a mortgaged field (מַשְׁכַּנְתָּא): eating its produce with a deduction or through קיצותא, how local custom decides whose property it is, and when the lender must leave.

Overview

This amud opens with the last word of an earlier story: רב אשי treated the orphans as adults. Then רבא בריה דרב יוסף, in the name of רבא, rules that where the borrower may pay back the loan at any time and remove the lender, the lender may eat the field's produce only with a deduction from the loan. A צורבא מדרבנן must use a fixed arrangement called קיצותא instead. רב אחא and רבינא argue whether קיצותא is allowed, and the גמרא gives two versions of what קיצותא means. Even the strictest view allows the סורא mortgage, where the land returns to the owner with nothing owed after a set number of years. Next, local custom decides whether the mortgaged field counts as the lender's property, which affects his creditors, his בכור's double share, and שביעית. The גמרא then discusses harvested dates, a promise by the lender to leave (the הלכה requires a קנין), and how the borrower's words end the lender's right to eat. Finally, some אמוראים refused to eat even with a deduction while רבינא did, and מר זוטרא begins to explain רבינא's view by comparing it to a שדה אחוזה, a comparison that continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (25)

1. ConclusionClosing word of the previous story: treating the orphans as adults
2. StatementMortgaged field: eat only with a deduction, and a Torah scholar not even that
3. QuestionThen how may the Torah scholar eat the produce?
4. ResponseAnswer: with a fixed arrangement (קיצותא)
5. ChallengeChallenge: what about the opinion that forbids קיצותא?
6. ProofSource for the dispute: רב אחא and רבינא argue about קיצותא
7. QuestionWhat exactly is קיצותא?
8. ResponseDefinition: five years without a deduction, then everything is counted
9. StatementSecond version: no free eating at all, and קיצותא includes a deduction
10. StatementWhoever forbids the first version permits the second
11. QuestionHow can the strictest view allow eating at all?
12. ResponseThe סורא-style mortgage
13. StatementWhere the lender can be removed: the land is not his
14. StatementWhere the lender cannot be removed: the land counts as his
15. StatementRemoval even from dates already on the mats
16. StatementDates lifted into baskets are acquired
17. StatementFor the view that a buyer's vessel acquires, even the mats acquire
18. QuestionDoes the lender's promise to leave need a formal act of acquisition?
19. Responseרב פפא and רב ששת disagree about the act of acquisition
20. ConclusionThe ruling: an act of acquisition is needed
21. StatementOnce the borrower says he will get the money, the lender stops eating
22. StatementArgument over 'I will make an effort to bring money'
23. ConclusionThe ruling: the lender stops eating
24. StatementHow the אמוראים acted with a deduction
25. Statementמר זוטרא explains the lenient view by comparing it to an ancestral field