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Bava Metzia 68a

בבא מציעא ס״ח ע״א

Learn Bava Metzia 68a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Bava Metzia 68a in Gemara Clarity

Topic

Hidden forms of רבית: mortgaged fields, רבא's three rejected practices, and half-profit partnerships in the new משנה

Overview

This amud finishes the argument over whether a lender may hold a mortgaged field (a משכנתא) and eat its produce for a fixed yearly deduction from the debt. The side that permits it compares it to redeeming a שדה אחוזה from הקדש at a fixed price. The side that forbids it answers that a loan between people looks like רבית. רב אשי then brings two teachings from the elders of מתא מחסיא: an unspecified משכנתא lasts at least a year, and the field 'resides' with the lender, which matters for the law of בר מצרא. Next, רבא rejects three practices: רב פפא's higher price for delayed payment, the documents of מחוזא that wrote expected profit into the loan, and the leases of נרש where the borrower rented back his own mortgaged field. Along the way, רב אשי shows why even אמימר's careful use of such documents fails once the lender dies, and a newer lease wording is rejected. A new משנה then forbids half-profit deals with a storekeeper or an animal raiser unless the worker is paid, but allows taking calves and foals to raise for half without an appraisal. The גמרא begins by explaining that the wage is that of a פועל בטל and asks what that means.

Opening lines

קָא פָרֵיק לַהּ בְּאַרְבְּעָה זוּזֵי,

he redeems it for four zuz [a year],

הָכָא נָמֵי לָא שְׁנָא.

here too, it is no different.

וּמַאן דְּאָסַר – אָמַר לָךְ:

And the one who forbids will tell you:

שְׂדֵה אֲחוּזָּה הֶקְדֵּשׁ הִיא,

an ancestral field is consecrated property,

The steps (22)

  1. ProofThe permitting side finishes its proof from a redeemed ancestral field
  2. RejectionThe forbidding side says הקדש is different from a loan
  3. Statementרב אשי: an unspecified mortgage lasts one year
  4. QuestionWhat difference does the one-year rule make?
  5. ResponseThe borrower can remove the lender only after a year
  6. Statementרב אשי: the meaning of the word משכנתא
  7. QuestionWhat difference does the word's meaning make?
  8. ResponseIt matters for the law of the neighboring field owner
  9. Statementרבא rejects three common practices
  10. StatementThe first practice is רב פפא's delayed-payment pricing
  11. StatementThe documents of מחוזא and why they are a problem
  12. Challengeמר בר אמימר says his father did this
  13. Rejectionרב אשי: what happens when the orphans hold the document?
  14. StatementAn innocent remark, and אמימר dies
  15. StatementThe leases of נרש: leasing back a field the lender never owned
  16. StatementA newer wording: 'we acquired it, waited, then leased it'
  17. RejectionThe newer wording is rejected
  18. StatementNew משנה: a half-profit deal with a storekeeper
  19. StatementThe same rule for chickens, calves and foals
  20. StatementException: raising calves, foals and donkeys for half the profit
  21. StatementA ברייתא: the wage is that of an idle worker
  22. QuestionWhat does 'like an idle worker' mean?