Bava Metzia 69a

בבא מציעא ס״ט ע״א

Learn Bava Metzia 69a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

Paying a worker in an עיסקא or animal-raising partnership so it is not ריבית, and how and when partners may divide shared property

Overview

The גמרא finishes explaining רב עיליש's partnership document: the terms must have been uneven, and that gap paid him for his work, so there was no ריבית. רב זביד suggests a tiny benefit might have been enough, like dipping bread in brine together, following רבי יהודה. רב כהנא answers that רב נחמן never ruled like רבי יהודה. He only showed that three תנאים share one שיטה. Next, רב allows a calf-fattener to be paid with the profit beyond one-third. שמואל requires a fixed דינר instead. The גמרא defends רב against his own 'head of the calf' rule in two ways. The story of רבי אלעזר מהגרוניא and his אריס shows that extra pay is needed only when the owner puts up all the money. Two ברייתות then set how long a raiser must care for an animal and its offspring, and how the offspring are split. אביי rejects רב מנשיא בר גדא's self-made split. Finally, רב פפא rules on two partners who divided money and then wine without consent, and his explanation of the difference continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (27)

1. ResolutionThe second possible reading of רב עיליש's document
2. Rejectionרב זביד: maybe a tiny benefit was enough
3. Resolutionרב כהנא: רב נחמן stated a shared approach, not a ruling
4. ProofProof from the way רב נחמן listed each name
5. Statementרב: the fattener's wages can be the profit beyond one-third
6. Challengeשמואל: he may go home with nothing
7. Statementשמואל: the owner must set a fixed דינר
8. ChallengeDoes רב really not require a fixed payment?
9. ResolutionThe head was an alternative, not an addition
10. ResolutionSurplus alone is fine when the fattener has his own animal
11. Statementרבי אלעזר מהגרוניא and his sharecropper
12. ChallengeThe sharecropper complains
13. ResolutionExtra pay was only to avoid the look of interest
14. StatementHow long the raiser must care for the animal
15. ChallengeThe word 'but' does not fit
16. ResolutionRead it as 'because'
17. StatementHow long the raiser must care for the offspring
18. QuestionWhy do small animals need more care?
19. ResponseTheir teeth are thin
20. StatementHow the offspring are divided afterward
21. Statementרב מנשיא בר גדא divides the offspring
22. ChallengeWho divided it for you?
23. ChallengeThe local custom is to keep raising
24. StatementTwo partners, and one splits the money without asking
25. Statementרב פפא: dividing money changes nothing
26. StatementThe next year: the other partner splits the wine, and רב פפא objects
27. ChallengeThe partner complains that רב פפא is picking on him