Bava Metzia 73b

בבא מציעא ע״ג ע״ב

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Topic

ריבית and benefits in prepaid deals, the king's law, and a negligent agent's אסמכתא

Overview

This amud brings a series of short stories and rulings about ריבית and about using other people's money or work. A גוי mortgaged a house to רב מרי בר רחל and then sold it to רבא. רבא refused רב מרי's rent and kept the גוי's original deal. רב אשי explains that paying for wine in תשרי and choosing it in טבת is not ריבית, because the buyers only receive the wine they paid for. He also permits an extra jug that sellers freely give רבינא, because by the king's law those sellers own the produce. In the same way, רבא quotes רב ששת that the king's law lets someone who pays another person's head tax make that person work for him. רבא also approves of his brother רב סעורם forcing misbehaving people to carry his chair, based on a ברייתא from a פסוק. Finally, רב חמא rules that a negligent agent who failed to buy wine pays the market price, and רב זביד limits this to general wine. רב אשי disagrees completely, calling it an אסמכתא, and the גמרא explains why a sharecropper's promise is different: there, the outcome is in his own hands.

Opening lines

The steps (18)

1. StatementA mortgaged house is sold to רבא
2. Statementרב מרי explains why he waited a year
3. Responseרבא refuses the rent and follows the rules that applied to the גוי
4. Challengeרבא מברניש says the רבנן seem to take interest with wine
5. Resolutionרב אשי: They bought wine, and later they only choose it
6. Questionרבינא gets an extra jug of wine and asks if it is allowed
7. Responseרב אשי: yes, they are simply giving it to you
8. ChallengeBut the land does not belong to them
9. ResolutionThe king's law gives the land to whoever pays the tax
10. Challengeרב פפא objects to Sages who pay people's taxes and then make them work
11. Resolutionרבא quotes רב ששת: the king's law makes them serve the one who pays
12. Statementרב סעורם forces misbehaving people to carry רבא's chair
13. Proofרבא approves and brings a ברייתא from the פסוק
14. StatementA negligent agent pays the market price of wine
15. StatementThe ruling applies only to wine in general, not one specific wine
16. StatementEven for wine in general the agent does not pay, because it is an אסמכתא
17. ChallengeChallenge from the sharecropper who promised to pay with the best produce
18. ResolutionThere, the outcome is in his own hands