Bava Metzia 75b — the Talmud in English

The entire period of garid

the term for dryness, when the earth is dry during the hot season, when rains do not fall,

is one:

that is, it is permitted to say: Plow with me on this day, during the hot season, and I shall plow with you on another day during the hot season, and we are not concerned that perhaps one day will be longer than the other or harder than the other.

And likewise

every

period of

the days of revi'a ,

the rainy season, so called because the rain penetrates the earth,

is one:

that is, it is permitted to say: Plow with me on this day during the rainy season, and I shall plow with you on another day during the rainy season.

But

he may not say to him: Plow

with me

on this day

during garid, and I shall plow with you

on another day

during revi'a,

because the days of revi'a are difficult for work in the fields .

Rabban Gamaliel says: There is early interest, and there is late interest

and both are forbidden because of the dust of interest .

How so? He set his mind to borrow from him, and the lender sends

him

a gift

and says: Because you will lend to me, this is early interest.

He borrowed from him and

already

returned his money to him, and he sends him

a gift

and says: Because of your money

that was idle with me, this is late interest .

Rabbi Shimon says: There is interest of words

which is forbidden rabbinically , such as:

he may not say to him,

the borrower to the lender, to inform him:

Know that

so-and-so came from

somewhere [and it is forbidden only when he would not have done this had he not lent to him ].

And these transgress

the prohibitions of interest from the Torah:

the lender, the borrower, the guarantor, and the witnesses. And the Sages say: Also the scribe

who writes the document .

They transgress:

a.

because of ‘You shall not give’

[Leviticus 25:37], b.

and because of ‘You shall not take from him’

[there], c.

and because of ‘He shall not be to him as a creditor’

[Exodus 22:24], d.

and because of ‘You shall not place upon him interest’

[there], e.

and because of ‘And before the blind you shall not place a stumbling block, and you shall fear your God; I am the Lord’

[Leviticus 19:14].

The intention is not that all of them transgress all these negative commandments. Rather, the lender alone transgresses all of them, whereas the borrower, the guarantor, and the witnesses transgress, as is explained in the Gemara, some particular negative commandment among the negative commandments.

Gemara:

It was taught in a beraita: Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai says: From where is it derived concerning one who is owed a hundred zuz by his fellow and it is not customary for

the borrower

to precede him with

greetings

that it is forbidden for him to precede him with greetings? The verse says: ‘Interest on every matter that may bear interest’

[Deuteronomy 23:20].

And even speech is forbidden,

as is implied by the expression “every matter” .

We learned the Mishna:

“And these transgress”:

Abaye said: The lender transgresses all of them!

all five negative commandments enumerated in the Mishna: a. “You shall not give,” and he gives his money with interest at the time of the loan; b. “You shall not take,” and he takes interest at the time of repayment; c. “He shall not be to him as a creditor,” and he is to him as a creditor when he demands payment from him and presses him ,

d. “And you shall not place,” and he places interest upon him at the time the interest is stipulated,

e. “And before the blind you shall not place a stumbling block,” and he places a stumbling block before the borrower, causing him to violate “You shall not charge interest,” which is a warning to the borrower.

The borrower transgresses

three negative commandments: a.

because of ‘You shall not charge your brother interest’

[Deuteronomy 23:20], “‘you shall charge interest’” is a causative expression, that is: You shall not cause your brother to charge interest. b. Because of

‘And to your brother you shall not charge interest’

[there 21] and the Mishna did not mention these two negative commandments because it did not wish to list anything other than those in which everyone transgresses as the lender c. because of

‘And before the blind you shall not place a stumbling block,’

and he places a stumbling block before the lender, causing him to violate all the negative commandments enumerated above.

The guarantor and the witnesses transgress only because of: ‘You shall not place interest upon him’ .

It was taught in a beraita: Rabbi Shimon says: Those who lend with interest, more than they profit

from taking the interest,

they lose!

Their property is continually collapsing [as explained above, 71a].

And furthermore,

they sin through this

that they make Moses our teacher a sage and his Torah true

the expression “sage” and “true” is in the language of euphemism,

and they say,

those who lend with interest:

Had Moses our teacher known that there would be profit in the matter, he would not have written it

in the Torah, that it is forbidden to lend with interest.

When

he came,

Rav Dimi

from the Land of Israel to Babylonia,

he said: From where is it derived concerning one who is owed a hundred zuz by his fellow and knows

that he has nothing

for the borrower to repay,

that it is forbidden

for the lender

to pass before him

before the borrower,

the verse says: ‘He shall not be to him as a creditor.’

That is, when the lender knows that the borrower has nothing with which to repay, and he passes before him, he appears in the borrower’s eyes “as a creditor,” and the borrower is embarrassed that he has nothing with which to repay .

And likewise

Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Asi, both said:

if the lender passes before the borrower while knowing that he has nothing, it is

as though he judged

the lender the borrower

with two judgments, as it is said

[Psalms 66:12]

‘You placed a human being over our heads’

we came

a.

into fire

b.

and into water,

that is, when the lender passes before the borrower when he has nothing, the redness departs and pallor comes; redness is of the derivatives of “fire,” and pallor is of the derivatives of “water” .

Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: Anyone who has money and lends it without witnesses transgresses because of ‘And before the blind you shall not place a stumbling block’

for he causes the borrower to be tempted to deny it .

And Reish Lakish said: He causes

the lender

a curse for himself, as it is said: ‘May lying lips become mute, those who speak arrogantly against the righteous,’

that is, when the borrower [sic] without witnesses comes to demand his debt, and the borrower denies everything, people curse the lender and say that he speaks arrogantly against a righteous person [something untrue].

The sages of the academy said

the members of the academy

to Rav Ashi: Ravina fulfills everything that the Sages said! He sent him

Rav Ashi sent to Ravina, in order to test him and see whether the things that the members of the academy had said about him were correct.

Toward evening

before nightfall

on the eve of Shabbat [

close to the onset of Shabbat ],

“Let

him send

me, sir,

as a loan

ten zuz, for it happened

that there became available to me

a small plot of land

small land

to buy [

to purchase it, and for this reason I need a loan ],

he sent him

Ravina sent to Rav Ashi:

“Let

him bring

the Master

witnesses [witnesses

and let a document be written [

a document ],

He sent him

Rav Ashi sent to Ravina:

“Even I as well?!”

And is it also forbidden for me, who am a Torah scholar, to lend without witnesses because of “and you shall not place a stumbling block before the blind”? For I am not suspected of allowing it to enter my mind to deny [the loan]!

He sent him

Ravina sent to Rav Ashi:

“All the more so, sir, for you are occupied with your learning [

for you are preoccupied with your study ], and the concern is greater

that you will forget

that you will forget the loan,

and

it will turn out that I

cause a curse to myself

as in the words of Resh Lakish above.

The Sages taught: There are three who cry out

in the earthly court

and are not answered,

for they brought it upon themselves to come to this situation.

And these are they:

1.

One who has money and lends it without witnesses.

2.

One who acquires a master for himself.

3.

And one whose wife rules over him

who took upon himself to give her money

The Gemara asks:

“One who acquires a master for himself—what is it?”

The Gemara answers in several ways:

Some say: One who attributes his property to a gentile.

That is, so that he will not appear wealthy, he says that his money is not his, but belongs to a certain gentile; and sometimes the gentile hears these words, establishes witnesses concerning this, and sues him according to their laws.

And

some say: One who writes his property to his sons during his lifetime

and does not leave for himself sustenance and livelihood.

And some say: When his fortune is bad [

his fortune is evil ]

in this city [

in this city ]

and he does not go

and does not go

to another city [

to another city ], whereas we learned [Rosh Hashana 16b] that a change of place is among the things that tear up a person’s decree .

We shall return to you, chapter “Which Is the Bite?”

This chapter explains the laws of hiring workers, whether they are day laborers or contractors.

Among other things, it explains how the engagement between the employer and the worker takes effect, when one of the parties may retract, and how one must act when one of them unlawfully violates the hiring agreement between them.

Mishna:

The first Mishna deals with misleading a worker at the time of his hiring, and with breach of the agreement between the employer and the worker.

a.

One who hires craftsmen,

day laborers, or craftsmen who work as contractors, to perform his work,

and they misled one another, [(

see the note)]—

They have only a grievance against one another.

That is, even though the one who was misled has a justified reason to complain against the other, nevertheless he cannot claim money from him, but can and may only have a grievance against him.

This law will be explained in the Gemara.

b. If he

hired

a man

as a donkey-driver,

who leads the donkey with a load upon it,

or

if he hired a man

as a wagon-driver,

who owns a wagon, in order

to bring poles,

finished and handsome wood, in order to make a palanquin from them,

or

in order to bring

flutes for a bride,

to gladden her with their playing on the day of her joy.

Or he hired them to bring the flutes in order to lament with them

for the dead.

Or

likewise if he hired

workers to raise his flax from the soaking-pool,

in which flax is soaked while it is still in its stalks.

Or

likewise if he hired workers for

anything that will be lost,

if it will not be done immediately and he cannot postpone his work to another time.

And they retracted,

the workers, and do not perform the work, while the hirer cannot now find workers who will agree to work at the ordinary price in their place, such as

in a place where there is no person

to hire for the work at the ordinary market price—

then he

hires others in their stead,

other workers in their place, even at a high price. The first workers are obligated to pay the wages of the latter from the account of their own wages.

Or he misleads them,

the householder misleads the first workers and promises to increase their wages so that they will not retract, but he is not obligated to fulfill his promise, since they are not permitted to retract and cause him a loss, for they were hired for work involving something that will be lost.

But if it is not work involving something that will be lost, he is not permitted to mislead them; therefore, if he hires other workers in their place at a high price, they are not obligated to pay them from their own account.

One who hires craftsmen

to perform his work as contractors, who were not hired by the hour or by the day, but accepted upon themselves to perform a particular task for him for a price fixed in advance, whether they work for a long time or for a short time,

and they retracted

after they had begun their work,

their hand is on the lower side—

That is, if the workers’ wages have risen in the market, and he cannot now find workers who will complete his work for wages similar to what he fixed with the first ones, he may deduct from the wages of the first ones the amount of wages that he will have to add to the wages of the latter workers.

For example, if he fixed with the first ones that their wages would be one hundred zuz, and they performed only half the work and retracted, and now he cannot find other workers to complete the half of the work except for sixty zuz, he pays the first ones only forty zuz, since they are not permitted to cause him to lose what he had to add to the wages of the latter workers.

Indeed, if the workers’ wages have fallen in the market, and he can find other workers for thirty zuz, the first ones cannot claim seventy zuz from him, arguing that the latter workers entered in their place and their profit is theirs. Rather, he pays them only fifty zuz, which is the payment for the half of the work that he fixed with them.