Bava Metzia 70 – בבא מציעא ע׳ | Daf Yomi with Rashi, Tosafot, the Rambam and halacha
What Bava Metzia 70 teaches
- Courts may invest orphans' money with trustworthy people under terms favoring profit over loss to protect their estate.
- Guaranteed livestock investments between Jews are usurious loans because the owner bears no loss while taking profits.
- A guaranteed investment animal escapes bechor because the gentile lender retains the right to seize the offspring.
The sugyot
- A ship may be leased for rent with the renter paying for damage at breakage, because this accepted maritime custom accords with the baraita.
- Biblical interest is strictly forbidden even for orphans, but rabbinic interest like investments favoring profit over loss is permitted under strict court safeguards.
- The Mishnah prohibits tzon barzel partnerships between Jews as interest, while permitting interest transactions with gentiles and regulating when a gentile's capital may be lent.
- The Gemara resolves a contradiction between ribbit and firstborn animal laws regarding whether guaranteed investment animals belong entirely to the recipient.
- The Gemara restricts usurious transactions with gentiles, reinterpreting "lanochri tashikh" as an additional prohibition against paying interest to a fellow Jew.
Halachot from the daf
- Collecting rent and breakage damages on a rented ship
- Renting copper utensils with payment for rent and weight depreciation
- Lending orphan and charity funds on terms of rabbinic interest
- Court investment of orphan money to prevent depletion of principal
- Accepting guaranteed 'iron sheep' (tzon barzel) investments from a Jew
- Lending and borrowing with interest with gentiles and resident aliens
- Exemption of tzeon barzel taken from gentiles from firstborn sanctity
- Gentile partnership or claim exempting an animal from firstborn sanctity
- Lending money to a gentile with interest
- Borrowing money from a gentile with interest
Gems from the Daf
Learn Bava Metzia 70 sugya by sugya on Super Daf: the Gemara in Hebrew and English with Rashi, Tosafot, the Rishonim, the Rambam and the Shulchan Arukh woven in. Free.