“Reish Lakish said: Whomever has a beit knesset in his city and he does not enter it, he is called a bad neighbour” (Brachot 8a).…
Bava Metzia 105: Will that be Wheat or Barley?
Throughout most of history wealth was primarily a result of land ownership. The more land one owned the wealthier one was. It is quite likely that it…
Bava Metzia 103: Time to Move
We often imagine that the ancient world was one in which almost all lived on farms tilling their land, and only in modern times with the advent of…
Bava Metzia 97: I Just Don't Know
“Arba shomrim hem, there are four guardians, a shomer chinam, an unpaid guardian; the shoel, the borrower; the sachar, the paid guardian and…
Bava Metzia 87: The Beauty of Old Age
Our society venerates youth, with an entire industry dedicated to keeping people looking and feeling young. While youth is great, it is old age…
Bava Metzia 92: Time to Eat
“Everything goes according to the custom of the land (Bava Metzia 83a). As much as lawyers may try, it is impossible to contract for each and…
Bava Metzia 85: For the Children
One of the challenges of higher education is ensuring that one does not sit in an ivory tower where what one learns has little application to real…
Bava Metzia 83: Was the Wine Good?
“Pray for the welfare of government for, if not fear of them, man would swallow his friend alive” (Avot 3:2). Law and order is the…
Bava Metzia 85: Forget It!
Family owned businesses comprise some 90% of all business enterprises in the United States, account for about 65% of gross domestic product and 75%…
Bava Metzia 84: I Can't Learn Without You
The traditional way to study Talmud is with a chavruta, a study partner, someone with whom to bounce off ideas, debate, question and argue about…
Bava Metzia 76: I Love My Job
“’For they are My slaves’ (Vayikra 25:55) – and not slaves to My slaves” (Bava Kamma 116b). Our Sages understood that…
Bava Metzia 75: In Man We Don't Trust
Jews pray three times a day to be blessed with material wealth. Yet precisely because so much good can be done with money, it can be a great source…
Bava Metzia 72: I Want to Be a Rich Man
People convert to Judaism for all kinds of reasons. Ideally, one may accept only those who convert due to a love of Judaism; those who see the…
Bava Metzia 65: Sale Ends Today
One of the unique features of the prohibition of charging interest is that the prohibition cannot be waived by the debtor. Whereas Jewish law allows…
Bava Metzia 62: Your Money and Your Life
The word damim in biblical Hebrew means both blood and money. Lo ta’amod al dam reacha (Vayikra19:16) means not only may we not stand idly by…
Bava Metzia 61: Let's Eat Some Rodents
Teaching in a community school, I often hear from many of my students that they are “not religious.” After all, they don’t observe…
Bava Metzia 61: A Free Loan
One of most difficult laws to comprehend, both technically and philosophically, is the Torah prohibition against charging interest – the…
Bava Metzia 59: A Broken Oven
“If an oven is cut into rings, and sand is placed between the rings, Rabbi Eliezer says it is pure. But the sages say it is susceptible to…