Bava Metzia

Embark on a journey of Jewish learning and discovery, exploring the depth of our Bava Metzia resources, where tagged items including audio, programs, and podcast episodes await your exploration.

Bava Metzia 55: What is a Penny Worth?

Rabbi Jay Kelman

There is not too much one can do with a penny; so little, in fact, that the Canadian government removed them from circulation in 2013 with purchases rounded off to the nearest nickel. The Talmudic equivalent of the penny, the prutah, was also of…
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Bava Metzia 49: What Did You Say it Cost?

Rabbi Jay Kelman

“Ona’ah is four silver maot in twenty-four…1/6th of the price” (Bava Metzia 49b). The laws of ona’ah, price fraud, forbid one from selling above the market norm. The halacha recognizes three distinct forms of ona…
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Bava Metzia 49: Let's Not Make a Deal

Rabbi Jay Kelman

The Ramban, in perhaps his most famous biblical comment, notes that one can observe every law in the Torah and yet be no better than a dead carcass (Vayikra 19:2). Law embodies values but it is impossible to legislate every human exchange (see…
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Bava Metzia 42: Where is My Money?

Rabbi Jay Kelman

In our last post we discussed the responsibilities of a shomer entrusted to guard produce. The Mishnayot continue with a discussion of one’s responsibility when guarding a barrel, i.e., wine or oil, (Bava Metzia 40b) and, as we will discuss,…
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Bava Metzia 40: I Love My Fruit

Rabbi Jay Kelman

“Milveh lhotzah nitna”, money is loaned to be spent (Kiddushin 47a). When one loans money it is with the understanding that the borrower will use the money as they see fit. It would border on the absurd to suggest that one must return…
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Bava Metzia 37: What Does the Cheater Lose?

Rabbi Jay Kelman

It is a beautiful character trait to be trusting of others. It is also, all too often, foolhardy. The underlying theme of much of Bava Metzia, and for that matter all of Seder Nezikin, is that people, lie, cheat, commit adultery, and even kill. If…
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Bava Metzia 35: Making a Quick Dollar

Rabbi Jay Kelman

The difference between a smart businessperson and an ethically challenged one can be fine indeed - so fine that many will disagree on where to draw that line. “One rents a bull from his friend and loans it to another and the animal dies of…
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Bava Metzia 33: 40 Long Years

Rabbi Jay Kelman

One of the beautiful things about studying Gemara is delighting in how it seamlessly flows from one idea to another; how it blends legal rulings, moral teachings and philosophical musings with personal vignettes, historical information and…
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Bava Metzia 33: You Go First

Rabbi Jay Kelman

There are few mitzvoth of greater importance than kibud av veim. This is so well-known and obvious that it hardly needs elaboration. So much so that the models our Sages present to us as paragons of this mitzva are non-Jews; beginning with Eisav in…
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Bava Metzia 32: Helping the Enemy

Rabbi Jay Kelman

“G-d is good to all and His mercy is upon all His creations” (Tehillim 145:9). If G-d has mercy on all His creations so too must man, created in G-d’s image, have mercy on all creations. Laws ranging from not killing a mother ox…
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