Study Bava Batra folio 70B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
סוף סוף, כי אמר ליה ״נאנסו״, לאו שבועה בעי? הכא נמי, מאי ״נאמן״ – נאמן בשבועה.
Ultimately, even when the bailee says to the depositor that the items were taken from him under circumstances beyond his control, is he not required to take an oath? How, then, can you assert that he is deemed credible to claim that he returned the items without taking an oath? Rav Ḥisda said to him: Here too, what did I mean when I said that he is deemed credible? It means that he is deemed credible when he takes an oath.
לימא בפלוגתא דהני תנאי – דתניא: שטר כיס היוצא על היתומים – דייני גולה אמרי: נשבע וגובה כולו. ודייני ארץ ישראל אמרי: נשבע וגובה מחצה.
The Talmud suggests: Let us say that Rav Amram and Rav Ḥisda disagree with regard to the issue that is the subject of the dispute between these tanna’im, as a halakha is taught in a baraita with regard to a purse document, i.e., a document that records an arrangement by which one gives another money as an investment in a joint venture on condition that the profits will be divided equally between the two parties. If the person who received the money died, and this document was presented by the lender against the orphans, the judges of the exile say that the lender takes an oath that the money had never been returned to him, and he collects the entire sum. And the judges of Eretz Yisrael say that he takes an oath and collects only half of the sum.
And it is understood that everyone agrees with the opinion of the rabbis of Neharde’a, as the rabbis of Neharde’a say: With regard to this joint venture, by which one person gives money to another on condition that it will be used for business purposes and that the profits will be divided equally between the two parties, half of the invested money is considered a loan, for which the borrower is exclusively liable, and half is considered a deposit, so that if it is lost under circumstances beyond his control, the borrower is exempt from the liability to return it.