Study Bava Batra folio 9A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
ואתני עלה״; איהו נמי עבד חד כיסא, ואתני עלה. רב אשי אמר: אנא – אתנויי נמי לא צריכנא, דכל דקא אתי אדעתא דידי אתי, ולמאן דבעינא יהיבנא ליה.
and stipulate about it with the people of your city that the money collected will be given to whomever needs it, he too made only one purse and stipulated with the people of his city about it. Rav Ashi said: I do not even need to make a stipulation, as whoever comes to donate to this charity fund comes relying on my discretion and understanding that I will give the funds to whomever I want.
The Talmud relates: There were these two butchers who made an agreement with each other that whichever one of them worked on the day assigned to the other according to their mutually agreed-upon schedule would tear up the hide of the animal that he slaughtered that day. One of them went and worked on the other’s day, and the other butcher tore up the hide of the animal that he slaughtered. They came before Rava for judgment, and Rava obligated him to pay the butcher who slaughtered that animal.
איתיביה רב יימר בר שלמיא לרבא: ״ולהסיע על קיצתם״! לא אהדר ליה רבא. אמר רב פפא: שפיר עבד דלא אהדר ליה מידי; הני מילי היכא דליכא אדם חשוב, אבל היכא דאיכא אדם חשוב – לאו כל כמינייהו דמתנו.
Rav Yeimar bar Shelamya raised an objection to Rava: Isn’t it stated among actions that the residents of a city may take: And to fine people for violating their specifications, i.e., those ordinances that the residents passed? Rava did not respond to him. Rav Pappa said: He did well that he did not respond to him, as this matter applies only where there is no important person in the city, in which case it is permitted for the residents of the city to draw up ordinances on their own. But where there is an important person, it is not in the residents’ power to make stipulations, i.e., regulations; rather, they are required to obtain the approval of the city’s leading authority to give force to their regulations.