Study Bava Metzia folio 46B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
כל הנישום דמים באחר, כיון שזכה זה נתחייב זה בחליפין.
With regard to all items that can be appraised when used as monetary value for another item, i.e., their value can be appraised relative to the value of another item, excluding a coin, whose value is apparent, once one party in the transaction acquires the item he is receiving, this party is obligated with regard to the item being exchanged for it. The novelty of the Mishnah is that all items, not only vessels, can be used to perform the act of acquisition of exchange. Therefore, one should not infer that the halakha is the same with regard to coins.
הכי נמי מסתברא, מדקתני סיפא: כיצד? החליף שור בפרה או חמור בשור. שמע מינה.
The Talmud comments: So too, it is reasonable to interpret the Mishnah in that manner, from the fact that the latter clause of that Mishnah teaches: How so? If one exchanges an ox for a cow, or a donkey for an ox, once this party acquires the animal that he is receiving, this party is obligated with regard to the item being exchanged for it. This clause apparently explains the previous clause, and employs the example of animals, not coins. The Talmud concludes: Learn from it that the reference in the Mishnah is to movable property, not to coins.
ולמאי דסליק אדעתיה מעיקרא – מטבע, מאי ״כיצד״? הכי קאמר, ופירי נמי עבדי חליפין, כיצד – החליף שור בפרה או חמור בשור.
The Talmud asks: And with regard to what entered our minds initially, that a coin effects symbolic exchange, what is the meaning of the clause: How so; if one exchanges an ox for a cow, once this party acquires the animal that he is receiving, this party is obligated with regard to the item being exchanged for it? This example does not involve a coin. The Talmud explains that it was assumed that this is what the Mishnah is saying: Not only can a coin be used in the act of acquisition of exchange, but produce, i.e., movable property, can also effect exchange. How so? If one exchanged the meat of an ox for a cow, or the meat of a donkey for an ox, once this party acquires the item that he is receiving, this party is obligated with regard to the item being exchanged for it.