Study Bava Metzia folio 49B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
אמרי ליה: לא. אמר לי: ליהוו הנך זוזי בפקדון גבך, דהא חשכה לי. אמרי ליה: הא ביתא קמך. אותבינהו בביתא ואיגנוב. אתא לקמיה דרבא. אמר ליה: כל ״הא ביתא קמך״ לא מיבעיא שומר שכר דלא הוי, אלא אפילו שומר חנם נמי לא הוי. אמרי ליה: והא אמרו [ליה] רבנן לרבא: איבעי ליה לקבולי עליה ״מי שפרע״. ואמר לי: לא היו דברים מעולם.
I said to him: No. He said to me: Let these dinars remain as a deposit with you, as the day has grown dark for me and I am unable to reach home before Shabbat. I said to him: This house is before you. He placed them in the house and the dinars were stolen. That man came to have his case judged before Rava, demanding his money. Rava said to him: With regard to anyone who states: This house is before you, it is not necessary to say that he is not a paid bailee, but he is not even an unpaid bailee. Ravina said to Rav Tavot: But didn’t the rabbis say to Rava: The sesame merchant is required to accept upon himself the curse: He Who exacted payment? And Rav Tavot said to me: There were never such matters; that incident never occurred.
רבי שמעון אומר: כל שהכסף בידו – ידו על העליונה וכו׳. תניא, אמר רבי שמעון: אימתי – בזמן שהכסף והפירות ביד מוכר. אבל כסף ביד מוכר ופירות ביד לוקח – אינו יכול לחזור בו, מפני שכספו בידו. ״בידו״?! ביד מוכר הוא. אלא – מפני שדמי כספו בידו.
§ The Mishnah teaches that R' Shimon says: Anyone who has the money in his possession has the advantage. It is taught in a baraita: R' Shimon says: When does the one with the money in his possession have the advantage? It is when both the money and the produce are in the possession of the seller. But if the money is in the possession of the seller and the produce is in the possession of the buyer, the seller cannot renege, because his money is in his possession. The Talmud understood this to mean that the buyer still had the money in his possession, and asks: In his, i.e., the buyer’s, possession? Isn’t it in the possession of the seller? Rather, emend the text: Because the value of his, i.e., the buyer’s, money is in his, i.e., the buyer’s, possession.