Study Bava Metzia folio 58A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
נשבעין לגזברין, ואם לאו – נשבעין לבני העיר, ובני העיר שוקלין אחרים תחתיהן. נמצאו, או שהחזירום הגנבים – אלו ואלו שקלים הם, ואין עולין להם לשנה הבאה.
the agents must take the oath of a bailee to the treasurers that they did not misappropriate the coins. If the collection of the chamber was not yet performed, the lost or stolen shekels remain the property of the residents of the city. Therefore, the agents take an oath to the residents of the city. The residents of the city then contribute other shekels in place of the original shekels. If the original shekels were then found or the thieves returned them, both these, the original shekels, and those, the replacement shekels, assume the status of consecrated shekels and belong to the Temple. But the two half-shekels that they contributed this year do not count to absolve them from their obligation to contribute the shekels for the following year. This Mishnah teaches that an unpaid bailee does take an oath concerning consecrated property, contrary to the Mishnah here.
אמר שמואל: הכא בנושא שכר עסקינן, ונשבעין ליטול שכרן. אי הכי, נשבעין לגזברין? לבני העיר מבעי ליה! אמר רבה: נשבעין לבני העיר במעמד גזברין, כי היכי דלא נחשדינהו, ואי נמי, כי היכי דלא לקרו להו ״פושעים״.
Shmuel said: Here we are dealing with paid bailees, and the purpose of the oath is not to exempt them from their liability to pay for the theft. Rather, they take an oath that they performed their task properly, in order to collect their wages. The Talmud asks: If so, is this phrase accurate: They take an oath to the treasurers? The tanna should have taught: They take an oath to the residents of the city, from whom they are claiming their wages. Rabba said: They take an oath to the residents of the city in the presence of the treasurers, so that the treasurers will not suspect that the residents of the city did not contribute their shekels at all. Alternatively, the agents take an oath that they executed their mission properly, so that the Temple treasurers will not call them negligent.