Study Bava Metzia folio 61B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
ובעניינא דשכיר כתיב.
and this prohibition is written in the context of the matter of a hired laborer: “You should not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him, and the wages of a hired servant should not abide with you all night until the morning” (Leviticus 19:13).
״לא תגנבו״ דכתב רחמנא למה לי? לכדתניא: לא תגנב – על מנת למיקט, לא תגנב – על מנת לשלם תשלומי כפל.
The Talmud asks: Why do I need the prohibition: “You should not steal” (Leviticus 19:11), that God wrote? This is yet another prohibition against taking money by illegitimate means, and it could be derived from the other prohibitions mentioned previously. The Talmud answers that it is necessary for God to write that prohibition for that which is taught in a baraita: “You should not steal” applies in all circumstances, even if you do so only in order to aggravate the victim; “you should not steal” applies in all circumstances, even if you do so in order to pay the double payment as a gift to the person from whom you stole.
אמר ליה רב יימר לרב אשי: לאו דכתב רחמנא במשקלות, למה לי? אמר ליה: לטומן משקלותיו במלח. היינו גזל מעליא הוא! לעבור עליו משעת עשייה.
Rav Yeimar said to Rav Ashi: Why do I need the prohibition that God wrote with regard to weights: “You should do no unrighteousness in judgment, in measure, in weight, or in volume” (Leviticus 19:35)? It is merely another form of robbery. Rav Ashi said to him: It is referring to a seller who buries his weights in salt, in order to lighten them. Rav Yeimar said: That is the same as full-fledged robbery; therefore, it should not require a separate derivation. Rav Ashi answered: It is written to establish that he violates the prohibition from the moment of the act of burying them. He violates the prohibition even before he actually deceives a buyer with the buried weights.