Study Bava Metzia folio 93B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
הא נטר כדנטרי אינשי. אמר ליה אביי: אלא מעתה, על למתא בעידנא דעיילי אינשי – הכי נמי דפטור?! אמר ליה: אין. גנא פורתא בעידנא דגנו אינשי – הכי נמי דפטור?! אמר ליה: אין.
He safeguarded them in the manner that people safeguard, and he is not required to do anything more. Abaye said to him: If that is so, in a case where he entered the city at a time when other people enter, as shepherds normally do, when their animals are grazing in a quiet and safe place, and a theft occurred at that hour, so too will you say that he is exempt? Rabba said to him: Yes. Abaye raised a further difficulty: If he slept a little at a time when people generally sleep, so too is he exempt? Rabba said to him: Yes.
איתיביה: אלו הם אונסין ששומר שכר פטור עליהן – כגון: ״ותפל שבא ותקחם ואת הנערים הכו לפי חרב״. אמר ליה: התם בחזני מתא.
Abaye raised an objection to him from a baraita: These are the circumstances beyond one’s control for which a paid bailee is exempt: For example: as it is stated in the verse: “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them. And the Sabeans made a raid and took them away, and they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword” (Job 1:15). This teaches that only a robbery by an army is considered a circumstance beyond his control, but nothing less. Rabba said to him: There it is referring to city watchmen, i.e., professionals hired to watch over city property, who are exempt due to an occurrence on that scale, i.e., a military incursion.
איתיביה: עד מתי שומר שכר חייב לשמור – עד כדי ״הייתי ביום אכלני חרב וקרח בלילה״. אמר ליה: התם נמי בחזני מתא. אמר ליה: אטו יעקב אבינו חזן מתא הוה! דאמר ליה ללבן: נטרי לך נטירותא יתירתא כחזני מתא.
Abaye raised an objection to Rabba from another baraita: To what extent is a paid bailee obligated to safeguard? He is obligated to the extent that Jacob said to Laban: “Thus I was: In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night” (Genesis 31:40). Rava said to him: There too, the baraita is speaking of city watchmen, whose responsibility extends further. Abaye said to him: Is that to say that Jacob, our forefather, whose statement is the source of this halakha, was a city watchman? Rava replied: It means that Jacob said to Laban: I safeguarded for you an extra level of safeguarding, like that of city watchmen.