Study Gittin folio 37A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
בולי – אלו עשירים, דכתיב: ״ושברתי את גאון עוזכם״, ותני רב יוסף: אלו בולאות שביהודה. בוטי – אלו העניים, דכתיב: ״העבט תעביטנו״. אמר ליה רבא ללעוזא: מאי פרוסבול? אמר ליה: פורסא דמילתא.
Bulei, these are the wealthy, as it is written: “And I will break the pride of your power” (Leviticus 26:19), and Rav Yosef taught with regard to this verse: These are the bula’ot, the wealthy people, of Judea. Butei, these are the poor, who are in need of a loan, as it is written: “You should not shut your hand from your needy brother; but you should open your hand to him, and you should lend him [ha’avet ta’avitenu] sufficient for his need” (Deuteronomy 15:7–8). Therefore, the prosbol was instituted both for the sake of the wealthy, so that the loans they would give to the poor person would not be canceled, and for the sake of the poor, so that they would continue to find those willing to lend them money. Rava said to a foreigner who spoke Greek: What is the meaning of the word prosbol? He said to him: It means the institution [pursa] of a matter.
אמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל: יתומין, אין צריכין פרוסבול. וכן תני רמי בר חמא: יתומין אין צריכין פרוסבול, דרבן גמליאל ובית דינו אביהן של יתומין.
§ Rav Yehuda says that Shmuel says: Orphans do not require a prosbol in order to collect payment of debts owed to them. And similarly, Rami bar Ḥama taught in a baraita: Orphans do not require a prosbol, as Rabban Gamliel and his court, i.e., any rabbinic court, are considered the fathers of orphans, meaning that all matters that relate to orphans are already managed by the court, including their promissory notes.
תנן התם: אין כותבין פרוסבול אלא על הקרקע. אם אין לו – מזכהו בתוך שדהו כל שהו. וכמה כל שהו? אמר רב חייא בר אשי אמר רב: אפילו קלח של כרוב. אמר רב יהודה: אפילו השאילו מקום לתנור ולכירים – כותבין עליו פרוסבול.
§ We learned in a Mishnah there (Shevi’it 10:6): One may write a prosbol only on the basis of the debtor owning land. If the debtor has no land, then the creditor transfers any amount of his own field to him so that he can write a prosbol. The Talmud asks: And how much is sufficient to be classified as any amount? Rav Ḥiyya bar Ashi says that Rav says: Even the amount of land sufficient to grow a stalk of cabbage is sufficient. Rav Yehuda says: Even if he lent him a place sufficient for an oven and a stove, one may write a prosbol on this basis.