Baba Metzia 9:12-13

Baba Metzia 9:12

The rules are the same whether one is discussing money owed for hiring a worker, for renting an animal or for renting tools. The rules of paying a person the same day (Deut. 24:15) and not holding on to his wages until morning (Lev. 19:13) both apply. One only violates a prohibition if the worker asks to be paid; if the worker doesn’t ask to be paid, the employer’s delay is not a violation. If the employer gave the worker a voucher to redeem with a shopkeeper or a money changer, it is not a violation. If a hired worker claims his wages within the relevant time frame (and the employer claims to have already paid him), the worker takes an oath and receives his wages. After the relevant time frame, he does not take an oath and receive wages. If there are witnesses that he came to collect his pay (and the employer said he would pay him later), then he takes an oath and receives his wages. The law of paying the same day also applies to paying a ger toshav (resident alien) but the prohibition against holding on to his wages overnight does not.

Baba Metzia 9:13

If one person lent money to his another (who defaulted), the lender may only claim the collateral under the auspices of the court. He may not enter the borrower’s house to claim the collateral as per Deuteronomy 24:11, “You must wait outside.” If there were two pieces of collateral, the lender takes one and leaves the other. He must return a pillow for use at night and a plow for use by day. If the borrower died, the lender does not return the collateral to his heirs. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says that even when it comes to the borrower, the collateral is only returned for 30 days. After that, if the loan is still not paid, the lender can sell the collateral in court. Collateral may not be taken from a widow regardless of her financial means as per Deuteronomy 24:17, “Do not take a widow’s garment as collateral.” If a lender takes a set of millstones as collateral, he violates a prohibition for each one of them as per Deuteronomy 24:6, “No one may take a mill or an upper millstone as collateral.” This is not limited to a mill and an upper millstone; it includes anything used to prepare food as the verse continues, “He takes a person’s life as collateral.”