Bava Metzia - Daf 63
- מה לי הן מה לי דמיהן
Rav says: עושין אמנה בפירות – one may make a trust (i.e., an advance payment for purchase) for produce (although its value may increase), ואין עושין אמנה בדמים – but one may not make a trust for payment in the produce’s later cash value. If he initially gave money, and later receives money (or any other substitution), it appears like ribbis if the later amount is higher due to the produce’s increased value. Rebbe Yannai says: מה לי הן ומה לי דמיהן – what difference is it to me between receiving the goods themselves and receiving their value? Since the original advance purchase was permitted, he may also substitute the produce with something else at payment. Rav is challenged from the Baraisa of Rebbe Oshaya cited above (to explain our Mishnah), which taught that one can convert a debt into an advance purchase for produce, and later (after the produce increases in value) convert that into another purchase for other future goods (provided that the seller has the goods available)!? Rav answers, as the Gemara explains, that the case is כגון שיחד לו קרן זוית - where [the debtor] designated a corner of his property for [the creditor] to store the goods. They can be viewed as immediately belonging to the buyer, so Rav permits substituting them later.
- צד אחד ברבית
Shmuel answers that the Baraisa which contradicts Rav is Rebbe Yehudah, who holds: צד אחד ברבית מותר – ribbis contingent on one side of an agreement is permitted. Here, the sale only appears like ribbis if he substitutes the original produce for something else, so Rebbe Yehudah permits it. Rav holds like the Rabbonon who argue and forbid “contingent ribbis.” Their argument is in a Baraisa about someone who owed money, ועשה לו שדהו מכר – and he made his field as a sale to [the lender], stipulating that if the debt is not paid on time, the field is sold to pay the debt retroactively (including the produce grown in the interim), and if it is paid on time, the sale is canceled. If the seller (i.e., the borrower) consumes the produce in the interim, it is permitted, since it cannot result in ribbis. If the buyer (i.e., the lender) consumes the produce, the Rabbonon forbid the transaction, because if the borrower will pay the debt on time, the sale is canceled and the debt will have remained a loan, causing the lender’s consumption of produce in the interim to be ribbis. Rebbe Yehudah permits it, and Abaye explains that since if the sale would take effect, there would be no ribbis, he permits it as צד אחד ברבית. Rava says they argue about רבית על מנת להחזיר – ribbis given with the intention of returning it.
- כללא דרביתא כל אגר נטר ליה אסור
Rav Nachman says: כללא דרביתא – the general rule of ribbis is that כל אגר נטר ליה אסור – any profit for waiting for one’s money is forbidden. This includes both Biblical ribbis, where the borrower pays the lender for waiting for his capital, as well as Rabbinical ribbis, e.g., where a buyer gets a better price or advantage by paying before receiving the merchandise, or pays more for paying late.
