Talking Talmud

Rabah bar Avuha meets Eliyahu and asks three questions. The daf returns to its discussion of collateral and almost seems to undermine the concept.

When and how can a lender collect a security? The daf also contains a very strange baraita about what a lender must leave a borrower.

If one uses a shopkeeper or a money changer to hold on to a worker's wages - can he be paid this way, or can he go back to the employer to be paid directly? Of course, it's a machloket. Also, swearing that you weren't paid to be able to collect your wages - in contrast to the usual denial of claim. Which works to the protection of the employee.

If wages are withheld is it oshek or gezel? Does the prohibition against withholding wages also apply to animals and keilim?

The daf looks at the case of an ambiguous document and how do is payment determined. A new mishnah begins a discussion on the timely payment of employees

Is renter allowed to cut the branches of trees on a field he is renting? If a farmer wants to go to Eretz Yisroel and leave his rental earlier should he be compensated for improvement he made to the field?

Why did Rabbah bar bar Chana curse Rabbah bar Rav Nachman? The daf cites the biblical source for bar meitzra and explains why it is important.

The daf mentions that it is an Ein HaRah to have someone stand near your field and look at your crops. The many benefits of eating bread in the morning are listed.

Natural calamities... and how years with no rain (and therefore no produce) were characterized as "Elijah's years." Plus, calculating produce per the years of Shemitah (and Yovel) - and how that connects to redeeming one's conscrated ancestral lands. Plus, mishnah! Cultivating wheat when the crop fails is a challenge to pay back....

A new mishnah - does weeding a field have impact on the transaction of the farmer (vs. landowner). Also, what does a measure of one's load have to do with prayer or tefillin? Plus, one more mishnah on the terms of natural disaster for a field.