Bava Metzia 114 - June 21, 15 Sivan

Today’s daf is sponsored by the Hadran Women of Long Island in honor of the birth of a grandson, son of Dovid and Ahuva Lewis, to our friend and co-learner Debbie Portnoy.  May the Portnoy and Lewis families see much nachat as the new arrival grows to Torah (and Daf), chuppah and maasim tovim, and may this simcha bring joy, peace, and healing to the Jewish nation and the world.  If a borrower gives an object as collateral to guarantee repayment of the loan, if it is used to repay the loan and the lender needs the item for basic needs, does the creditor need to sell the object and leave the borrower with a more basic form of the object? This is called mesadrim, a concept that applies in the laws of arakhin (valuations) when one promises the value of a person to the Temple. Would the law also apply to hekdesh (a case where one promises the value of an object to the Temple.   The similarities and differences between these three cases are discussed and various opinions are brought regarding loans and hekdesh. Raba bar Avuha met Eliyahu in a non-Jewish cemetery and asked him a few questions including the law of mesadrim for a creditor and why it was permitted for Eliyahu who was a kohen to be in a non-Jewish cemetery. Several laws regarding collaterals are derived from the verses in the Torah.