Study Bava Metzia folio 103A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
If a hired laborer claims his wages at the proper time, on the day his wages are due, and the employer claims to have already paid him, the laborer takes an oath that he did not receive his wages and takes his wages. So too, in the case of rent, if the landlord demands payment, and the renter claim
The Talmud explains: Generally, one takes an oath to exempt oneself from paying, not to collect. And it is specifically in the case of a hired laborer that the rabbis imposed an oath upon him, due to the fact that the employer is busy with his workers and might mistakenly think he paid a particular
§ Rava says that Rav Naḥman says: In the case of one who rented out a house to another for 10 years and had written him an undated document attesting to that fact, and later the landlord said to the renter: You have already taken 5 years of your rental period, he is deemed credible. The burden of
Ravina said to him: How can these cases be compared? There, in the case of the loan, the promissory note exists to allow the lender to collect the debt, and if it is so that the borrower repaid part of the debt, the lender should have written that fact on the note itself; alternatively, he could ha
§ Rav Naḥman says: A person may borrow another’s utensil in its good working order forever, i.e., if he requests to borrow it as long as it is in good working order, then even after returning it to the owner, he may continue to take it and use it indefinitely and the owner cannot prevent him from d