Study Meilah folio 21B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
and the agent went and brought him a robe with 3 sela and a cloak with 3 sela, both of them are liable for misuse. The homeowner is liable because his agency was performed with the purchase of the robe for 3 sela, and the agent is liable because he deviated from the homeowner’s instructions by purc
Talmud: The Talmud notes: One can learn from the Mishnah the resolution to an unresolved dilemma in tractate Ketubot (98b), that in a case of one who said to his agent: Go and sell on my behalf a kor of land, and he went and sold for him a half-kor, the purchaser acquires the half-kor of land that
Some rabbis say that one cannot infer this resolution from the Mishnah. What are the circumstances of the Mishnah here? It is referring a case where the agent brought him a robe worth 6 sela, i.e., the value of the gold dinar that the homeowner gave him, which he acquired for 3 sela. If so, the hom
The Talmud raises a difficulty: If that is the case of the Mishnah, say the latter clause: R' Yehuda says: The homeowner is not liable for misuse, as he can say to the agent: I was seeking a large robe worth a gold dinar, and you brought me a small, inferior robe worth 3 sela. It is clear from the
The Talmud explains that R' Yehuda means that the homeowner could have said to the agent: Since you chanced upon a merchant who reduced his prices to such a degree, if you had given the entire dinar as I requested, you could have brought me a much finer robe, worth at least two dinars.