Bava Metzia 103: Conflicts Regarding Payment; Rebuilding, Fields to Cultivate

Today's daf ends Perek VIII and begins Perek IX.  

Some points from today's daf:
- a labourer should be paid by sundown on the day of his work or the day of his agreed payday
- if there is a dispute regarding whether or not he has been paid, the labourer takes and oath that he was not yet paid and the employer pays him
- this is because an employer may not remember whom he has paid when he has numerous employees
- in a similar dispute between a landlord and a tenant, the landlord takes the oath and gets his payment
- this is because a landlord has few tenants and will remember whether or not he was paid by each one
- these arguments, though meant to be general and transferable, are obviously dated given our current conditions where landlords may have multiple - even thousands - of tenants

- utensils and tools can be borrowed in perpetuity with appropriate contracts

A new Mishna:
- if a house falls, the landlord must build a new house for the renter
- the new home should be the same size, with the same number of rooms and windows, as the original home
- any changes made to the new home must be agreed upon by both parties

The Gemara wonders why it is a problem to build a larger home or to specify exactly what one rebuilds.  It answers that a landlord who says, "I will build you a home like this", non-specifically, might not build another home on the bank of a river.  He might misrepresent certain previously agreed-upon or understood features of the rental agreement.

A new Mishna begins Perek IX by teaching us that one who has receives a field to cultivate as a tenant-farmer or a sharecropper, must cultivate the land in the custom of the region.  This regards cutting, uprooting with a sickle or a scythe, or plowing.  The stubble or straw, branches and vines should be divided.  Further, the poles holding the vines should be provided by both the landowner and the cultivator.

The Gemara notes that any deviation must be specified in the contract between landowner and cultivator.  Each will help the other to maintain the custom of the region.  When it comes to trees on the land and the division of their yield, these previously arranged contracts are particularly helpful.  The Gemara also comments on the tools that might be used in harvesting.

We end our daf with one more Mishna: Unless it has been specifically specified in their original contract, a cultivator cannot change his return based on a dried up field that he rented when it  was irrigated or a treeless field that had trees that were blown down over the course of the contract.