Bava Metzia 113: Agents, Creditors, and Collateral

A new Mishna teaches us that when a debtor hasn't returned the item or money at the end of the contract, the creditor may take collateral via an agent of the court.  The agent may wait outside the debtor's home but may not enter it, based on Deuteronomy 24:10-11.  If the debtor has two similar utensils, the creditor may take one of them and leave the other with the debtor.  If the creditor takes a pillow or a plow, the pillow must be returned at nigh and the plow must be returned in the daytime to allow the debtor to work.  Items need not be returned to the heirs if the debtor dies.  After thirty days, the agent may sell the items through the court with the proceeds going toward paying off the debt.  

The Gemara begins with a discussion of how an agent of the court might be permitted to enter the home of a debtor, since he is not the actual creditor.  It then considers what can and cannot be taken as collateral, and it provides proof texts to address the issue of entering the debtor's home.  Is the agent of the court permitted to enter the debtor's home because the creditor himself is standing outside of the house as specified?  

And what specifically can the agent remove from the debtor's home?  We learn that items involved in food preparation are forbidden, for they will be in use daily.  In addition, one may take two beds, a pillow, and in a rich home a blanket; in a poor home, a mat.  They cannot protect items that are used by the wives or children of debtors. So why take two beds, the rabbis wonder.  Wouldn't the second bed be that of the wife or a child?  Perhaps one bed was used for eating and the other for sleeping.  The rabbis argue about this.  Shmuel suggests that as a physician, he could not cure three things: stomach problems from eating dates, healing from wearing a wet linen belt on one's loins, and one who eats bread and does not walk four cubits.  Thus the second bed could be there to ensure that one walks to one's bed after eating.

Our daf ends with a conversation about what should not be taken as collateral because it is a necessary part of living.  But what is necessary is defined differently by different people.  Royalty have different needs than others, for example.  Proof texts suggest that all Jews are deserving of such treatment, however.  And so what is as important as a pillow?