Bava Batra 175: Details on Contracts with Liens, Guarantors, Witnesses, Creditors, Debtors, and Unsold Property

The rabbis continue their conversation about when we believe the claims of orphans regarding payment of their fathers' debts.  At the conclusion of this debate, Rav asserts that one on his/her deathbed does not joke or otherwise obscure what they wish to be known.  We are to believe what we - or orphans - hear from a person or a parent on his/her deathbed.

A new Mishna will be discussed until the end of Masechet Bava Batra.  It states that:

• when a person lends money with a promissory note, that person can collect that debt from liened property that the borrower had sold to others even before the lien
• when a person produces a document to a debtor in the debtor's handwriting that states that he owes money, but there are no witnesses on the document, the money can be collected only from unsold property.
• when a guarantor signs a promissory note after the note was written, the creditor can collect the money only from the unsold property of the guarantor.

A case is shared where the wisdom of Shimon ben Nannas is lauded.  The case allows ben Nannas to create an analogy between these laws and a case of one person rescuing another from strangling in the marketplace.  Rabbi Yishmael uses this opportunity to suggest that one who wishes to become wise should study monetary law, as there is no greater discipline in the Torah, and it is like a flowing spring.

The Gemara explores this Mishna in some detail.  It considers how these guidelines protect buyers, and how they might be interpreted to protect buyers even more effectively.  They wonder whether a person who misses part of a contract might be responsible for his or her own losses.  Each conversation in the Gemara highlights the rabbis' concerns about the rights of all parties.  The rabbis consider oral contracts, for example, and their importance in a number of situations.