Mishnayos Bava Basra Perek 9 Mishnah 4
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בבא בתרא פרק ט׳ משנה ד׳
With regard to brothers who were also partners, and it occurred that one of them was summoned to public service, which is assessed per family, he was summoned from the middle, i.e., the profits or expenses of his service are divided among them. If one of the brothers became sick and sought treatment, the cost of the treatment is paid from his own resources. It was common practice for friends of a groom to give him gifts in order to help cover the expenses of the wedding feast. These gifts are known as gifts of groomsmen, and would be reciprocated in turn. While the groom and the groomsman were at times the recipient and the giver of the gifts, respectively, the gifts were at times provided by the father of the groomsman and received by the father of the groom. In the case of brothers, some of whom brought gifts of groomsmen in their father’s lifetime, which were provided by their father, when the gifts of groomsmen are reciprocated after the father’s death, when one of the brothers gets married, they are reciprocated to the middle, i.e., the gift is divided among the brothers. This is because gifts of groomsmen are a legal debt owed to the father, collectible in court. But with regard to one who sends his friend jugs of wine or jugs of oil, a reciprocal gift is not collectible in court, because they are considered acts of kindness.
הָאַחִין הַשֻּׁתָּפִין שֶׁנָּפַל אֶחָד מֵהֶן לָאֻמָּנוּת, נָפַל לָאֶמְצַע. חָלָה וְנִתְרַפָּא, נִתְרַפָּא מִשֶּׁל עַצְמוֹ. הָאַחִין שֶׁעָשׂוּ מִקְצָתָן שׁוּשְׁבִינוּת בְּחַיֵּי הָאָב, חָזְרָה שׁוּשְׁבִינוּת, חָזְרָה לָאֶמְצַע, שֶׁהַשּׁוּשְׁבִינוּת נִגְבֵּית בְּבֵית דִּין. אֲבָל הַשּׁוֹלֵחַ לַחֲבֵרוֹ כַּדֵּי יַיִן וְכַדֵּי שֶׁמֶן, אֵינָן נִגְבִּין בְּבֵית דִּין, מִפְּנֵי שֶׁהֵן גְּמִילוּת חֲסָדִים:
Bartenura
שנפל אחד מהן לאומנות. לעבודת המלך. שכן מנהג המלך להעמיד מכל בתי העיר אדם אחד למוכס חדש אחד או שני חדשים:
נפל לאמצע. כל הריוח. מפני שמחמת אביהם באת לו. אבל אם מחמת עצמו, מפני חריפותו וחשיבותו וחכמתו נלקח לעבודת המלך, מה שהרויח הרויח לעצמו:
חלה ונתרפא. אם חלה באונס כלומר שלא פשע הוא בעצמו, מתרפא מן האמצע. אבל אם חלה מצנים פחים וכיוצא בהם, דכתיב בהו (משלי כ״ב:ה׳) שומר נפשו ירחק מהם, בהא אמרינן במתניתין דאינו מתרפא אלא משל עצמו:
שושבינות. דרך שושבינות נוטל סעודה ודורון לחופה ואוכל עמו, וזה חוזר ועושה כן לזה גם כן כשישא אשה. ואם שלח האב שושבינות בסתם על יד אחד מבניו וחזרה השושבינות אחר כך לאחר שמת האב, חזרה לאמצע, מפני שהיא כמלוה, שהרי נגבית בבית דין, שיכול המוליך שושבינות לחבירו לחזור ולתבוע ממנו בבית דין שיתן לו שושבינות כדרך שנתן לו. והוא שיהיו נשואי השני כנשואי הראשון, אם בתולה בתולה, ואם אלמנה אלמנה, ואם פרהסיא פרהסיא, ואם בצנעא בצנעא. שיכול השני לומר לראשון, איני עושה עמך אלא כדרך שעשית עמי:
אבל השולח לחבירו כדי יין וכדי שמן. בלא חופה. או אי נמי בחופה ואינו הולך לאכול עמו, אין זו שושבינות אלא מתנה, ואינה נגבית בב״ד:
שנפל אחד [מהן] לאומנות – to the service of the king, for it is the custom of the king to appoint from all the houses of the city one person [to serve] as custom-collector/publican for one month or two months.
נפל לאמצע – all the profit, because it was on account of his father that it came time, but if was on his account, because of his sharpness and importance and wisdom that he was taken into the service of he king, what he earned, the profit is for himself.
חלה ונתרפא – if he became sick by accident, meaning to say, that he was not negligent with himself and he is cured from the estate, but if he got sick from blowing cold winds/cold draughts, and similar things, and it is written concerning it (Proverbs 22:5): “Thorns and snares are in the path of the crooked; [He who values his life will keep far from them],” in this we state in our Mishnah that he is not healed other than from what is his.
שושבינות – it is the manner of wedding gifts (see Talmud Bava Batra 144b) that one takes a meal and a gift to the wedding and eats with him, and the other returns and does the same for that one when he marries a woman. But if the father sent the wedding gift undefined via the hand of one of his sons, and the wedding gift returned after that following the death of the father, it returned to the estate, because it is like a loan, for it can be collected in the Jewish court of law, For a person who brings a wedding gift to his friend can go back and claim the wedding gift from him in a Jewish court, that he should give him the wedding gift in the manner that he had given it to him. And it will be that the second marriage should be like the first marriage: if she is a virgin, she is a virgin, if she is a widow, she will be a widow, and if in public, it will be in public, and if it is private, it will be in private, for the second can say to the first, “I will not do with you other than in the manner that you did for me.”
אבל השולח לחבירו כדי יין וכדי שמן – without a wedding, or alternatively, at a wedding, and he doesn’t go to eat with him, this is not wedding gifts, but rather a [personal] gift, and they are not collected in the Jewish court.