daf bit: Bava Metzia 82

[cellio]

The mishna teaches: Abba Sheul said: one may hire out a pledged item from a poor man, fixing a price and diminishing the amount owed. The g'mara clarifies: Abba Sheul ruled this way only for a hoe, a mattock, and an axe, because their hiring fees are large while the depreciation this causes is small. (80b mishna, 82b g'mara)

The charity this affords to the poor man is interesting. I do wonder why in this scenario the poor man does not himself hire out the tools and collect the money; perhaps people are more likely to cheat a poor man than another member of the community, and so the lender does an additional service to the poor man by acting as agent? (That's me talking; I have no evidence one way or the other for the reasoning.)

Comments

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

It's a pawn shop scenario.

You're a poor man; you need cash now. You hock your axe; you get a chunk of cash.

The lender HAS your axe in his physical posession. He can then rent it out to a third party, but all money that comes in gets deducted from the amount you owe.

The reason the poor guy can't lend it out is because he doesn't have it.

[cellio]

I was wondering about the case of the poor man renting out his tools instead of pawning them, but the pawn-shop scenario does provide immediate, full payment, which the poor man probably needs.

[zevabe.livejournal.com]

Actually its a collateral scenario. The borrower borrows money with the axe as his collateral. If the poor man said, "I need my axe to make firewood for tonight", you would be obligated to return it (this is an independant mitzva). If you rent it out, the money you get thereby goes to pay down the debt.