daf bit: Bava Batra 95

[cellio]

A mishna (a couple pages back) taught: if one sells fruit to another, the buyer must accept a certain amount of refuse (a quarter of a kab for every se'ah; I think this is about 10%). If he sold figs, the buyer must accept ten wormy ones for every hundred, and if he sold a cellar of wine the buyer must accept ten pungent casks for every hundred. On today's daf the g'mara discusses the wine cellar -- what case is this? If it is when the seller says "I sell you a cellar of wine" we have a problem, and if it is when he says "I sell you this cellar of wine", we also have a problem. According to a baraita (an oral teaching contemporary with the mishna), if he says "a cellar", he must sell a cellar all of which is good (since the seller gets to choose the cellar). If he said "this cellar" it means the identified cellar, even if all the wine is bad. Either way, it doesn't match our mishna -- so now what? After discussion, I think the g'mara concludes that the baraita is talking about a case where they specified wine "for a dish", meaning good wine that will be used over time (and so has to last a while), while the mishna is just talking about the ordinary case of buying a lot of wine, some of which -- like fruit -- you know is not going to be good. (But it's a little hard to follow and you should consult your rabbi before buying or selling a wine cellar.) (93b mishna, 95a-b g'mara)

Comments

[richardf8]

A 10% defect rate is acceptable? I always said "God hates six-sigma."

[cellio]

This is probably specific to products where spoilage is normal. If you go to a store and buy a flat of fruit (or whatever), you know some are going to be bad. Probably the same if you buy grain to be milled. (I'm not sure why wine gets a pass here; I guess some spoilage was normal?)

I wouldn't assume that this principle can be extended to manufactured goods, where the maker is presumably expected to do suitable quality control. (But I can't source it either way.)