Bartenura on Mishnah Bava Metzia

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9.8.2
לא יזרענה חטים – as the wheat weakens/deteriorates the land [more] than the barley.
9.8.3
רשב"ג אוסר – that it is hard for the land when they sow it one year with one species and another year with a different species. But concerning the legal decision, everything is according to the land/property and according to the place. If he made a condition with him in a matter that weakens the land a bit, he is not able to change and to plant something that weakens it a lot, but the opposite is permissible.
9.9.1
לשנים מועטות – less than seven years.
9.9.2
לא יזרענה פשתן – for flax weakens the land a great deal and its roots remain in the land until seven years.
9.9.3
ואין לו בקורת שקמה – it is the wood of a fig-tree of the forest. And we cut its branches for beans of the building and they continue to grow, but for less than seven years, one does not make beams. Therefore, acceptance [of a lease] for less than seven years, he cannot cut down beams on it, for it is not the intention that beams come down, for in a few years, they do not restore the beams. But if he accepted [a lease] for seven years, the first year, he can sow flax and cut down the sycamore that is in it.
9.11.1
שכיר יום גובה כל הלילה – that is after it, as it states (Leviticus 19:13): “The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning,” and it is impossible to state that we are speaking of a night hire, for firing is not completed other than at its end, as it is written (Leviticus 25:53): “He shall be under his authority as a laborer hired by the year,” and we expound from it (Bava Metzia 65a): the hiring of one year is completed at the beginning of the next year. We therefore see that he does not become a day hire until the settling of the sun. And when it is written (Deuteronomy 24:15): “[You must pay him his wages on the same day,] before the sun sets, [for he is needy and urgently depends upon it….],” it is established as speaking about a night hire, for when he is used as when he is hired to him in the morning when his hire is completed. And similarly [the Biblical verse]: “The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning,” also is not established as speaking of a night laborer, for he does not labor for him until the morning.
9.11.2
שכיר שעות גובה כל היום וכל הלילה – This is how it should be read: A hire for several hours during the day collects [his earnings] all the day; a hire for several hours during the night collects [his earnings] all night.
9.11.3
שכיר שבוע – Shemitah/of the Sabbatical year.
9.11.4
יצא ביום – that his hire concluded/finished in the morning or during the day, he collects [his earnings] all day long, and since the sun had set, he violates it [the commandment of “the wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning”].
9.11.5
יצא בלילה – his hire finished during the night.
9.11.6
גובה כל הלילה וכל היום – and since his labor extended from when it became dark, he is a night hire, and he does not violate it (i.e., the verse from the Torah in Leviticus 19:13: “the wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning”) in the morning until the morrow at sunset.
9.12.1
אחד שכר בהמה ואחד שכר כלים – as it is written (Leviticus 19:13): “The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you,” – all that his work is “with you,” even and even animals and utensils.
9.12.2
לא תבעו אינו עובר עליו – as it is written (Leviticus 19:13): “with you”, with your knowledge or without your knowledge.
9.12.3
המחהו – cut him from himself and placed him with the storekeeper and said to him: “Give this worker with a denar produce and I will pay,” or he said to the money changer, “give him for a denar money [as change].
9.12.4
אינו עובר עליו – as it is written (Leviticus 19:13): “with you,” and he didn’t give him an order to the storekeeper.
9.12.5
שכיר בזמנו נשבע ונוטל – because the owner of the house/boss is busily engaged with his workers and sometimes it is thought that he gave it, but [in reality], he did not give it (i.e., the salary), he is made to take an oath from the owner of the house/boss and casts it (i.e., the salary) to the hired person.
9.12.6
שלא בזמנו – even though the owner of the house/boss is busily engaged with his workers, when the time comes for his obligation, they impose upon him and he remembers, and the owner/boss is not suspect of violating “[the wages of a laborer] shall not remain [with you].”
9.12.7
גר תושב – who accepted upon himself not to serve idolatry or to eat carrion. He does not have [applying to him] because of “shall not remain”, as it is written at the beginning of the Biblical verse (Leviticus 19:13): “[You shall not defraud] your fellow,” “your fellow,” and not a resident alien.
9.13.1
המלוה את חבירו – and the time arrived and he didn’t pay him back.
9.13.2
לא ימשכננו – to take from him a pledge/security against his will and even in the marketplace, but rather via an agent of the Jewish court, who should take it from him with the permission of the Jewish court.
9.13.3
ולא יכנס לביתו – even the agent of the Jewish court should not enter into his house, and all the more so, the creditor himself.
9.13.4
היה לו שני כלים – and his liability corresponds to both of them and he gave both as a pledge.
9.13.5
נוטל אחד ומחזיר אחד – at the time that he (i.e., the borrower) needs it, he should restore it to him and detain the second with him (i.e., the creditor), as it is explained further on. He should return the pillow at night and the plow during the day.
9.13.6
מת – the borrower. One does not restore the pledge/security to the heirs [of the borrower], for there is no commandment of restoring the pledge, for it is written (Deuteronomy 24:13): “You must restore the pledge to him…” – to him but not to his heirs.
9.13.7
עד שלשים יום – the time of the court case. But the Halakha is not according to Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel.
9.13.8
בין שהיא עניה בין שהיא עשירה וכו' – because there is according to the one (Rabbi Shimon – Bava Metzia 115a) who said that she is poor and we don’t take a pledge from her, because you must return it (i.e., the pledge/security) to her and she comes and goes to you, you bring her into disrepute with her neighbors, but a rich woman, about whom you don’t have to say this, I would say that you can take a pledge [from her], but this comes to inform us that this Tanna/teacher of the Mishnah does not, as it is written (Deuteronomy 24:17): “You shall not take a widow’s garment in pawn,” both a poor [widow] and a rich [widow] are implied.
9.13.9
משום שני כלים – the higher one is the upper millstone and the lower is a hand mill.
10.1.1
הבית והעליה של שנים – the house belongs to one of them and the upper story belongs to the other.
10.1.2
שניהם חולקים – because it is not known that these stones are of the upper story and those are from the lower part.
10.1.3
ורואים אלו אבנים הראויות להשתבר – if the house was crushed from its foundations and fell below it, one can know that the lower stones were broken. But if the upper part of the wall fell there from it a lot, the upper [stones] broke, since they fell from a high place, and the lower ones [remained] whole, since they fell from a low place. And [from] the first part [of the Mishnah] where it is taught that both of them divide it, is speaking about when the wall fell at night and they removed/cleared away the stones immediately, and it is impossible to establish if it fell through pressure and the bottom ones broke, or through seizing an object violently to take possession [caused them] to fall and the upper ones were broken (Bava Metzia 116a).
10.1.4
מקצת אבניו – and they are whole.
10.1.5
נוטלן – such as the case that this one claims that with some of them (i.e. the stones), it is truth, and with some, he states that he doesn’t known, for since he admits to part [of it], he is liable for an oath according to the Torah, and he is unable to take an oath, and whomever is liable for an oath and is not able to take an oath must pay. But if he said concerning all of them that he did not know, he should take an oath that he did not know and divide them (i.e., the stones) equally with his fellow.
10.2.1
הבית והעליה – He who leases out the upper story that is on top of his house to his fellow and says to him: “the upper story that is on top of this house, I lease to you, and the upper story opened up [a hole] of four handbreadths by four handbreadths (according to Shmuel – Bava Metzia 116b) for now, if this one (i.e., the one who has been leased the upper story) needs to use the upper story, he must use half of it above and half of it below.
10.2.2
ואין בעל הבית רוצה לתקן – the upper story.
10.2.3
הרי בעל העליה יורד ודר למטה – completely [lives downstairs] , for he had prepared the house for the upper story. And we do not force him to live half above and half below.
10.2.4
מעזיבה – plaster of mud/clay that they place on the ceiling. Rabbi Yose holds (Bava Metzia 117a) that the concrete of stone chippings and clay serves to level the depressions, and it levels the depressions of the upper story floor. But the Rabbis hold that the concrete of stone chippings strengths the ceiling, and the strengthening of the ceiling is required to be done by the lower dweller. And the Halakha is according to the Sages.
10.3.1
הבית והעליה של שנים – the house belongs to this one and the upper story to the other.
10.3.2
אמר בעל עליה לבעל הבית לבנות – the wall and the lower ceiling that are upon him to built
10.3.3
בונה בית – and the lower ceiling that is upon it, and dwells in the house until he (i.e., the person who lives in the lower area of the house) compensates him for his expenditures, and afterwards, he leaves and builds his upper story.
10.3.4
אמר רבי יהודה אף זה דר בתוך של חבירו – if this is the case, the owner of this upper story in this case compensates him for what he has spent, it is found that he is living all these days in [the section] of his fellow, and even though he is not without that, he would not have built it; nevertheless this one is benefitting, for were it not for this house, he would not have had a place to live there. And he holds that this one benefits and this one is not lacking, he is liable. But he builds it all.
10.3.5
ומקרה את העליה – above him and all that is necessary for it.
10.3.6
ויושב בבית – [in] the lower [house], for he would have that this one doesn’t benefit, for the upper story was ready for him to live in it and the other person is not lacking anything, for had he not built it, it would not be appropriate for him.
10.4.1
בית הבד – a house to gather olives.
10.4.2
וגנה אחת על גביו – and the olive press belongs to one [of them] and the garden is of the other.
10.4.3
ונפחת – (see Bava Metzia 118a) four handbreadths by four handbreadths and it is not worthy to sow as at first.
10.4.4
כיפין – a ceiling made in a circle like a rainbow and upon it, the owner of the garden places dust/mud and plants.
10.4.5
פטור מלשלם – for what was he to do, as it was an unavoidable accident.
10.4.6
נתנו לו זמן – A Jewish court; thirty days to tear it down and cut it {i.e., the tree) down.
10.5.1
ונפל – into midst of the garden of his fellow.
10.5.2
הגיעוך – take possession of them and clear them for yourself.
10.5.3
אין שומעין לו – if this one doesn’t want, he doesn’t purchase them and this one is liable to clear them.
10.5.4
בתבן ובקש – to gather them of his own, or from something ownerless.
10.5.5
אין שומעין לו – even though that it in every place we have what is equivalent to money is like money, concerning a hired worker, it is not like this, for it is written (Leviticus 19:13): “The wages of a laborer shall not remain,” on what that he makes a condition explicitly is implied.
10.5.6
המוציא מוציא והמזבל מזבל – when this one brings it (i.e., the manure) from the cattle-shed to the public domain, the carrier brings it to manure, and he is not permitted to detain it there.
10.5.7
גובלין טיט – to put it immediately into the building.
10.5.8
והבונה בונה – he receives them from the person who brings them and builds.
10.5.9
מתקן – they are ready at hand in the public domain all thirty days, and he is not liable for damages. But the Halakha is not according to Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel.
10.6.1
שתי גינות – of two people who are near one another. The one – his ground/plot is higher and the one near him, his ground/plot is lower.
10.6.2
והירק בינתים – in the rising of the elevation, that this one is higher than that one.
10.6.3
של עליון – for it is his dust and it is from his that it absorbs.
10.6.4
של תחתון – that upon his empty space it is placed.
10.6.5
מאחר ששניהם יכולין למחות – so that there will not be these vegetables here, the upper one takes the dust, and the lower one to fill up his garden.
10.6.6
רואין מהיכן ירק זה חי – from the place that it absorbs and grows, to this one, it should be given.
10.6.7
כל שעליון יכול לפשוט ידו וליטול הרי אלו שלו – as Rabbi Meir stated, since it is from his dust that it lives.
10.6.8
והשאר של תחתון – for the upper [garden] itself has renounced ownership of it, regarding the bottom, for it is a disgrace for him to take permission to enter into [the garden] of his fellow and to take it. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Shimon.

Bartenura on Mishnah, trans. by Rabbi Robert Alpert, 2020. Via Sefaria (sefaria.org), Sefaria-Export. Version source: http://sefaria.org/ Licence: CC-BY. Source.