For the source text click/tap here: Bava Metzia 82
To download, click/tap here: PDF
What level of responsibility does someone have when they are holding collateral for a loan?
According to the Mishnah (80b) if one person lends money to another and accepts collateral to guarantee the loan, he is considered a shomer sachar – a paid watchman – who has a fairly high level of responsibility for the object, i.e. he is liable to pay for the object if it is lost or stolen.
Our daf continues with Rabi Yehudah who says: A shomer chinam should take an oath, while a shomer sachar should pay. Each (of the guardians) pay according to their laws (he holds that tripping is not negligence, thereby exempting the shomer chinam).
Even if he was not negligent, he still should be liable to pay (for tripping is similar to it getting stolen)!?And even a shomer chinam (it can be asked); it is understandable if he tripped in a sloping area (for then he will be exempt, since it is close to unavoidable), but when he tripped in a place that was not sloping at all, how can he take an oath that he was not negligent (it most definitely was a negligence)?
We explore the notion of exemption from liability for slip and falls as well as the ethics and halacha of collateral damage in war.