The Weekly Daf #22 
Bava Metzia 16-22 
Week of 27 Tamuz - 4 Av 5754/6-12 July 1994
By Rabbi Mendel Weinbach, Dean, Ohr Somayach Institutions             
 
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This issue is dedicated in the memory of 
Z''N Reuven B''R Moshe Yaakov HaLevi Z''TL,Rubin Guy, R. Ph.  
My father, a pharmacist, 
taught me by example that Torah is the true "Sa'am HaChayim."
 
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Double Entendre
Double Entendre - What Did He Mean?

A Man is appointed by the owner of a field to tithe his produce for him but 
without instructions as to whether he should set aside this trumah for the 
kohen from his better crops or the average ones.  Although the field owner 
usually gives trumah from his average crops, this agent decided to take 
from the better ones.  If the owner indicates his disapproval, the tithing 
was done without a mandate and is invalid, otherwise the tithing is valid.

How do we know whether the owner was happy about his agent's decision to 
take from the better crops?  If upon becoming aware of what had been done 
he suggests to the agent that he should have taken from even better crops, 
we must investigate as to whether there are indeed better crops.  If there 
are, his statement is sincere and is a retroactive indication that he was 
in approval of the agent's decision.  But if there are no better crops, the 
statement is understood as a sarcastic criticism.

Should the owner take the initiative of adding some of the same quality 
crops to those already set aside as trumah, this is considered a sign of 
retroactive approval even if he made no comment whatsoever.
Bava Metzia 22a
 
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Why Mar Zutra Didn't Eat

Three Sages -- Ameimar, Mar Zutra and Rav Ashi -- visited the orchard of 
Morey bar Issak.  In the owner's absence his sharecropper welcomed the 
Sages and placed before them dates and pomegranates.  While Ameimar and Rav 
Ashi partook from the fruits, Mar Zutra abstained because he had heard no 
explicit permission from the owner.  When the owner arrived and saw the 
fruit served to his honored guests he chided the sharecropper for not 
offering them some of the better fruits.  When Mar Zutra persisted in his 
abstinence his colleagues challenged him on the basis of the above rule 
that such a statement by an owner is considered an expression of approval.

Mar Zutra's response was to cite the observation of the Sage Rava that such 
a statement is construed as approval only in the case of trumah which is a 
mitzvah and we may therefore assume that he approves of doing a mitzvah in 
superior fashion.  In the case of the orchard owner, however, we must 
consider the possibility that Morey bar Issak may have made that statement 
only because he was embarrassed to express his disapproval of the 
sharecropper's generosity in front of the Sages.
Bava Metzia 22a
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