MISHNAH: Somebody sent his son to a grocer who measured him oil for an assarius and he gave him the assarius; if he1 broke the flask and lost the assarius2, the grocer is liable. Rebbi Jehudah holds him not liable since for that he sent him3. The Sages agree with Rebbi Jehudah that if the flask was in the child’s hand and the grocer measured into the flask, the grocer is not liable4.
The wolesaler cleans his measuring vessels once every thirty days, the householder every twelve months. Rabban Simeon ben Gamliel says, it is the other way around5. The retail grocer cleans his measuring vessels twice a week, wipes his weights clean once a week, and cleans his scales after each weighing.
Rabban Simeon ben Gamliel said, when has this been said? For fluids, but for dry matter it is not necessary; he has to let [the scales] bend down a handbreadth6. If he weighed strictly by eyesight7 he has to give him surplus, one tenth for fluids and one twentieth for dry products8.
At a place where one is used to small measures he should not use large ones, to large measures he should not use small ones, to level one must not heap, to heap one must not level.
The wolesaler cleans his measuring vessels once every thirty days, the householder every twelve months. Rabban Simeon ben Gamliel says, it is the other way around5. The retail grocer cleans his measuring vessels twice a week, wipes his weights clean once a week, and cleans his scales after each weighing.
Rabban Simeon ben Gamliel said, when has this been said? For fluids, but for dry matter it is not necessary; he has to let [the scales] bend down a handbreadth6. If he weighed strictly by eyesight7 he has to give him surplus, one tenth for fluids and one twentieth for dry products8.
At a place where one is used to small measures he should not use large ones, to large measures he should not use small ones, to level one must not heap, to heap one must not level.
1. The child. The majority hold that if a child is sent to the grocer, the sender only intends to give the grocer a message that he should deliver the goods to the sender’s house, not give them to the child.
2. It is difficult to see where the coin comes in. Rashbam reports that his grandfather Rashi changed the text of the Mishnah to the effect that the child was sent with a dupondius, to get oil for an assarius and an assarius in change. But the ms. evidence and Maimonides’s text do not support the emendation.
3. In the Tosephta, 5:2, R. Jehudah explains that anybody sending money and a breakable vessel by a child expects the money to be lost and the vessel broken.
4. If he never took the vessel into his hand, he never became responsible.
5. He holds that the wholesaler uses his measuring vessels all the time; nothing will stick and, since each vessel is always used for the same commodity, no customer is disadvantaged. But the householder who only sells sporadically must clean his vessels lest some leftover fluid clot and diminish the volume.
6. The scales holding the merchandise have to be visibly lower than the weights.
7. The lever of the balance being exactly parallel to the ground.
8. Which method is chosen will depend on local usage.
א. במשניות בכ״י ליידן מתחילה כאן הלכה ״יא׳ ״.
ב. במשניות בכ״י ליידן מתחילה כאן הלכה ״יב׳ ״.
ג. במשניות בכ״י ליידן מתחילה כאן הלכה ״יג׳ ״.
ד. במשניות בכ״י ליידן מתחילה כאן הלכה ״יד׳ ״.