For the source text click/tap here: Bava Metzia 108
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One of the general commandments in the Torah is Ve-asitah ha-yashar ve-ha-tov lifnei haShem – that you should do what is right and good before God (Devarim 6:18). This mitzva is understood by the Sages as requiring the Jewish people to behave appropriately towards others even when there is no specific monetary obligation to do so. One example is the rule of bar mitzrah – a neighbor. Someone who owns an adjoining field has the first rights to purchase it in the event that his neighbor decides to sell it. Since there are obvious advantages to owning two fields that are right next to each other, the Sages established a number of enactments that give the neighbor preferential treatment when the field is being sold.
We explore the this exhortation is used in different scenarios as a kind of meta-halachic ethic.