For the source text click/tap here: Bava Metzia 113
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Our Mishna discusses the practice of taking a mashkon – collateral, an object that serves as a guarantee – on a loan. The Torah teaches (Devarim 24:10-13) that a lender cannot enter the borrower’s house to take a mashkon, rather he must wait outside for the borrower to bring it out to him. Furthermore, if the borrower is poor and the object is one that he needs, the lender must return it to him when he needs it. The Mishna specifies that if the guarantee is a pillow, it must be returned at night; if it is a plow it must be returned during the working day.
We return to the ethics of looking after the poor as well as the notion of a good society especially Rabbi Soloveithick’s hopes for the modern state of Israel.