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When someone vows not to benefit from Jews, how does this affect buying and selling? The Gemara (גמרא) analyzes when market transactions are considered the seller's benefit versus the buyer's, drawing on the rule that a borrower is liable for osin. A crucial distinction emerges between easily sold items and hard-to-sell merchandise (tavra d'farcha).
This shiur on Nedarim 30a-31b covers a Mishna addressing the technical language used in vows (nedarim) and their halachic implications for commercial transactions. The Mishna begins by discussing various categories of people one might include or exclude in a neder: bald people (korchim), black-haired people (shchorim), those who rest on Shabbos (שבת), those who eat garlic on Friday night, and those who go up to Yerushalayim for the festivals. The Gemara (גמרא) analyzes whether these terms are defined by action (those who actually do something) or by obligation (those commanded to do something), leading to the question of whether non-Jews who happen to rest on Shabbos would be included. The discussion then turns to vows using genealogical language—"children of Noach" (Bnei Noach) versus "seed of Avrohom" (zera Avrohom). The Gemara establishes that Jews are no longer called Bnei Noach but rather descendants of Avrohom. It further refines this by citing the pesukim "b'Yitzchok yikarei lecha zera" (through Yitzchok your seed will be called) and "v'lo kol Yitzchok" (not all of Yitzchok), showing that only Yaakov's descendants—not Eisav's—are considered the true zera Avrohom.
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Nedarim 30a-31b
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