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Podcast: Talking Talmud
Episode: Bava Batra 90: Hoarders, Market Demand, and Food Scarcity
Description: A given town has limits on how much it can increase the size of its measures. If the rationale is to avoid inflation, then why increase at all? Perhaps it's a concern of "ona'ah" - defrauding either party - but the Gemara rejects that as a concern too. And so on, for a few attempts. Plus, the use of verses to establish the adjustments to weights and measures. Also, people who hold onto produce as a matter of hoarding, usurers, and those who mess with their weights and measures - all of whom are treated by the law as...