Bava Metzia בבא מציעא
a tractate of the order of Nezikin
The tractate opens with two men holding a cloak, each saying: "I found it." From this comes the whole law of lost property: what must be announced and what may be kept, and how what is lost is returned. Then bailment and the four kinds of guardian, each with his own measure of liability.
Then loans and interest, forbidden by the Torah in all its forms, including "interest of words"; the hiring of workers and the duty to pay the same day; the leasing of a field and disputes between neighbours. In the Gemara to this tractate stands the story of the oven of Akhnai, where a voice from heaven was refused with the words "it is not in heaven".
Order: Nezikin. There is Gemara in both the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmud.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Mishnah Bava Metzia 1:1 — two hold a cloak
- Bava Metzia 59b — the oven of Akhnai: «it is not in heaven»
Basis: Talmud and midrash.