פירוש על בבא מציעא 8:7

ובנגר – When they lock the door and insert it into the beam of the lintel.

Introduction The final three mishnayoth of chapter eight continue to deal with the laws of renting houses. Mishnah seven deals with what “extras” are included in the standard rental of a house. Mishnah eight deals with a person who rents a house for a year and the year ends up being a leap year, which in the Hebrew calendar has an extra month. Mishnah nine deals with the obligation of the landlord to provide his tenant with a new house should the old one fall.

הזבל של בעל הבית – like when the dung is made from bulls that came on their own, for if they were the bulls of the renter, the dung belongs to the renter.

If one rented a house to his fellow, he is obligated to provide it with a door, a bolt a lock and anything which is the work of a craftsman. However, that which is not the work of a craftsman, the tenant must make himself. When a landlord rents a house to someone he is obligated to provide the house with a door, a bolt and a lock and any other type of accoutrement which is customarily part of the house and is the work of a craftsman. An example might be the beams to support the walls or the handles to open the windows. The assumption is that since these are customarily part of the house and the tenant could not make them by himself, the owner is obligated to do so. An example in our day might be a toilet or a sink. One who rents a house certainly expects it to have a toilet and a sink, and if it did not he could probably obligate the landlord to build one. Anything which is not the work of a craftsman, must be provided by the tenant himself. Examples of these might be a ladder to reach the second story or a railing around the roof. Since these are simple to make, the expectation is that the tenant will make them himself.

היוצא מן התנור – ashes and they became dung.

The manure [which collects in the courtyard] belongs to the owner of the house, and the tenant can only claim the refuse from the oven and the stove. In the time of the mishnah the courtyard was shared by several householders and it was used for many purposes, such as cooking, laundry, etc. There was a custom that on market days, those who came to town from the neighboring villages would bring their animals into other people’s courtyards and buy food and drink there, as if the courtyard was a temporary inn. Since we can assume that the animal owner himself would not bother to carry the animal’s manure back to his village, the issue of the ownership over the manure left by these animals needs to be clarified. According to the mishnah it belongs to the owner of the house and not to his tenant. Although the tenant provided the food and drink for the animal, the manure does not become his. The only waste-product that the tenant does get to keep are the ashes from the stove and oven. Note: manure was used to fertilize the fields. Ashes were also used to fertilize the fields as well as other uses, including medicinal.