The Gem. speaks about a 'Balon" as a transaction for a service which has nothing to make a meshicha on.
But didn't we just learn a Blatt before in Rashi that an 'asimon' is used in a bath house to keep track of how many towels are needed. What is the difference between a barber and his scissors to a bath-house and its towels?
Thank you for considering my question.
Kol Tuv
Alex Lebovits, Toronto, Canada
(1) A "Balan" is actually the term used for the person who washes people in the bath-house i.e. "Balan" is the name of a profession.
The point about the Balan is that he does not seem to have any special tools of his trade. This is the difference between him and the barber who has scissors as his work tools. Therefore "Meshichah" can be done by the person who wishes to have his hair cut, pulling the scissors of the barber into his domain and this way the barber now becomes obliged to cut his customer's hair. This Meshichah of the scissors is a totally valid Kinyan, and similarly for a Balan, who has no tools, the only way he can be hired is by giving him money.
(2) The Asimon does not affect a transaction at all. This is already hinted at in the words of the Gemara that the Asimon is given as a "Siman" for the bath-house. A Siman is a sign, and this suggests that the Asimon is only an indicator of how many people are going to be washing but the Asimon does not actually make a transaction. (Because the Asimon does not make a Kinyan this is probably also why a low quality kind of coin - as Rashi 47b DH ha'Nitonos describes them - is used.) Rashi also writes that when the Balan knows how many people will be in the bath-house he knows how much water to heat up and how many towels to prepare. This also indicates that the Balan has no other tools to prepare for his work so it seems that he helps people to wash with his bare hands or possibly they wash themselves and the Balan merely prepares the bath-house by heating up the water etc.
(It also would appear that they did not use soap to wash because otherwise Rashi should have written that the Balan would know how much soap to prepare. )
Again, the towel is not considered a tool of the Balan because the bathers do not require the help of the professional to dry themselves off after the bath. In contrast the scissors of the barber are tools of an expert and when one performs a Kinyan on them this means he now has to cut one's hair.
KOL TUV
Dovid Bloom