Fred Stone asked:
Please excuse a silly question. Can we assume that the rented donkey and boat always are accompanied by the owener or his representative? If it is his representative, whom we presume is paid, what responsiblilty is there for his wages if the trip is only half finished? Thanks.
Fred Stone, Red Bank, NJ, USA
The Kollel replies:
Neither the donkey nor the boat need be chaperoned. If they are, the wage of the worker is independent of the wage of the boat. It relates to the Halachos of workers which we learned at the beginning of the Perek. If other workers are available, then the worker gets his full wage for what he did, etc. If no other work is available then it will depend on who the Ones relates to as we saw on 76b-77a.
D. Zupnik