I do not have any Gemara nor Rambam. So my comments here need rechecking. But it occurred to me vaguely yesterday and became more crystallized today an idea I had to answer a problem in the Rambam. The question was that the Rambam ignores Rav Papa in Bava Metzia page 104. The answer I would like to suggest is this. The Rambam when he says one does lessen what is owed by a renter and a serf in a year drought he means what he always means in that chapter. In reference to the serf it means the work that is owed by the serf. But when Rav Papa says, "All the mishnas after the first two in chapter 9 refer to either the serf or the renter but not both," and thus when the later mishna says one lessens the obligation in a year of drought, that means the renter but the serf still give his percentage. As Rashi says over there. "What ever the field gives out, he gives from those crops the agreed upon percentage."
[This whole is based on the idea that when the Rambam talks about what one lessens for the מקבל he always talks about work, not %. ]
I owe credit to David Bronson who pointed out this remarkably fact about this fact about the what the Rambam means by lessening what the serf is obligated. But to use that fact to answer this question on the Rambam only occurred to me in a vague way yesterday and the day before, and today became more clear.
[This whole is based on the idea that when the Rambam talks about what one lessens for the מקבל he always talks about work, not %. ]
I owe credit to David Bronson who pointed out this remarkably fact about this fact about the what the Rambam means by lessening what the serf is obligated. But to use that fact to answer this question on the Rambam only occurred to me in a vague way yesterday and the day before, and today became more clear.
