bava batra 43

can partners ever truly separate? 

or the city from its poor? 

or from its Torah, 

to whom all must stand, 

rich & poor, 

debtor & creditor.

This page discusses if business partners can be unbiased to testify about each other, even if they sell their share of the property to the other, so there is no longer any joint ownership. But there buyers and sellers are still tied together in a beneficial relationship so that there is still a possibility of bias. This is compared to a stolen city's Torah scroll, that cannot be judged by judges from that city, for even though they remove themselves from that joint ownership, the whole city stands for the public Torah reading, and this the whole city benefits. This is also compared to a gift given to a city for it's poor cannot be adjudicated by judges of that city, as the whole city benefits if the poor are better off. Welfare works for all....