Babylonian Talmud

Rodkinson 1918 — source 10, scan section 73

ing tender cattle. Said R. Ada b. Ahba to R. Huna : But do not you raise tender cattle? He answered : Mine are taken care of by Haubah my wife. According to others, R. Huna said : We follow in Babylon the practice prevailing in Palestine regarding tender cattle since Rabh settled in Babylon (whom many followed from Palestine and who bought or rented all the land in Baby- lon). Rabh, Samuel, and R. Assi happened to meet at a cir- cumcision feast, and according to others at a redemption feast. Rabh declined to enter the house before Samuel, and Samuel declined to enter before R. Assi, and the latter in his turn re- fused to enter before Rabh. It was then decided that Samuel should wait until Rabh and R. Assi had entered. (But why did Rabh refuse to enter before Samuel, he was surely greater than Samuel?) Rabh simply paid this courtesy to Samuel on account of his cursing him (see Sabbath, pp. 221-222). While they were so discussing a cat came and bit off the arm of the child, after which Rabh lectured that it is permitted to kill a cat and pro- hibited to keep it and that there can be no robbery in respect to it, and that if a cat gets lost no one need return it to its owner. If it is permitted to kill it, is it not self evident that it is pro- hibited to keep it ? Lest one say that there is no prohibition to kill it but it may also be kept, hence the statement. Again, if it says that there can be no robbery in respect to it, why, then, the statement that it need not be returned to its owner if lost ? Said Rabhina : It means even as far as its skin is concerned. An objection was raised from our Mishna : " R. Simeon b. Elazar said : Dogs, cats, etc. " ? This presents no difficulty. A black one tiay, but a white one may not. But in the case of Rabh, was it not a black one ? It was a black descending from a white one. TRACT BAEA KAMA (THE FIRST GATE). 177 R. A'ha b. Papa said in the name of R. Hanina b. Papa ^ the following three things : {a) In case of a plague of the itch a fast day with the blowing of the horn may be ordered on the Sabbath ; (b) if the door of success is closed to one, it will not open soon ; and {c) if one buy a house in Palestine, the deed may be written and executed even on Sabbath. What does the statement, " if the door of success," etc., mean? Said Mar Zutra : The grant- ing of a diploma for a rabbi f. R. Ashi said : It means that when one falls into misfortune he cannot soon recover. ** If one buy, etc., the deed, etc., on Sabbath." Does it really mean that the Sabbath may be violated in such a case ? Nay, it means as Rabha said, that a Gentile may be told to do it, although in ordinary cases the rabbis prohibited it on account of Sabbath- rest ; still, in this particular case they did not. R. Samuel b. Na'hmani said in the name of R. Jonathan : One who buys a town in Palestine is compelled also to buy a tract of land around it to make it accessible from all four sides, in order to promote settlement in Palestine. The rabbis taught : " Upon the following ten conditions did Joshua divide the land to the settlers : {a) That one may pasture his cattle in the forest of another ; (b) he may gather wood upon another's field ; {c) grass may be gathered on another's field at any place, except that of the carob-bean ; {d) a branch may be cut off a tree at any place, except of an olive tree ; {e) the towns- people may use the water of springs even newly opened by strangers ; {f) nets may be spread in the Tiberian waters by every one for fishing purposes, provided he does not stake them so as to interfere with navigation ; [g) one may evacuate behind a fence even of a field of saffron ; (Jt) one may walk the cross way (opened on a field) until the second quarter of the season ; {i) one may walk the side road when the main road is cloddy ; (y) one who lost his way in a vineyard might raise and lower the tree branches in trying to find it ; and, lastly, {k) a stranger who dies in a field should be interred in the place where he dies (see Erubin, p. 38)." Are there only ten, are there not eleven enu- merated ? The condition that one may walk the cross-walks was not made by Joshua but by Solomon, as we have learned in the * Papa had many children, and the Gemara is not certain who of them was the author of this statement. f There were many sages who were worthy of this honor, but circumstances prevented them from getting the diploma. The well-known Samuel was one of them. (See Vol. XL, Tract Baba Metzia.) 12 178 THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD. following Boraltha : When all the fruit is gathered in from the field and the owner still permits no one to enter his field, do not people murmur and say : What benefit does that man derive from it and what injury would the people cause him by crossing his field ? Of him the verse says : When you can afford to be good, do not cause people to call you bad. Is there, then, such a verse to be found in Scripture? There is a verse similar to it, viz. [Proverbs, iii. 27] : " Withhold not a benefit from him who is deserving it, when it is in the power of thy hand to do it." But are there no more than those enumerated ? Is there not another one, of which R. Jehudah speaks in the following Boraitha : " R. Jehudah says : During the manuring season, etc., for on this condition did Joshua, etc. (supra, p. 66) ? " Again, there are those enumerated in the following Boraitha : R. Ish- mael the son of R. Johanan b. Broka saj-s: The court declared the following conditions to have been made by Joshua when he distributed the land among Israel : (a) That one may enter his neighbor's orchard to cut off a tree branch and use it in saving his bee-hive, paying the owner of the orchard the value thereof ; {d) one shall empty his vessel containing wine and save therewith his neighbor's honey (if one carrying wine and one carrying honey met together and the vessel containing the honey broke), and receive from him the value of the wine ; (c) one shall unload his wood and load on his neighbor's hemp (under circumstances similar to those stated above), and get from him the value of his wood ? The Boraitha enumerated only those which were de- clared to have been so unanimously, but not those that were stated by individuals without being supported by their col- leagues. But did not R. Abin upon his return (from Palestine) say in the name of R. Johanan that one more condition was made by Joshua, namely, that whether it be a tree branching over into a neighboring field or one standing near the boundary, he may bring the first-fruit to Jerusalem and read the scriptural passages [Deut. xxvi. 5] ; and if the above-enumerated ten conditions were a Boraitha, R. Johanan, who was (not a Tana but only) an