📖 SATURDAY PRAYER: TIFERET-YESHIVAT HAVERIM יְשִׁיבָה חברים – BABYLONIAN TALMUD p155

READING: BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND DAWN OF SATURDAY

MISHNA II.: (R. Aqiba says again:) Whence the adduction that a ship, though a wooden vessel,
is not subject to defilement? From the passage [Prov. xxx. 19]: “The way of a ship is in the heart
of the sea.”
GEMARA: It is certain 2 that R. Aqiba intends to convey to us that the reason the passage cited
in the above Mishna informs us of a fact known to all is because the sense is to be construed
thus: In the same manlier as the sea is not subject to defilement, so also a ship call never become
defiled.
There is a Boraitha: Hananyah said: We make the adduction from a sack (which is subject to
defilement) that everything which can be carried after the manner of a sack, sometimes full and
at other times empty, is subject to defilement, except a ship, which cannot be carried at all, full
or empty. What are the points of difference in the two adductions (of R. Aqiba and Hananyah)?
They are concerning a small (river) boat. One holds that all boats (ships) must be regarded as the
sea itself (hence not subject to defilement), while the other is of the opinion that a small (river)
boat must be regarded as a sack because it is
carried to the place whence it is launched and hence is subject to defilement; as R. Hanina b.
Aqa’bbia said: Why did the rabbis say that a small (river) boat is subject to defilement? Because
it is usually loaded in the dry dock and then carried into the river.