📖 SATURDAY PRAYER: TIFERET-YESHIVAT HAVERIM יְשִׁיבָה חברים – BABYLONIAN TALMUD p189

READING: BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND DAWN OF SATURDAY

TRACT SABBATH.
CHAPTER XI.
REGULATIONS CONCERNING THROWING FROM ONE GROUND INTO ANOTHER.
MISHNA: One who throws a thing from private into public or from public into private ground is
culpable. From private into private ground, by way of public ground, R. Aqiba holds him to be
culpable, but the sages declare him free. How so? If two balconies face each other across a
street, one who transfers or throws something from one into the other is free; if the two
balconies, however, are in the same building, he who transfers a thing from one into the other is
culpable, but he who throws is free; because the work of the Levites (in the tabernacle) was as
follows: From two wagons facing each other in public ground boards were transferred, but not
thrown from one into the other.
GEMARA: Let us see! Throwing is but the offspring of transferring. Where is transfer itself
mentioned in the Scriptures? Said R. Johanan: “It is written [Ex. xxxvi. 6]: ‘And Moses gave the
command and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp,’ etc. Where was Moses
sitting? In the quarters of the Levites. The quarters of the Levites was public ground (because all
the people were received there by Moses). And Moses said unto Israel: ‘Ye shall not transfer
anything from your quarters (which was private ground) into these quarters.'” We have found,
then, transfer from within, but where do we find transfer from without? It is a logical
conclusion, that transfer from within is the same as transfer from without. Still he calls transfer
from within the principal act and transfer from without but the offspring. Now, if transferring
from within and transferring from without involve the same degree of culpability, why does he
call the one a principal and the other all offspring? For the following reason: If one commit two principal
acts of labor, or two offsprings of two different acts of labor, he becomes bound to bring two sinofferings;
but if he commits one principal act and one offspring of the same act of labor, he
becomes bound to bring only one sin-offering.