BEITZAH - 003a – ביצה – פרק ראשון – ביצה, ג ע”א

It is a decree lest one climb the tree and pick.

ויתלוש - which would be a prohibition from the Torah, namely reaping, which is a primary labour.^[1]

That itself is a decree — and shall we arise and decree a decree upon a decree?

It is all one decree.

חדא גזרה היא - not that this is a decree lest one come to fallen fruit; rather, when they took counsel and decreed about fallen fruit, the egg was included in that very decree. And although picking does not apply to it, it was nonetheless within the Sages' decree, since it too is a fruit that has fallen.^[2]

Rabbi Yitzchak said: it is a decree on account of liquids that seeped out.

משום משקין שזבו - for we hold that they are forbidden on that day, as we learned: and if they came out of themselves, they are forbidden (Shabbos 143b). The egg too resembles them, for it seeped out and left the place in which it had been enclosed.^[3]

Abaye said to him: what is the reason for liquids that seeped out?

It is a decree lest one squeeze.

שמא יסחוט - and squeezing fruit is a derivative of threshing, for he separates them from their husk, like one who separates grain from its straw.^[4]

All of them —

כולהו - Rabbah, who established our Mishnah on account of preparation, and Rav Yosef and Rabbi Yitzchak, who established it on account of a decree.

did not say as Rav Nachman —

כרב נחמן לא אמרי - on account of muktzeh.

because of our difficulty.

כי קושיין - as we objected above: let them dispute about both.

They did not say as Rabbah either — they do not hold of preparation.

But Rav Yosef — what is his reason for not saying as Rabbi Yitzchak?

He would say to you: an egg is food and fruit is food, to the exclusion of liquids, which are not food.^[5]

ומשקין לאו אוכלא - therefore, when they decreed about liquids that seeped out, the egg was not included, since it is not a liquid; but it was included among fallen fruit.

And Rabbi Yitzchak — what is his reason for not saying as Rav Yosef?

He would say to you: an egg is enclosed,

בלועה - within the hen, and it seeped out.

and liquids are enclosed —

ומשקין בלועין - within the grape stone, and they seep out.

to the exclusion of fruit, which are exposed and standing.

לאפוקי פירות דמגלו וקיימו - therefore the falling of the egg is not included in the falling of fruit.^[6]

Rabbi Yochanan too held: it is a decree on account of liquids that seeped out.

For Rabbi Yochanan set one ruling of Rabbi Yehudah against another ruling of Rabbi Yehudah, and resolved it.

We learned: one may not squeeze fruit to extract liquids from them.

And if they came out of themselves — they are forbidden.

ואם יצאו מעצמן אסורין - on that day, a decree lest one squeeze.

Rabbi Yehudah says: if they are for eating, what comes out of them is permitted;

אם לאוכלין - these fruits are stored for eating — what comes out of them is permitted on that day; since he has no use for those liquids, there is no room to decree lest he squeeze.

and if they are for liquids, what comes out of them is forbidden.

So we see that according to Rabbi Yehudah, whatever is for eating is food that has separated from food.

אלמא - since he said that if they are for eating what comes out of them is permitted, he stated that in whatever is for eating, what comes out of it is food that has separated, and it is not included in the decree about liquids that seeped out.

And they set against it: Rabbi Yehudah further said:

ועוד אמר ר' יהודה - before this we learned in Maseches Eruvin: Rosh Hashanah, where one feared that the month might be extended and there would be two days of Yom Tov — a person may set two eruvin, and so forth. For he holds they are two sanctities, one a weekday and one Yom Tov, and we do not know which is the weekday and which the Yom Tov.^[7]

a person may make a condition over a basket of fruit on the first day of Yom Tov

מתנה אדם על הכלכלה - for this matter they are two sanctities. He had a basket of untithed fruit and forgot and did not tithe it before Yom Tov; and we learned that one may not separate terumah and tithes on Yom Tov. He therefore tithes on Yom Tov by a condition, saying: if today is a weekday and tomorrow is holy, let these be terumah and tithes upon those; and if today is holy, my words are void. He marks them, and on the morrow says again: if today is a weekday and yesterday was holy, let these be terumah upon the rest; and if today is holy and yesterday was a weekday, the terumah was already made yesterday. Either way they are set right.^[8]

and eat it on the second.

ואוכלה בשני - but not on the first, for perhaps it is holy and his words are void.

And likewise an egg laid on the first may be eaten on the second.

וכן לגבי ביצה - they are two sanctities, one a weekday and one Yom Tov, and one laid on the first is permitted on the second.

On the second yes, but on the first no?

בשני אין בראשון לא - so we see that anything which seeped from its place on Yom Tov is forbidden, even food.

And Rabbi Yochanan resolved it: the attribution is reversed.

ומשני רבי יוחנן מוחלפת השיטה - the attribution in the Mishnah of one may not squeeze — reverse Rabbi Yehudah's view with that of the Rabbis.^[9]

And since he sets them against one another,

ומדקא מרמי - Rabbi Yochanan, liquids that seeped out and the egg, one against the other.

learn from it that it is one and the same reason.

שמע מינה חד טעמא הוא - and whoever forbids in this forbids in that, and whoever permits in this permits in that.

תוספות

גזרה שמא יעלה ויתלוש - Tosfos asks why this reason is needed when the Gemara later (24b), regarding a gentile who brought a gift, gives the reason of muktzeh — that once it was set aside at twilight it is set aside for the whole day — so why two reasons? He answers that the reason here follows Rabbi Shimon, who does not hold of muktzeh, while the later passage follows Rabbi Yehudah. He then raises Rashi's own words there, and answers that our case is one where the fruit is in a courtyard and so is prepared for the ravens, which counts as prepared for a person, so the reason of climbing and picking is needed. He further asks why the later reason is needed at all, and answers that it deals with produce requiring a hoe or spade, such as turnips and radishes, where climbing and picking does not apply because the trouble involved reminds a person — as with a lamp a gentile lit, and as Rabbeinu Eliezer of Metz held about salted fish a gentile roasted. He closes with the long difficulty of why picking should be forbidden at all when food for the festival is permitted, cites the parallel question about trapping fish (23b), rejects two answers, and brings Rabbeinu Nesanel of Chinon's answer from the Yerushalmi: only the labours from kneading onwards are permitted for food, and reaping is excluded by a separate limitation.

רבי יוחנן אמר מוחלפת השיטה - Rashi explained that it is the ruling of one may not squeeze that is reversed, and Tosfos endorses this: one cannot reverse the ruling about the basket instead, since that would leave an even harder contradiction, as the Rabbis who dispute Rabbi Yehudah hold the two days are one sanctity, and the egg would then be forbidden even on the second day. He then asks that Rabbi Yochanan himself rules in the chapter Chavis (Shabbos 143b) that the halachah follows Rabbi Yehudah for other fruits though not for olives and grapes, which shows he does not really hold that the attribution is reversed; and answers that Rabbi Yochanan spoke according to those Amoraim who do not hold it reversed. He brings a further answer in the name of the school of Évreux — that it is the ruling about the basket that is reversed, and that Rabbi Yehudah was speaking to the Rabbis on their own terms — and the objection to it, and how Ravina is untroubled by that objection.

Notes

1. 1. Picking — this is reaping, a primary labour forbidden by the Torah. The Sages therefore decreed about fallen fruit, lest a person climb the tree and pick.
2. 2. A decree upon a decree — the Sages do not decree upon a decree. Here this is not a second decree: when they took counsel and decreed about fallen fruit, the egg was included in that one decree itself.
3. 3. Liquids that seeped out — liquids that came out of fruit of themselves, which the Sages forbade on that day. The egg resembles them, for it seeped out and left the place in which it had been enclosed.
4. 4. Squeezing — a derivative of threshing, since one separates the liquid from inside the husk as one separates grain from the straw. That is why liquids that seeped out were forbidden: lest one come to squeeze.
5. 5. Food and liquid — Rav Yosef compares the egg to fruit, since the egg is food and fruit is food, while liquids are not food. On that reading the egg was never included in the decree about liquids that seeped out.
6. 6. Enclosed and exposed — Rabbi Yitzchak compares the egg to liquids, since both were enclosed and came out, unlike fruit, which lies exposed. On that reading the egg was never included in the decree about fallen fruit.
7. 7. Two sanctities — the two days of Rosh Hashanah. In Rabbi Yehudah's view they are not one long day but two days, one a weekday and one Yom Tov, and we do not know which is which.
8. 8. Making a condition — because they are two sanctities, one may separate terumah and tithes conditionally: if today is a weekday and tomorrow holy, let these be terumah; and if today is holy, the words are void. On the morrow he says the reverse, so that either way the fruit is set right.
9. 9. The attribution is reversed — Rabbi Yochanan reverses the attribution in the Mishnah of one may not squeeze, putting Rabbi Yehudah's view in the mouth of the Rabbis and theirs in his, so that his two rulings do not contradict each other.