BEITZAH - 022a – ביצה – פרק שני – יום טוב, כב ע”א

and they light a lamp for him.^[1]

In the name of Rabbi Yitzchak they said: They may also roast a small fish for him.

It was taught likewise in a beraisa:

One who did not set an eruv tavshilin: they bake one loaf for him, insulate one pot for him, light the lamp for him and heat one kettle for him. And some say: they may also roast a small fish for him.

Rava said: In truth it speaks of one who did set an eruv, and insulating food is different, because it is evident that he does it with Shabbos in mind.^[2]

Abaye raised an objection to him: Chananyah says: Beis Shammai say: One may not bake unless he made the eruv with bread, nor cook unless he made it with a cooked dish, nor insulate unless he had hot food insulated from Erev Yom Tov.^[3]

Implied: if he had hot food insulated, he may in any case do it, even though it is evident that he does it with Shabbos in mind!^[4]

Rather, Abaye said: It speaks of one who made the eruv for this but not for that, and it is Chananyah, according to Beis Shammai.^[5]

שערב לזה ולא ערב לזה - he baked and cooked before Yom Tov for the sake of the eruv, but did not insulate hot food.

And one may not stand up the menorah.^[6]

What is he doing wrong?

Rav Chinena bar Bisna said: Here we are dealing with a jointed menorah, and it looks like building.^[7]

במנורה של חליות - when it fell, its joints came apart.

For Beis Shammai hold there is building with utensils,

יש תורת בנין בכלים - and one who builds is liable for any amount.

and Beis Hillel hold there is no building with utensils and no demolishing with utensils.

אין תורת בנין בכלים - and he is liable only if he does a labor on it such as smoothing, cutting, weaving or sewing, which are primary labors in their own right; but putting joints back together, which involves nothing but building, is not building, for building applies only to houses and tents.

Ulla happened to come to the house of Rav Yehudah.^[8]

His attendant stood up

קם שמעיה - Ulla’s attendant.

and tilted the lamp upright.^[9]

זקף לשרגא - he wanted the oil to run back, away from the wick, so that it would not be drawn up the wick and the lamp would go out.

שרגא - an earthenware lamp, cruisel in the vernacular.

Rav Yehudah raised an objection to Ulla: One who puts oil into a lamp is liable for kindling,

הנותן שמן בנר - on Shabbos.

and one who takes from it

המסתפק - one who takes some of it and eats it.

is liable for extinguishing!^[10]

חייב משום מכבה - and extinguishing was not permitted on Yom Tov.

He said to him: It was not with my knowledge.^[11]

לאו אדעתאי - did the attendant do what he did.

Rav said: Kanba is permitted.^[12]

קנבא - to snuff the head of the wick that has turned to charcoal, moukier in the vernacular.

Abba bar Marta asked Abaye: May one extinguish a lamp for the sake of “something else”?^[13]

מפני דבר אחר - for marital relations.

He said to him: He can go to another room.

If he has no other room, what then?

He can make a partition.

לעשות מחיצה - with a sheet.

If he cannot make a partition, what then?

He can turn a vessel over it.

If he has no vessel, what then?

He said to him: It is forbidden.

He raised an objection to him: One may not extinguish a log

בקעת - a log, estele in the vernacular.

to spare it,

כדי לחוס עליה - for putting it out is not a Yom Tov need. And I have heard that it is demolishing in order to build in its place.

but so that the house or the pot is not blackened with smoke, it is permitted!^[14]

מותר - evidently, for a Yom Tov need, that he benefits today, it is permitted.

He said to him: That is Rabbi Yehudah; when I speak, it is according to the Rabbis.^[15]

ר' יהודה - who says below that the preparations for food are permitted, expounding “it may be done for you”: for all your needs; and this too is “your needs,” and so is marital use. I, who forbid it, hold like the Rabbis, who expound “that alone.”

Abaye asked Rabbah: May one extinguish a fire on Yom Tov?^[16]

Where there is danger to life I have no question, for even on Shabbos it is permitted.^[17]

My question is for loss of property: what then?

He said to him: It is forbidden.

He raised an objection: One may not extinguish a log to spare it, but so that the house or the pot is not blackened with smoke, it is permitted!^[18]

איתיביה כו' - and there is no greater blackening of the house than a fire, and putting it out is a Yom Tov need, so that he not have to sit in the heat and the rain.

That is Rabbi Yehudah; when I speak, it is according to the Rabbis.

Rav Ashi asked Ameimar: May one paint the eye with kohl on Yom Tov?^[19]

למכחל עינא - to put kohl in it as a remedy.

Where there is danger, such as rira, dtza, dema, dimaasa and kadachta,^[20]

רירא - a discharge that forms a crust, cacide in the vernacular.

דיצא - it pricks like a needle, as in “something pricked it” (Chulin 93b).

דמא - sanc, bloodshot.

דמעתא - it tears constantly.

קדחתא - from “a fire is kindled in My anger” (Devarim 32:22): burning; called eschalfeison.

and at the onset of the eye disease, I have no question, for even on Shabbos it is permitted.^[21]

תחלת אוכלא - the onset of any of these diseases.

דאפילו בשבת שרי - as we say in Avodah Zarah (28b): the vessels of the eye are bound to the chambers of the heart.

My question is at the end of the disease, when the eye is clearing: what then?

סוף אוכלא ופצוחי עינא - when it is close to healing and he paints it only to brighten his sight.

He said to him: It is forbidden.

He objected: One may not extinguish a log!

איתיביה בקעת - which is permitted for bodily comfort, so that the house not be filled with smoke.

And he answered him as we answered.

כדשנין - it is Rabbi Yehudah, who says: for all your needs.

Ameimar permitted having the eye painted by a star-worshipper on Shabbos.^[22]

Some say: Ameimar himself had his eye painted by a star-worshipper on Shabbos.

Rav Ashi said to Ameimar: What is your reasoning? Because Ulla the son of Rav Ila’i said: All the needs of a sick person may be done through a star-worshipper on Shabbos,

and Rav Hamnuna said: Anything that involves no danger, one tells a star-worshipper and he does it.^[23]

That holds where he does not assist him; but you are assisting him, for you close and open your eye!^[24]

עמיץ ופתח - he shuts and opens his eyelids to let the kohl in.

He said to him: Rav Zevid raised the same objection as you,

איכא רב זביד - who raised the same objection to me as you.

and I answered him:

ושניי ליה - and I resolved it for him.

One who assists contributes nothing of substance.^[25]

מסייע אין בו ממש - one who does no real labor but assists a little, as here, where it would be done without him, contributes nothing of substance. So it says in tractate Shabbos, perek Hamatzni’a (93a), about one able and one unable: the able one is liable and the unable one exempt, even though he assists, since an assistant contributes nothing of substance.

Ameimar permitted painting the eye on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.^[26]

Rav Ashi said to Ameimar: But Rava said: A man who died on the first day of Yom Tov: non-Jews attend to him; on the second day of Yom Tov: Jews attend to him, and even on the two days of Rosh Hashanah^[27]

Tosafos

ומדליקין לו נר - from here it follows that one must mention in the eruv tavshilin declaration “it shall be permitted to cook, to bake and to light,” and so on;^[28] and if he did not stipulate lighting, it follows here that he may light no more than one lamp: since we see it was necessary to mention lighting the lamp, one who did not set an eruv may light only one lamp.

ובית הלל סברי אין בנין וסתירה בכלים - and if you ask: in Shabbos (46a) all agree that a jointed menorah is forbidden.^[29] One may answer that there it speaks of Shabbos and here of Yom Tov, and the Sages were not stringent since there is no building with utensils. Alternatively: there the menorah is jointed throughout and taken apart piece by piece, while here nothing is lacking but to stand it up a little, and it is not jointed, for it is all one piece.

והמסתפק ממנו חייב משום מכבה - this does not mean because he hastens its going out, for that is only indirect extinguishing, which is permitted on Yom Tov even though it hastens it, and on Shabbos too one is not liable for it. The reason is that at the moment he takes from it he extinguishes a little and dims its light, for it cannot shine as brightly when little oil is left, so it looks like extinguishing. From here one may permit cutting the bottom off a large wax candle,^[30] since at the moment he cuts it he does not diminish its light at all, though he causes it to go out sooner; but only cutting it with fire. With a knife it is forbidden according to all, as the Mishnah says below (32a): he cuts it with fire, at the mouths of two lamps.

קנבא שרי - Rashi explained: moukier in the vernacular, snuffing the head of the wick that has turned to charcoal. That is not convincing, for below in perek Hamevi (32b) it is called “trimming the lamp: what is trimming? removing the dark,” and here it is not phrased that way. So it seems there are two kinds of trimming: one while the lamp burns, which is the one below, and one after it has gone out, when the charcoal is cleared from the head of the wick so that it will light quickly and easily; that is the one here, which is permitted.

אין מכבין את הבקעת וכו' - from here one should protest against women who take the burning wick out of the oil and set it on the ground, and likewise against covering the fire. As for the common practice of lighting a lamp from one day of Yom Tov for the next without checking whether it is night, though above I explained that this is preparation, and one Yom Tov does not prepare for the next,^[31] one may answer that even if it is not yet night it is close to dark, and the lighting serves a need of that day as well.

ההיא רבי יהודה היא - who holds “for all your needs,” while we act like the Rabbis. And if you ask: we rule below that the halachah follows Rabbi Yehudah; one may answer that the Gemara concludes there that we do not instruct so.^[32] Alternatively, what we permit from the drasha of “for you” is only for food; for mere use, or so that the pot not be blackened by smoke, it is forbidden.

Notes

1. 1. This continues Rav Huna’s words from 21b: one who did not set an eruv tavshilin may still prepare the bare minimum for Shabbos.
2. 2. Rava disagrees: the case is one who did set an eruv. Beis Shammai still forbid insulating, because it visibly serves only Shabbos and has no use for Yom Tov.
3. 3. Chananyah was a Tanna. He reports that for Beis Shammai each labor needs its own eruv: bread for baking, a cooked dish for cooking, and insulated hot food for insulating.
4. 4. Abaye’s challenge: if he had insulated food from Erev Yom Tov he may insulate, even though it visibly serves Shabbos. So Rava’s reason cannot be right.
5. 5. Abaye’s answer: he baked and cooked for the eruv but insulated nothing. For Chananyah’s Beis Shammai that does not cover insulating; for Beis Hillel one eruv covers all.
6. 6. This is the second of the three matters in the Mishnah on 21b. The Gemara asks what labor there could be in standing up a fallen menorah.
7. 7. A jointed menorah is made of pieces fitted together, which came apart when it fell. Fitting them back looks like building.
8. 8. Ulla was an Amora of Eretz Yisrael who often travelled to Bavel. Rav Yehudah is Rav Yehudah bar Yechezkel, head of the yeshivah of Pumbedisa.
9. 9. He tilted the earthenware lamp to move the oil away from the wick, so that it would not burn out quickly.
10. 10. Rav Yehudah’s objection: adding oil is kindling and removing oil is extinguishing, and moving oil away from the wick is like removing it. Tosafos explains the reason below.
11. 11. Ulla says the attendant acted without his knowledge, so he need not defend the act.
12. 12. Rashi says this is snuffing the charred head of the wick. Tosafos holds it means fixing a wick after it has gone out, so that it will light easily.
13. 13. “Something else” is a euphemism, as Rashi explains. The question is whether extinguishing for this counts as a need of Yom Tov, since extinguishing is allowed only for such a need.
14. 14. The challenge from the beraisa: putting out a log to save wood is forbidden, but putting it out to avoid smoke is allowed. So extinguishing for the comfort of the day seems permitted.
15. 15. Rabbi Yehudah permits preparations for food that could not be done earlier (28b), expounding “for you” as all your needs. The Rabbis expound “that alone” and do not.
16. 16. Rabbah is Rabbah bar Nachmani, Abaye’s teacher. The question is about saving one’s house from a fire on Yom Tov.
17. 17. Saving a life overrides even Shabbos, so that case is obvious.
18. 18. According to Rashi, here extinguishing is a need of Yom Tov, so that he need not sit outdoors in the heat or rain. So the beraisa seems to contradict Rabbah.
19. 19. Rav Ashi headed the yeshivah of Masa Mechasya and was an editor of the Talmud. Kohl is an eye salve used as a remedy, and applying it serves no food need.
20. 20. These are the eye diseases Rav Yehudah lists in Avodah Zarah. Rashi explains each in turn, several with Old French words.
21. 21. At the onset of the disease there is danger, because “the vessels of the eye are bound to the chambers of the heart.” So it is permitted even on Shabbos.
22. 22. In this version he permitted it for others; in the next, he did so himself.
23. 23. Rav Ashi sets out Ameimar’s reasoning: one may tell a gentile to do labor for a sick person on Shabbos. The Gemara now asks if that applies here.
24. 24. Rav Ashi’s objection: one who helps the gentile is not covered by that permission, and Ameimar was opening and closing his eye.
25. 25. One who only helps, without really doing the act, has done nothing. Rashi gives the source: “one able and one unable” in Shabbos.
26. 26. The two days of Rosh Hashanah count as one day in holiness, so the question is why anything should be allowed on the second.
27. 27. Rava’s words are in 6a. The statement continues on 22b: “which is not so with an egg.”
28. 28. The eruv tavshilin formula names the labors it permits, baking, cooking and lighting, and Tosafos infers this from here.
29. 29. There even Beis Hillel seem to forbid a jointed menorah, so how do they permit it here? Tosafos distinguishes Shabbos from Yom Tov, or one kind of menorah from another.
30. 30. One may cut a large wax candle at its base while it burns, since at that moment its light is not reduced.
31. 31. Preparation (hachanah): on one Yom Tov one may not do anything for the next. That is why Tosafos asks about lighting a lamp from the first day for the second.
32. 32. The halachah follows Rabbi Yehudah, but “we do not instruct so” to the public (28b), so one may not extinguish for mere use.