Beitzah 38b

ביצה ל״ח ע״ב

Learn Beitzah 38b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Beitzah 38b in Gemara Clarity

Topic

Whether a small item mixed into someone else's larger item loses its identity (ביטול), and how this affects borrowed water and salt in dough and its תחום on יום טוב

Overview

This amud finishes the discussion of why a neighbor's borrowed water and salt are not בטל in a woman's dough, so the dough is limited by the neighbor's תחום too. רבי אבא compared it to one person's קב of wheat mixed into another's ten קבין, but the חכמים laughed at him. רב אושעיא defended them: according to רבנן, even wheat mixed with wheat is בטל. רב ספרא answered with רב's ruling that someone who removes pebbles from a friend's grain pile pays the value of wheat, because removing a mixed-in part lowers the measure. אביי replied that money someone is demanding back is different from property no one is claiming. רב ספרא pushed back with רב חסדא's rule about נבלה and שחוטה and with רבי יוחנן בן נורי's teaching that ownerless objects acquire שביתה. אביי answered that an איסור can be nullified, but money cannot. So the גמרא asks for the real reason. אביי says it is a גזירה because of dough made in partnership, and רבא says salt is added for taste, and taste is never nullified.

Opening lines

The steps (13)

1. Proofרבי אבא's wheat comparison
2. RejectionThe חכמים laugh at רבי אבא
3. Rejectionרב אושעיא explains why the laughter was right
4. Challengeרב ספרא challenges רב אושעיא with the pebbles case
5. ProofRemoving it lowers the measure
6. Rejectionאביי distinguishes property with claimants from property without
7. Statementרב ספרא cites רב חסדא on carcass meat mixed with slaughtered meat
8. ChallengeWould ownership really stop the carcass from being nullified?
9. Challengeרבי יוחנן בן נורי: ownerless objects are treated like owned objects
10. Rejectionאביי answers that prohibitions and money work differently
11. QuestionSo why aren't the water and salt nullified?
12. Responseאביי: a decree because of dough made in partnership
13. Responseרבא: spices give taste, and taste is never nullified