Makkos 8a

מכות ח׳ ע״א

Makkot 8a

Learn Makkos 8a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

יש אם למקרא and כח כחו; the משנה of the stone-thrower: when גלות applies, ״וּמָצָא״, and אבא שאול's rule that exile is only for an optional activity

Overview

The amud opens by defending רבי's ruling about a flying splinter. His spelling-based proof seems to clash with his own view, יש אם למקרא, and the answer is that his word 'ועוד' adds a second proof that does not depend on the spelling. רב פפא then compares dates knocked off a palm tree to the splinter case and shows what a true כח כחו case would be. A new משנה follows. A person who throws a stone into רשות הרבים and kills goes to גלות, unless, according to רבי אליעזר בן יעקב, the victim stuck his head out after the stone was thrown. Throwing into one's own courtyard brings גלות only if the victim had permission to be there, which is learned from the forest פסוק. אבא שאול learns from the same פסוק that גלות applies only to an optional activity, so a father, a teacher and a בית דין messenger are exempt. The גמרא explains that the stone-thrower is a שוגג, neither פושע nor אונס, using רב פפא's scrap-heap case, and it explains the word ״וּמָצָא״ from the context of its פסוק. Finally רבא defends אבא שאול's reading that the wood-cutting is רשות. When רב אדא בר אהבה challenges his proof from the word אשר, רבא begins an answer that continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (30)

1. ChallengeBut רבי holds that the reading of the text is what counts
2. ResolutionThat is why רבי said 'and furthermore'
3. StatementKnocking dates off a palm tree is the same dispute
4. ChallengeIsn't that obvious?
5. ResolutionWe might have thought it was a weaker, second-hand force
6. QuestionWhat would count as כח כחו for רבי?
7. ResponseA chain reaction: clod, branch, cluster, dates
8. StatementThe משנה: throwing a stone into the public area
9. Statementרבי אליעזר בן יעקב: if the victim stuck his head out afterward
10. StatementThrowing a stone into one's own courtyard
11. ProofThe forest verse as the source
12. Statementאבא שאול: exile only for an optional activity
13. ChallengeThrowing into the public domain is deliberate
14. ResolutionHe was knocking down his wall
15. ChallengeHe should have checked first
16. ResolutionHe knocked down the wall at night
17. ChallengeEven at night he should check
18. ResolutionThe wall fell onto a scrap heap
19. ChallengeThe scrap heap dilemma
20. ResolutionA scrap heap used at night and only sometimes by day
21. Statement״וּמָצָא״ excludes someone who puts himself in the stone's path
22. ChallengeContradiction: ״וּמָצָא״ by redeeming a field means something found later
23. ResolutionEach ״וּמָצָא״ is read by the context of its own פסוק
24. ChallengeMaybe the wood-cutting in the פסוק is for a מצוה
25. ResolutionCutting wood is never itself a מצוה
26. ChallengeBy that logic, a father hitting his son is not a מצוה either
27. ResolutionDisciplining a son is a מצוה even when he is learned
28. Statementרבא drops his first proof and brings one from 'אשר'
29. ChallengeDoes 'אשר' always mean 'if he wants'?
30. ResolutionThe impure person's case is different because of a פסוק