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Shabbos 139b

שבת קל״ט ע״ב

Shabbat 139b

Learn Shabbos 139b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Shabbos 139b in Gemara Clarity

Topic

Burial on יום טוב, attachments on שבת, the limits of הערמה, and straining wine on שבת

Overview

The amud opens by finishing a story: רבי יוחנן ruled that non-Jews should bury someone who died on a יום טוב next to שבת. רבא then gives the rule. On the first day of יום טוב non-Jews bury, while on the second day Jews may bury, even on the second day of ראש השנה. רב מנשיא's earlier ban applied only to people who were not learned in Torah. Next, רב חמא בר גוריא allows wearing a canopy with its straps outside on שבת, because the straps are unimportant and become part of it, unlike ציצית. רבה בר רב הונא allows a trick (הערמה) of hanging a strainer for pomegranates on יום טוב, and רב אשי requires that pomegranates actually be hung in it, because otherwise the act looks forbidden. רב אשי also defends a young scholar's pretexts, since they involved only rabbinic rules and a scholar will not come to break them outright. A new משנה then permits straining wine that is already drinkable. The גמרא limits this with several conditions: only clear liquids, no hollow in the cloth, the basket kept low, and nothing that looks like a strainer. The amud ends by starting יעקב קרחה's explanation of the egg in a mustard strainer, which continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

וְלָא יָדַעְנָא אִי מִלְּפָנֶיהָ

And I do not know whether before it

אִי מִלְּאַחֲרֶיהָ,

or after it

וַאֲתוֹ לְקַמֵּיהּ דְּרַבִּי יוֹחָנָן,

And they came before Rabbi Yochanan

וַאֲמַר לְהוּ: יִתְעַסְּקוּן בֵּיהּ עַמְמִין.

and he said to them: Let non-Jews attend to him.

The steps (26)

  1. Statementרבי יוחנן rules that non-Jews should handle the burial
  2. Statementרבא's rule: first day versus second day of יום טוב
  3. ResolutionWhy רב מנשיא forbade the people of בשכר
  4. StatementWearing a canopy with its straps on Shabbat
  5. ChallengeChallenge from a garment without proper ציצית
  6. Resolutionציצית are significant, canopy straps are not
  7. Statementרבה בר רב הונא allows a trick with the strainer on יום טוב
  8. Statementרב אשי: only if he really hung pomegranates in it
  9. ChallengeWhy does brewing beer on חול המועד need no proof?
  10. ResolutionBeer is not obvious; the strainer is obvious
  11. StatementThe Rabbis report a scholar's suspicious tricks to רב אשי
  12. Resolutionרב אשי explains why the scholar's trick was different
  13. Statementמשנה: water over sediment and filtering wine
  14. Statementמשנה: egg in a mustard strainer and making אנומלין
  15. Statementמשנה: how much אנומלין may be made
  16. Statementזעירי: only clear liquids may go into a strainer
  17. ChallengeA ברייתא seems to allow straining even murky wine
  18. ResolutionThe ברייתא is about fresh wine from the presses
  19. StatementFiltering through cloths is allowed only without making a hollow
  20. StatementThe Egyptian basket must stay low
  21. StatementA cover may sit over half a barrel, not over all of it
  22. StatementNo straw bundle at a barrel's spigot
  23. Statementרב פפא's household poured beer carefully
  24. ChallengeBut what about the last drops?
  25. ResolutionThe last drops did not matter to them
  26. StatementThe egg in a mustard strainer and יעקב קרחה's teaching