Gemara Clarity

Shabbos 66b

שבת ס״ו ע״ב

Shabbat 66b

Learn Shabbos 66b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Shabbos 66b in Gemara Clarity

Topic

Shoe status of the קב, the משנה of boys' קשרים, and healing practices and remedies on שבת

Overview

The amud opens by finishing a distinction: a support that only steadies a person's walk is not a shoe, but the קב of a קיטע carries his full weight, so it is treated like a shoe. רבי יוחנן uses this to correct a reciter's version of the משנה. Since a woman may do חליצה with the support, it may not be brought into the עזרה. The גמרא then gives three definitions of לוקטמין. A new משנה permits boys to go out on שבת with קשרים and princes with bells, and adds that really anyone may. The גמרא first explains the קשרים as madder bundles, but rejects this because a remedy would not be limited to young boys. It concludes that they are a shoe-strap tied on a boy who misses his father. This leads to a series of healing practices permitted on שבת from אבין בר הונא, a discussion of who said the swaddling ruling, and remedies אביי learned from the woman who raised him. These include the אֶבֶן תְּקוּמָה against miscarriage, whose counterweight-of-a-counterweight question ends in תיקו, and three remedies for a one-day fever. The amud ends as a new statement of רב הונא begins.

Opening lines

לְתָרוֹצֵי סוּגְיָא עֲבִידָא,

it is made to straighten his walk,

הָכָא — לִסְמוֹךְ עִילָּוֵיהּ הוּא דַּעֲבִידָא,

here — it is made for leaning on,

וְסָמֵיךְ עֲלֵיהּ.

and he actually leans on it.

טְמֵאִין מִדְרָס,

they are susceptible to impurity of treading,

The steps (38)

  1. ResolutionA steadying support versus a support you lean on
  2. StatementThe משנה's ruling on the chair-supports
  3. StatementA reciter's opposite version of the משנה
  4. Challengeרבי יוחנן objects: it is a shoe
  5. Conclusionרבי יוחנן corrects the text
  6. QuestionWhat are לוקטמין?
  7. ResponseFirst definition: a toy donkey carried on the shoulders
  8. ResponseSecond definition: stilts
  9. ResponseThird definition: masks
  10. StatementNew משנה: boys with knots, princes with bells
  11. QuestionWhat are the קשרים?
  12. ResponseThe knots are bundles of madder
  13. Statementאביי's mother: how many madder bundles to use
  14. StatementConditions for the madder remedy to work
  15. StatementThe madder is like it fell into a pit
  16. ChallengeWhy only young boys?
  17. ResolutionThe קשרים are a strap for a boy who misses his father
  18. StatementMemory aid: like תפילין
  19. StatementPlacing an overturned cup on the navel on שבת
  20. StatementRubbing oil and salt on the body is permitted on שבת
  21. StatementHow great rabbis were sobered up with oil and salt
  22. StatementBinding the neck to reset a dislocated vertebra is permitted
  23. StatementTightly swaddling a newborn is permitted on שבת
  24. StatementTwo versions of the teaching about children
  25. StatementExplaining the two versions and who said the swaddling ruling
  26. StatementUse the mother's name in incantations, and tie healing knots on the left
  27. StatementHow many times to say an incantation
  28. StatementGoing out on שבת with a stone that prevents miscarriage
  29. StatementThe stone is allowed even before any miscarriage or pregnancy
  30. StatementThe counterweight must match by chance
  31. QuestionWhat about a counterweight of a counterweight?
  32. ConclusionThe question is left unresolved
  33. StatementFirst remedy for a one-day fever: salt weighed against a new coin
  34. StatementSecond remedy: sealing a large ant in a copper tube
  35. ChallengeObjection: someone may already have used this ant
  36. ResolutionCorrected wording: both burdens go on the ant
  37. StatementThird remedy: borrowing and returning river water
  38. StatementIntroduction to a new statement of רב הונא