Shabbat

Shall one spread a cloth? then he may come to wring it out. Shall one cover it with a lid? it [the string wherewith it is tied] may break and he will come to knot it.  Therefore it is impossible. Raba son of R. Hanan also said to Abaye: We learnt, One must not clap [the hands], beat [the breast], or dance  on Festivals. Yet we see that they do it, and do not rebuke them in any way? — Then on your reasoning, when Rabbah said: A man should not sit on the top of a stake, lest an article roll away from him and he come to fetch it,  — yet we see [women]  who carry pitchers and sit at the entrance of alleys, and we do not rebuke them? But leave Israel: better that they should [sin] in ignorance than deliberately. Now, he understood from this that that [principle] holds good only in respect of Rabbinical [enactments] but not Scriptural laws.  Yet that is not so: there is no difference between a Rabbinical and a Scriptural law. For lo! the addition to the Day of Atonement is Scriptural,  yet we see them [women] eat and drink until it is dark and do not rebuke them. AND SIMILARLY A WOMAN [MAY BORROW] LOAVES FROM HER NEIGHBOUR, [etc.] Only on the Sabbath is it forbidden, but on weekdays it is well. Shall we say that our Mishnah does not agree with Hillel, for we learnt: And thus Hillel used to say: A woman must not lend a loaf to her neighbour without first valuing it, lest wheat advances and they [the lender and the borrower] come to [transgress the prohibition of] usury?  — You may even say [that it agrees with] Hillel: the one is in a place where its value is fixed; the other, where its value is not fixed. IF HE DOES NOT TRUST HIM. It was stated: As for a loan made on a Festival, — R. Joseph said: It cannot be claimed;  whilst Rabbah  said: It can be claimed. 'R. Joseph said: It cannot be claimed', for if you say that it can be claimed, he [the lender] will come to record it. 'Rabbah said: It can be claimed', for if you say that it cannot, he will not lend him, and so he will come to abstain from the joy of the Festival. We learnt: IF HE DOES NOT TRUST HIM, HE LEAVES HIS CLOAK WITH HIM: now, it is well if you say that it cannot be claimed, therefore he must leave his cloak with him and make a reckoning with him after the Sabbath. But if you say that it can be claimed, why must he leave his cloak with him: let him, lend it and then [re-]claim it? — He says, I do not wish to stand at court and before judges. R. Idi b. Abin objected: If one kills a cow and apportions it on New Year, [then] if the month was prolonged it cancels [the debt]; but if not, it does not cancel the debt.  But if it cannot be claimed,  what does it cancel! — There it is different, because it is [retrospectively] revealed that it was a weekday.  Come and hear [a refutation] from the second clause: 'but if not, it does not cancel the debt'. Now, it is well if you say that it can be claimed, hence he teaches [that] it does not cancel [the debt]; but if you say that it cannot be claimed, then what is meant by 'it does not cancel [the debt]'? — That if he [the debtor] pays him, he accepts it: whence it follows that the first clause means that [even] if he pays him he must not accept!  — In the first clause he must tell him, 'l release it,' while in the second he need not say, 'l release it'. As we learnt: If one repays a debt in the seventh year he [the creditor] must tell him, 'I release it;' but if he [the debtor] replies, '[I repay] even so,' he may accept it from him, for it is said, And this is the word  of the release. R. Awia used to take a pledge.  Rabbah  b. 'Ulla had recourse to an artifice. IN THE SAME WAY, IF THE EVE OF PASSOVER, etc. R. Johanan said: One may sanctify his Passover sacrifice on the Sabbath  and his Festival sacrifice on the Festival.  Shall we say that we can support him: IN THE SAME WAY, IF THE EVE OF PASSOVER IN JERUSALEM FALLS ON A SABBATH, ONE LEAVES HIS CLOAK WITH HIM AND RECEIVES HIS PASCHAL LAMB, AND MAKES A RECKONING WITH HIM AFTER THE FESTIVAL?  — [No.] We treat here of one who assigns shares to others together with himself in his Passover sacrifice,  so that it stands sanctified from before. But we learnt: One may not enrol [to share] in an animal on the Festival in the first place?  — Here it is different: since he is a habitue of his, it is as though he had enrolled for it beforehand. But R. Oshaia taught: 'A man can go to a shepherd to whom he is accustomed to go and he gives him a sheep for his Passover sacrifice, and he sanctifies it and fulfils his obligation therewith? — There too, since he is accustomed to go to him, he [the shepherd] does indeed sanctify it beforehand.  But he states, 'he sanctifies it'?  — This sanctification is a Rabbinical preferment.  But did R. Johanan say thus? Surely R. Johanan said: The halachah is [always] as an anonymous Mishnah, whereas we learnt: One may not sanctify, vow a 'valuation',  devote,  or separate terumoth and tithes: all these were said of Festivals, and how much more so of the Sabbath! — There is no difficulty: One refers to obligatory offerings for which there is a fixed time;  the other refers to obligations for which there is no fixed time. MISHNAH. A MAN MAY COUNT HIS GUESTS AND HIS DAINTY PORTIONS BY WORD OF MOUTH, BUT NOT FROM WRITING. A MAN MAY CAST LOTS WITH HIS SONS AND THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD FOR THE TABLE,  PROVIDED THAT HE DOES NOT INTEND TO OFFSET A LARGE PORTION AGAINST A SMALL ONE.  AND [PRIESTS] MAY CAST LOTS FOR SACRIFICES ON FESTIVALS, BUT NOT FOR THE PORTIONS.