Shabbat

No: it was in order that they should not become accustomed to a foreign body. 'And he made a mikweh for them in the days of Nisan'. This supports Rab, for Rab said: Rain in the West [Palestine] is strongly testified to by the Euphrates;  and he [Samuel's father] feared that the rainwater might exceed the running water.  Now, he differs from Samuel, who said: A river increases in volume from its beds.  But this conflicts with another [statement] of his. For Samuel said: No water purifies when flowing, save the Euphrates in the days of Tishri alone. A WOMAN MAY WEIGHT [HER CLOAK] WITH A STONE, etc. But you say in the first clause, that she may weight it?  — Said Abaye: The second clause refers to a coin. Abaye asked: May a woman evade [the Sabbath prohibition] by weighting [her cloak] with a nut in order to carry it out to her infant child on the Sabbath? This is a problem on the view of both him who maintains that an artifice may be used and him who holds that an artifice may not be used.  It is a problem on the view that all artifice may be used in the case of a conflagration: that is only there, because if you do not permit it to him, he will come to extinguish it; but here, if you do not permit it, one will not come to carry it [sc. the nut] out.  Or perhaps, even on the view that all artifice may not be used; there that is a normal way of carrying [clothes] out;  but here this is not a usual way of carrying it, and therefore I might say that it is well.  The question stands over. MISHNAH. A STUMP-LEGGED PERSON MAY GO FORTH WITH HIS WOODEN STUMP:  THIS IS R. MEIR'S VIEW;