Sacred Texts Judaism Index Previous Next
Buy this Book at Amazon.com
Eighteen Treatises from the Mishna, by D. A. Sola and M. J. Raphall, [1843], at sacred-texts.com
§ 1. Whoever preserves a thing, either as seed or for a sample, or, as a medicine, and carries out any quantity thereof on the Sabbath, is guilty. All [other] persons are only guilty if they carry out the [prescribed] quantity; if he who preserves the article carries it back again, he also is only guilty [of a second offence] if there be the prescribed quantity.
§ 2. He who, carrying out victuals, puts them on the threshold 1 [of his house], whether he himself afterwards carries them out or any other person carries them out, both are [alike] absolved; because neither completed the work at once [off-hand]. If he put a basket full of fruit on the outer threshold, although the larger portion of the fruit be in the street [of the threshold], he is absolved, so long as the whole of the basket is not carried out [at once].
§ 3. Whoever carries out, either with his right hand or with his left, in his lap, or on his shoulder, is guilty; [the last] being the manner in which the sons of Kohath carried their load: but if he carries
on the back of his hand, or [pushes by] his foot, or [carries in] his mouth, or [shoves with] his elbow, or [carries in] his ear, or [tied to] his hair, or in the purse of his girdle, with the opening downwards, or between his girdle and his shirt, or in the skirt of his shirt, or in his shoe, or in his sandal, he is absolved, because he carries not in the usual way.
§ 4. If a person intends to carry out [something] before him, and it gets behind him, he is absolved; [if he intended to carry it] behind him, and it gets before him, he is guilty. They [the sages] did indeed decide, that a woman who carries out something in her small girdle is guilty, whether [it be carried] before her or behind her; for it is liable to shift. R. Jehudah saith, "letter-carriers likewise." 2
§ 5. If a man carries a [large] loaf into the public reshuth, he is guilty; if two carry it they are absolved: 3 if one was not able to carry it, and [therefore] the two carried it out, they are guilty. If a person carries out victuals, less than the prescribed quantity, in a vessel, he is absolved, even for [carrying] the vessel, as that is an accessary to the victuals. [If he carries out] a living person on a couch, he is absolved, even for [carrying] the couch, as that is an accessary to the person [on it]. [If he carry out] a corpse on a couch or bier, he is guilty. Likewise [if he carry] the size of an olive [appertaining to a human] corpse, or the size of an olive of carrion, or the size of a lentil of a reptile, he is guilty. R. Simeon absolves him.
§ 6. He who pares his nails, [either pulling them off] with his nails, or [biting them off] with his teeth; or who pulls the hair out of his head, or off his lip, or out of his beard; likewise a woman who plaits her hair, or dyes her eye-brows, or who parts the hair on her forehead; R. Eleazar pronounces [them all] guilty. The sages prohibit all these, on the score of [their violating] the Sabbath rest. He who plucks [leaf, flower, or blossom] out of a perforated flower-pot, is guilty: [but if the flower-pot be] not perforated, he is absolved. R. Simeon absolves him in either case.
51:1 The threshold is considered as carmelith. (Vide Introduction to this Treatise.)
52:2 Royal runners, who carried their dispatches in wooden cases, suspended on their breasts.
52:3 Because neither of them does a complete work.