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Eighteen Treatises from the Mishna, by D. A. Sola and M. J. Raphall, [1843], at sacred-texts.com
§ 1. In transporting jars of wine from one place to another, on the festival, care must be taken not to remove them in a basket or case, 1 but they must be removed on the shoulder, and carried in front of the person; 2 and if any one should thereon carry any straw, he must not carry it in a basket over his shoulder, but must carry it in his hand. It is lawful to commence taking, on the festival, of a heap of straw [to burn], but not of the pieces of wood lying in the yard behind the house.
§ 2. Wood may not be taken from a shed, but the pieces adjoining it [i.e. loosely placed against it] may be used; it is lawful also to
fetch it from a wood-stack in a field, and from a wood-store, and even to gather the dispersed pieces of wood therein. What constitutes a store? R. Jehudah says, "When it is near the city, and is enclosed." Rabbi José says, "When it is entered by a door that can be locked, even if it should be situated at the extreme end of the תחום, or Sabbatical limit."
§ 3. It is not permitted to cut wood from new beams, nor from an old beam which happened to break on the festival, neither may wood [allowed to be used] be cleft on the festival with an axe, saw, or billhook, but with a chopping-knife only; when there is a hole in the brick-walls of a place used to store fruit in, 3 it will be lawful to remove the fruit from that open part: but Rabbi Meir says, "It is even lawful to remove the bricks to get at the fruit, and to remove it."
§ 4. It is not permitted to make a cavity in a lump of potter's clay for the purpose of using it as a lamp, because a utensil is thereby formed; neither may charcoal be made on the festival, nor the wick of a lamp be cut in two. R. Jehudah says, "When the ends have been placed in two lamps, it is allowed to separate them by burning the middle part."
§ 5. It is not permitted to break pieces of earthenware 4 on the festival, or to cut paper to be placed over salted fish while it is broiled; 5 neither may the fallen mortar be removed on that day from the oven, but it is lawful to press it close. Two barrels may not be brought near each other to be used as a trivet to place a pot on them over the fire, neither may a piece of wood be used for the purpose of supporting a pot or a door; 6 nor may cattle be driven on the festival with a stick: but R. Eleazar, son of Simeon, permits it.
§ 6. Rabbi Eleazar says, "A person may take a splinter from the wood lying near him, to clean his teeth with, and gather in the yard small pieces of wood and burn them, because whatever is in the yard may be considered as מוכן prepared for the festival." But the sages
allow those pieces only to be picked up which lay near to a person, and for the purpose of burning them only.
§ 7. Fire may not be produced on the festival from wood, 7 stones, 8 dust, or earth, 9 or from water; 10 neither is it lawful to heat tiles to broil food thereon. Rabbi Eleazar also said, "A person may place himself on the eve of the Sabbath, in a seventh or Sabbatical year, 11 in the places where figs or raisins are kept, and say, From these will I eat to-morrow." But the sages say he must point out the exact spot, and say, "I will take from here till there."
151:1 Many at a time as on working days.
151:2 That is, a few at a time, and in a manner different from the usual mode.
152:3 The Mishna treats here of a store, or enclosed place, whose walls consist of loose bricks, without mortar or lime.
152:4 Used anciently to place under fish, &c. that it might not be burned, and adhere to the metal pan in which they were cooked.
152:5 According to some commentators, it refers to an ancient practice of wrapping the salt fish to be broiled in papers steeped in oil, or according to others, in water, to prevent the burning of the fish.
152:6 The permission to use wood on the festival being given only for the purpose of preparing food, i.e. as fuel, it may not be used for any other purpose.
153:7 By friction and rubbing two pieces against each other, as is done by the American savage.
153:8 By striking hard stones with steel, &c.
153:9 There are some soils covering subterraneous fires, or containing so much sulphur and inflammable substance, that they will spontaneously ignite, particularly on being stirred with a spade, &c.
153:10 This is explained by Bartenora, and other commentators of the Mishna, as being effected by means of the sun's rays on a crystal vessel filled with water, probably a burning lens, but the means by which the water was ignited is not mentioned, nor is it probable that the water itself was ignited at all; perhaps it was used as a lens to collect the rays of the sun. Maimonides (chap. IV. of Treatise Yom Tob, in Yad Hachazaka, vol. 1) seems to be doubtful on this subject, and explains it as referring to the volatile parts of naphtha floating on water, which, by agitation in the sun's rays, will enflame and light tinder, &c.; but it is by no means intelligible what the Mishna here really means.
153:11 In which there is no tithe to be separated.