Bava Kamma 071

נושא: BK

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

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We do not keep behemah dakkah in Eretz-Israel; but they may be kept in Syria and the desert areas of Eretz-Israel. We do not keep chickens in Jerusalem because of the sacrifices, nor may priests keep them anywhere in Eretz-Israel because of ritual purity. We do not keep pigs anywhere. A person should not keep a dog unless it is chained. Snares should not be set for pigeons unless they are thirty ris distant from an inhabited area.

1:
At first glance our present mishnah (the last in this chapter) would seem to have no connection with the general theme of this chapter, theft. But if we remind ourselves of two pieces of information that we have learned while studying this tractate we should easily see the connection. In the previous shiur we explained that behemah dakkah, mentioned in the first clause of our present mishnah, refers to small ruminants, sheep and goats. In addition, we should quote once again the story which is recounted in the Gemara [Temurah 15b]:

There was a pious man who groaned because of angina pectoris. When the doctors were consulted they said that there was no remedy for him unless he sucked hot milk from a goat directly every morning. They brought a goat and bound it to the foot of his bed and he used to suck milk from it. One day his friends came to visit him. When they saw the goat they exclaimed: "An armed robber is in this house and shall we go in to visit him!?" They left him immediately. When he died they sat down and made investigation and found no other sin in him except that of [keeping] the goat. He too on his death bed said: "I myself know that I have not sinned except in the keeping of this goat, having thus transgressed the teaching of my colleagues".

Goats were notorious scavengers, and they were liable to eat all the crops and grass in the local fields: thus they were "an armed robber" and forbidden in "polite society".

2:
For this reason our mishnah outlaws the keeping of goats in Eretz-Israel, because they are natural thieves, robbing the countryside of its verdure. (However, I would guess that this prohibition was "more honoured in the breach than the observance".) Since it was considered to be outside Eretz-Israel, Jews living in Syria were permitted to keep goats. For the sages of the Mishnah Syria is what we call today the Golan Heights: it was adjacent to Eretz-Israel but not strictly a part of it even though many Jews lived there. Obviously, it was permitted to keep goats in the uninhabited areas of Eretz-Israel: the term 'desert' in our mishnah does not refer to arid wasteland but to areas outside general habitation.

3:
Chickens were not permitted in Jerusalem when the Bet Mikdash existed. In his commentary on our mishnah Rabbi Ovadya of Bertinoro explains:

We do not keep chickens in Jerusalem because of the sacrifices – that were eaten there. Chickens rummage in the garbage and they might bring [the remnants of] a reptile [or insect] into the precincts of the Bet Mikdash and thus invalidate the sacrifices. Nor were priests allowed to keep chickens anywhere in Eretz-Israel [when the Bet Mikdash existed] because priests eat their terumah which must be kept in ritual purity.

In ancient times Israel's priesthood was sustained by donations made by the Israelite farmer to the priest or priests of his choice. This freed the priests from the necessity of earning a livelihood and permitted them to dedicate themselves entirely to the ritual of the Bet Mikdash as the agents of all Israel. The law – biblical and rabbinic – sets out certain donatives which must be separated off from produce and given to the priests before the rest of the produce might be eaten. These donatives are called terumah in Hebrew. Over the years we have given a more detailed explanation of these donatives several times. [Those interested might find Pe'ah044 informative, for example.] The priests were required to be in a state of ritual purity before eating any produce that came their way as terumah. If they were ritually impure and touched the terumah they would pass on that ritual impurity by contagion and the food would be prohibited.

4:
In his commentary on our mishnah Rambam says that the prohibition against keeping pigs in Eretz-Israel is just an example and that, in fact, it was prohibited to keep any animal that was forbidden to Jews as food. The pig was singled out as the representative example because non-Jews rear pigs just as they rear behemah dakkah, sheep and goats.

5:
Our mishnah requires a dog in Eretz-Israel to be kept on a chain. This probably refers to wild dogs, not the domesticated variety with which we are familiar today.

6:
Pigeons were raised in great numbers in Eretz-Israel since they were used for several purposes. When we studied tractate Rosh ha-Shanah we noted that pigeons were bred for pigeon-racing, which also led to betting on the winner. Pigeons were also used for long-distance communication. And, of course, they were also used for food and sacrifice. Since pigeons were bred in large numbers, and since they were a rather messy lot, the sages legislated that the pigeon coops and snares must be kept away from the towns and villages. Thirty ris was a distance of about 200 metres. So anyone who wanted to keep pigeons had to do so further than this distance from the edges of the inhabited area.

We have reached the end of Chapter Seven of our tractate, which seems to be a very good stage at which the Virtual Bet Midrash should take its traditional break for the festivals. God willing, the next shiur will be on 4th October.

I take this opportunity to wish everyone a productive fast on Yom Kippur (the fast is only a means to an end) and a successful conclusion to our annual review before the Almighty. Also, I wish all of us a very happy and joyous Sukkot festival.

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