Egyptian-Hebrew stream·Mishnah·Shabbat — Chapter XXIV
Caught by dusk on the road
The traveller overtaken by Sabbath dusk on the road — he gives his purse to a heathen; failing that, places it on his ass; failing that, drops it. The progression of Sabbath leniencies for the wayfarer; the prohibition on the rider; feeding one's beasts.
Source context
- Theme
- codified oral legal tradition as transmitted Tannaitic ruling in the penultimate divisions of the Mishnah
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Tannaitic oral transmission (Mishnah / Talmudic methodology)The Mishnaic chapter preserves the form of attributed rulings (by named Tannaim) as a structural safeguard of living oral wisdom against reduction to mere written text — a cross-tradition congruence with the Pythagorean and Vedic insistence that esoteric transmission requires the living teacher-pupil relationship.
- Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh / hadith chain)The Mishnah's attribution of rulings to named sages parallels the isnad (chain of transmission) structure in hadith literature, representing cross-tradition congruence in the method of anchoring communal law to authoritative personal transmission.
Chapter XXIV
CHAPTER XXIV.
§ 1. He who [on the Sabbath-eve] is overtaken by the dusk on the road must give his purse to a heathen. If there be no heathen with him he must put it on the ass. As soon as he arrives at the outmost court [dwelling of the first town or village he reaches] he
takes off all such things as may be moved on the Sabbath; as to those things which must not be moved he loosens the cords, that they may fall off by themselves.
§ 2. They may untie bundles of straw for cattle; also to strew green boughs [stalks for them], but they must not undo bundles trebly tied. Herbs used as fodder, and carob pods, must not be cut up for cattle, be it large or small [kine or sheep]. R. Jehudah permits the cutting up of carob pods for small cattle.
§ 3. A camel must not be crammed [to fatten it]; nor yet forced to eat; but the food may be put into its mouth. Calves must not be crammed, but the food may be put into their mouths. Poultry may be fed: water may be poured on bran, but it must not be kneaded. They must not put water before bees, or before pigeons in a dovecot; but they may put [it] before geese, and before poultry, and before house pigeons [tame ones].
§ 4. Pumpkins may be cut up for cattle, and carrion for dogs. R. Jehudah saith, "If the carrion was not such [if the beast had not died] on the Sabbath-eve [or before], it must not be cut up; because [in that case] it is not [part] of what has been provided [for the necessary consumption of the Sabbath].
§ 5. A man may annul [disallow] vows [of his wife or daughter], 1 on the Sabbath, and consult [a sage] as to vows [relating to objects required] for the Sabbath. Window light may be shut out by blinds; a piece of stuff may be measured, 2 and also a מקוה. 3 It happened in the days of R. Zadock's father, and of Abbah Saul, that they closed a window with an earthen vessel, and then tied another vessel to a pole with withies, in order to ascertain whether, in a covered vessel [that stood on a kennel between two houses] there was an opening one hand high or not. 4 Thence we learn that [in certain cases] it may become permitted to stop up [close], to measure, and to tie, on the Sabbath.
Footnotes
69:1 Num. xxx. 2.
69:2 To ascertain whether it is of a size liable to contract uncleanness.
69:3 A bath of spring water, of legal size.
69:4 To ascertain whether, through this vessel, impurity, arising from death, might be communicated from one house to the other. (Vide Mishna, Seder Taharoth).