Shabbat 78: Equivalencies When Measuring Amounts of Items Forbidden to be Carried

Masechet Shabbat 77 includes a discussion of animals and their weaknesses.

The Gemara discusses how much water can be carried out on Shabbat without liability.  Enough to wash one's eyes?  Should it be the same as that for wine or for milk?  Would we consider whether this water is used for drinking or for healing purposes?  If that last consideration is true, and water is more commonly used for drinking and less frequently for healing, should there be stringencies placed upon its use for healing?  In the Galilee, we learn, wine is the common drink.  Water is commonly used to heal eyes.  

The rabbis turn their attention to our Mishna's commentary on amounts of liquids.  Liability for carrying out blood and all types of liquids on Shabbat is said to be a quarter of a log.  The rabbis consider where that blood came from and why it might be carried.  As an aside, we learn that a teacher might ask his pupil to prepare a place for him to eat.  If the student carries out significant things in his effort to prepare the table, he is not liable because he is following the directions of his teacher.

A new Mishna teaches that One who carries out a rope is liable in a measure equal to that which is used to make an ear-shaped handle for a basket.  The measure for carrying out reed grass is equal to that of a loop for hanging a sifter or a sieve.  Rabbi Yehuda says that it is equal to the measurer of a shoe for a child, because the reed is used to measure the foot.  The measure for carrying out paper is equal to that which is used to write a tax receipt.  But carrying out a tax receipt on Shabbat is of course no permitted. Many more limits are described including:

• erased paper - as much as it takes to wrap around a small jar of perfume
• animal hide - an amulet
• carrying dochsostos, layer of hide - what is used to write a mezuza
• parchment - what is used to write the shortest portion in the phylacteries, that of Shema Yisrael
• ink- how much it takes to write two letters
• blue eye shadow - enough to paint one eye blue
• glue - enough to place on the top of a board to catch birds
• tar/sulphur - sealing a hole in a vessel and making a hole n that seal
• wax- sealing the opening of a small hole
• crushed earthenware - using it to make an opening for the bellows for a gold refiners' crucible (Rabbi Yehuda says  to make a small tripod for that crucible)
• bran - to place on the hole of a gold refiners' crucible
• lime - spread depilatory on the smallest of girls (Rabbi Yehuda says what is used to spread on the hair that grows of the temple so that it will lie flat.  Rabbi Nechemya says enough to spread on the temple to remove fine hairs)

So how much rope does it take to form an ear-shaped handle for a basket? The rabbis discuss the amount of ink that it might take to write two letters.  They admit that this is almost too small to measure.  However, regarding the tax receipt, the rabbis enter a conversation about senior and junior tax collectors.  They get into the question of holding tax notes and promissory notes on Shabbat to be used as paper.  This larger discussion about holding a one who says that they have made payment but have not yet done so will be discussed at length in other sections of the Talmud.