Shabbat 106: Trapping Animals on Shabbat

We continue to learn about different prohibited labours on Shabbat.  We had learned that one who performs labour destructively is exempt except for one who inflicts a wound or kindles a fire is exempt if these constructive labours are required for their own sake. Rabbi Yochanan tells Rabbi Abbahu to go and teach that outside, for it is not fit for discussion in the study hall.   and We learn that circumcision is repairing a child like one would repair a vessel.  These are constructive labours.  Actions might be considered both destructive and constructive at the same time.  Actions might be considered both constructive and destructive simultaneously.

A new Mishna teaches Rabbi Yehuda's words about trapping: one who traps a bird in a closet or cage and one who traps a deer into a house is liable.  The rabbis say that only one who traps a bird in a closet and a deer in a garden, courtyard or enclosure is liable.  Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel introduces a principle: If the trapping of the animal is inadequate and one must pursue and apprehend it, one is not liable for trapping.  But if one trapped a deer into an enclosure where the trapping is inadequate, one is liable.  The Gemara discusses what it means to trap an animal.  For example, a bird is trapped if it is closed into a closet, but it is not trapped if it is closed into a house.  The animal that can evade pursuers is not truly trapped.  The Gemara looks at trapping insects as well.

Another new Mishna: if a deer walks into a home on its own and one locks the door to capture it, one is liable.  If two people lock the door, they are not liable for neither did a full labour.  But if one person was incapable locking the door and two people locked it, they are liable because that is the typical was of performing that labour.  Rabbi Simon says that the y are exempt because two people who perform a single labour are never liable by Torah law.

Our daf ends with a final new Mishna, which teaches about a deer and a courtyard entrance.  If one person sits in the entrance and another person comes to fill that entrance and there is a deer at the entrance as well, the second person is liable because he completed the labour of trapping.  If the first person sat in the doorway and filled it and a second person sat beside him, the first person is liable for trapping and the second is exempt even if the first person left the areal.  How could this be?  It is the same as one who locks one's home to secure it and learns that a deer that was trapped before Shabbat is also secured inside it.  Even though one has created better security for the deer, one did not trap the animal and thus one is not liable.