Shabbat 107: Proof of Biblical Racism, Trapping Animals or Vermin on Shabbat

We are reminded that one is exempt if doing labour prohibited by rabbinical law on Shabbat if that action is functional.  For example, one may cover a child's feces with a bowl in order to prevent the child from dirtying themselves.  One can trap a snake to avoid being bitten but not to use it for medicinal purposes.  One may cover a lamp with a bowl to stop a fire from taking hold in a ceiling beam.

A new Mishna begins Perek XIV.  It teaches us that we may not trap or wound any of the eight creeping animals mentioned in the Torah.  This includes the weasel, mouse, dab lizard, gecko, land-crocodile, lizard, skink, and the chameleon.  If we trap other crawling things for a specific need, we are liable.  If we trap them for no reason, we are exempt.  When an animal is domesticated and under our control, we are exempt if we trap them and liable if we wound them.

The Gemara notes that these creatures have skin.  When we wound, are we wounding the skin or something deeper?  Must a wound be defined as something irreversible?  And then we come to a very disturbing comment.  "Can a Cushite change his skin, or a leopard its spots?" (Jeremiah 13:23)... wounds are similar to the skin of a Cushite: Just like the skin of a Cushite will not change its colour to white, so too a wound is something that does not reverse.

Before moving on to the next statement in the Gemara, this concept must be addressed.  Cushites were of darker skin, descendants of Noah's oldest son Ham, the criticized ethnicity of Moses's wife.  This statement clearly defines darker skin as 'wounded'; a problem that will not be changed.  Such bigotry is a proof of human intervention in the writing of the Torah.  People's words are bigoted, not G-d's. We are presented with proof of the long legacy of racism in the Jewish tradition, as well.  This is something that must be address both historically and in our current situation.

The Gemara moves on to describe people being liable for killing other abominations like lice.  Rabbi Eliezer says that this is the same as killing a camel.  We learn that he is the rabbi who holds that one is liable for killing any living creature.  The rabbis agree with him regarding crawling things that do not procreate, like lice.  Interesting to imagine how the rabbis thought that lice multiplied if they did not procreate.  

We are told about other things we are prohibited from doing on Shabbat regarding animals.  This includes removing a fish from water and removing a fetus from an animal's womb.  These might fall under the category of slaughtering, reaping or shearing.