Shabbat 142: Carrying a Stone, Moving a Stone, Cushion, Loaves and Babies

A child may be carried by their father on Shabbat, but might this cause problems other than inadvertent carrying?  The rabbis consider a child carrying (and dropping) a dinar, carrying versus wearing sandals and rings, clothing, carrying a basket with a hole in it, fruit held in a basket, and other items.  The Gemara considers the possible consequences regarding changing the status of teruma and breaking the laws of Shabbat in other ways.  One conversation concerns dropping one se'a of teruma into one hundred se'a of non-sacred produce, the entire batch is prohibited unless a second piece falls as well and both are retrieved immediately.  The rabbis consider whether one might eat from a different side of the container of produce.

A new Mishna teaches us about a set-aside stone.  It is not to be moved.  If it is placed on the mouth of a barrel and the barrel is tilted to one side, the stone will fall.  If the barrel is with other barrels and they might break if the stone falls on them, one lifts the barrel to distance it from the other barrels; it tilts on one side and the stone will fall.  Further, when coins are on a cushion and one shakes it, the coins will fall.  If there was bird dung on the cushion, one wipes it with a rag but does not wash it with water because we are not permitted to launder on Shabbat.  If the cushion was made of leather and laundering is not an issue, one puts water on it until the bird dung is gone.

The Gemara discusses how one might move the stone if one wanted wine and then return the stone to the top of the barrel.  The rabbis note the difference between intending to move the cushion for its place and moving the cushion for comfort (because the coins were on top of the cushion).  We are advised that moving the cushion just for comfort is not permitted. 

We are told that Rabbi Oshaya says if we forget a purse of money in the courtyard on erev Shabbat, we can bring it into our home on Shabbat by placing a loaf or a baby on it.  Rav Yitzchak says that if we forget a brick in the courtyard, we place a loaf or a baby on it and move it.  Rabbi Yehuda bar Sheila says that Rabbi Asi says that once one forgot a diskaya, saddlebag, full of coins in a main street, Rabbi Yochanan answered that it may be moved if they put a loaf or a baby on top of it.  Mar Zutra says that the halacha is in accordance with all of these statements.  But this is only when one forgets.  If one pretends to forget but actually is "employing artifice", further consequences are in line. 

At the very end of our daf, the rabbis consider whether or not we can move animals that were intended for human consumption but are actually used as food for animals.