Beitza 11 a, b

Bird enthusiasts?  Desperate to raise enough kosher doves for the offerings?  People with too much time on their hands?  Our beloved rabbis continue to describe, in detail, the behaviour of fledgling doves. We are given the tools to know which doves are appropriate and which are prohibited for slaughtering.

A new Mishna moves on to other prohibitions: a large pestle removed from the mortar to cut meat, a hide placed on the floor where it can be stepped on, lifting a hide as it is muktze, set aside, unless it has meat on it.  Or not... because Beit Hillel permit the last two prohibitions.

The rabbis explain some of our halachot regarding food preparation.  After being used to cut meat for the Festivals, pestles cannot be moved for safekeeping.  They can be moved to be used again, however. I am not completely clear about how this works; it seems that utensils are categorized as muktze unless they are used for a food-preparation purpose during the Festival.  But don't quote me on that.

Is it the same for an anvil, used to crush bones? wonder our rabbis. Can we move a knife or an animal to a butcher?  Hillel rules with leniency in these and other scenarios.

We learn about the pros and cons of salting hides.  Yes, the hide is preserved; the animal is ready for roasting. But salting a hide is similar to tanning, which is prohibited on the Festivals.  The rabbis speak about some of the intricacies of hide preparation that are foreign to me - the use of the fats. the use of fats and salt, the use of a pot for cooking...

Finally, in looking at stretching the hide, the rabbis look again at salting the hide.  I am not clear exactly how this is very different from the rabbis' second point.

A second Mishna teaches us about shutters.  Beit Shammai tell us that we cannot remove the shutters from a store on a Festival.  We would be breaking the 'building and demolishing' prohibition.  Beit Hillel permit us to open the shutters and even to replace the shutters!  The Gemara notes that stores should be allowed to remain open so that people can prepare for the Festival.  Ulla reminds us of a principle: the Sages permit an action whose result is undesirable to encourage a desirable initial action. An example is laying out hides, even if they are trodden upon.  Other examples of this principle are shared: bandaging Priests on Shabbat; selling wine and dough on the Festival.

The rabbis tell us that these leniencies applied in the Temple but not in the rest of Israel.  Why?  Because rabbinic law does not apply to the Temple.  The rabbis share details regarding which prohibitions were treated with greater leniency and why.  For example, a person outside of the Temple cannot replace her/his bandage on a Festival or Shabbat - unless s/he is eligible for Temple service.  In that case, bandages can be replaced.

The rabbis share their thoughts about selling wine and dough on Festivals.  These products are considered to be ritually pure until opened; there is some debate as to whether or not they regress to a state of ritual impurity or whether they retain their status as ritually pure after selling some of each product.  Steinsaltz shares a note explaining that when these items are opened on a Festival, they do retain their ritual purity until the end of the holiday, after which time they lose that status.  This is due to the principle cited earlier regarding an undesired outcome.

We learn more about shutters being removed.  Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar suggest that Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai in fact agree that it is permitted to remove shutters; they disagree about whether or not it is allowed to replace them.  The rabbis wonder about the hinges of the shutters: what work would be involved in replacing the shutters?  Without hinges, those shutters would be similar to boards - no problem, because the action is not at all related to building/demolishing.  In the end, the rabbis agree that it is important to know where the hinges are attached to the board: the middle? The ends/sides?  This will help them to know when it is permitted to remove that shutter.

Today's daf demonstrates the minutiae that our Sages considered while they were forming arguments about larger issues.