Beitza 12 a, b

A Mishna introduces today's daf.  It teaches that Beit Shammai are very stringent: on Festivals we are not permitted to carry out a minor child, a lulav, or a Torah scroll into the public domain.  As expected, Beit  Hillel disagree.  A note clarifies: we cannot carry out an adult, either - this is how stringent Beit Shammai are!  All three activities are mitzvot.  Minor children are carried out after a circumcision, a lulav is carried out to be shaken, and the Torah scroll is carried out to be read.  We learn in another note that the halacha is in accordance with Beit Hillel.  Because we are permitted to carry on a Festival for food preparation, we are also allowed to carry for other purposes.

The rabbis determine some of the differences between halachot of Shabbat and of Festivals.  They note that there is no eruv required on Festivals, but that boundaries between courtyards should still be joined.  They differentiate between forms of labour, like carrying out, to understand which forms are permitted on Festivals but not on Shabbat. To demonstrate how this works, the rabbis remind us that a person who eats the sciatic nerve cooked in milk on a Festival has violated 5 mitzvot: cooking the sciatic nerve, eating the sciatic nerve, cooking mild and meat together, eating them together, and kindling a fire.  For each of these, a person is flogged.

The halacha allows kindling fire on a Festival for cooking or even for other purposes, though some believe that this action should be undertaken in an unusual manner.  The rabbis note that analogies should be consistent.  When we state: if.... then...., we must be able to do that in related cases as well. This rule of logic helps them create stringencies and/or leniencies depending on the situation at hand.

We are introduced to a new Mishna about gifts for the priest on Festivals.  Beit Shammai assert that we are permitted to separate challah and to prepare animals for slaughter on the Festivals.  Even so, we cannot bring that challah nor the parts of an animal offered as gifts to the priest on a Festival. We are told that Hillel questions Shammai, eventually explaining that a consistent argument would allow either preparation of the gift and giving the gift OR no preparation and no gift.

We go on to follow generations of rabbi's disputing whether or not we understand the dispute between Shammai and Hillel.  They argue that the rabbis actually agreed about these issues; perhaps they were discussing the definition and rules of teruma.  We learn that rabbis use Hillel's opinion, that we are permitted to bring teruma to priests on Festivals, is used to justify similar behaviours down the road.

At the end of today's daf, the rabbis share a story regarding mustard seeds.  Is it permitted to husk and prepare them on a Festival? The rabbis ask questions and compare this action to other similar actions on festivals.  They also note the importance of doing this labour in an unusual manner.

I have never understood with any clarity how the Festivals differ from Shabbat regarding prohibited and permitted labour. It was only recently that I learned that cooking is allowed on Festivals. In my meager education regarding halacha, we did not cover the differences between Festivals and Shabbat.  Thus I have always assumed that what is prohibited on Shabbat is prohibited on Festivals.  I wonder why more of an effort was not given toward explaining that significant difference.  Did the teachers of my youth want for us to err on the side of 'more' observance?