Beitza 3 a, b

Why is it that we cannot eat an egg on Shabbat or a Festival?  Perhaps an egg can be compared to a fruit.  Fruits that fall from the tree are not permitted on Shabbat or Festivals because one might squeeze the juice - an action that is forbidden on those days.  So the rabbis place a fence around the fallen fruit - and also the egg.  They are clearly aware that this is not a perfect analogy; however, it seems to be good enough to warrant their debate.

The rabbis take this fence a step further, remembering that the egg is actually formed within the chicken's body the day before it is laid.  Thus an egg laid on Sunday also cannot be used, as we are not allowed to benefit from efforts on Shabbat (the rabbis do notice that the egg is not the work of man but of heaven).  This pushes the rabbis into a conversation about how we can stipulate practices on Festivals when we might be unsure of which day is in fact a Festival day.  Of course, they also question tithing, in particular regarding a basket of fruit.

Our notes share various arguments.  Many of these question the original assertions: why is fallen fruit forbidden?  In fact, why is it wrong to pick fruit if that food is being prepared that very day for Shabbat/a Festival?  The rabbis disagree about minhag and about halacha.  We watch them attempt to understand and interpret the Mishnaot based on their own personalities, views and communities.  The notion of "fixed halacha" truly is a fiction, especially in the past.

Amud (b) conjures up the age old question, "which came first,...".  The rabbis wonder how the status of the chicken might affect that of the egg and vice versa.  They question whether the egg is forbidden because it is muktze, set aside, or whether it is forbidden because the chicken is muktze.  They question
whether the chicken might be forbidden for other reasons, and the complicating factor of tithing.  They even take into account the fact that eggs are counted, and thus cannot be nullified in certain considerations.*  

I learned today that eggs that are not permitted if they were laid on Shabbat or a Festival.  And even if there is only one such egg in a large group of eggs, the entire egg collection is forbidden.  Again, this has to do with counting: when items must be counted individually and cannot be disassembled into separate parts, those items are thought of as 'important', even as only one in one thousand.  The six (or seven, says Rabbi Akiva) items in this category are nuts (from a special place), pomegranates (from another special place), sealed barrels of wine, stalks of spinach, stalks of cabbage, pumpkin, and loaves of bread made by homeowners.  

Those items are already restricted by orla (first three years of a tree's life yield no produce for our benefit), diverse kinds (crops must be arranged to avoid any cross-contamination), and items that must be counted.  The rabbis then debate whether or not a litra** of dried figs should be included in this category.

So far, Masechet Beitza is focused on food and food preparation.  It has been quite interesting.  I am wondering whether or not this text will continue to draw me in with its balance of argument, halacha, stories and deeper questions.


*We learn that when items are forbidden temporarily, they cannot be nullified. Why?  Because their restriction is already time limited.

** Greek for 'pound'; we still use letters that remind us of the litre when we measure pounds: lb.