Bava Batra 20: What is Useless?; Noise Pollution

A brief look at today's daf.

The rabbis wonder about transferring ritual impurity through a window.  If there is even a very small part of a corpse within a room, the corpse can transmit ritual impurity through a window of a certain size.  If items that are of no use are placed along the window pane, the dimensions of the window are effectively diminished.  

But what has no use?  The rabbis walk us through a long list of such items, noting that each might still be functional in some way.  One of the more notable items was a baby born at eight months gestation, which is assumed will not survive.  As if placing an ailing infant on a windowsill wasn't enough, the rabbis note that the baby's mother might use the baby to nurse. This would not be to serve the baby's needs, but to assist the nursing mother who might become ill if she does not nurse.  This is how the baby might be useful.  I am guessing that these particular arguments were very much based on theory and not on the practice at the time.  

We are introduced to two new Mishnayot, as well.  The first teaches us about an earlier Mishna's advice to create measured barriers between an oven and the rest of a home.  If damages ensue, the oven's owner is no longer liable.  Further, we had been advised not to allow certain types of businesses to be built on top of each other.  We learn that this is because of the damages that could be caused by odours, particularly to wine in a different part of the same building.

The second Mishna teaches us that it is not permitted to build a store in one's shared courtyard, for other people might complain about the noise.  However, it is permitted to create utensils in one's home that one plans to sell in the marketplace, even if the noise of fashioning those utensils is disturbing to one's neighbours.  The Gemara will discuss this conundrum in tomorrow's daf.