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1) RAISING SMALL ANIMALS IN ERETZ YISRAEL

(a) (Beraisa - Talmidim): May one raise (small animals)?
(b) R. Gamliel: Yes.
(c) Question: But the Mishnah forbids this!
(d) Correction: Rather, they asked if one may keep a small animal for 30 days before the festival;

1. R. Gamliel permitted this, on condition that it does not graze with the flock; rather, he must tie it to the bed.

(e) (Beraisa): A man was groaning; doctors said, to be cured he must suckle milk every morning. They brought a goat and tied it to his bed; he suckled every morning.

1. One day his friends came and saw the goat; they were outraged (because goats eat others' property) and left his house.
2. They could not find another thing he had done wrong; he himself, as he was dying, confessed that this was his only transgression, disobeying the decree.

(f) R. Yishmael: My father's house in Galil was destroyed because they used to graze small animals in forests and judge monetary cases alone (without a Beis Din of 3).

1. Even though they had forests near their houses, someone else owned a small field on the way to the forest.

(g) (Beraisa): A shepherd that repents - he need not sell his whole flock immediately, he may sell it little by little.
(h) Similarly: a convert who inherited dogs and pigs - he need not sell them all immediately, he may sell it little by little.
(i) Similarly: one who vowed to buy a house and marry a woman in Eretz Yisrael, we do not force him to fulfill this immediately, he may wait until he finds a suitable house and wife.
(j) A man was pressuring his mother to get married; she swore that she would not refuse anyone. She was swarmed with improper men; Chachamim ruled, she only intended for someone fitting for her.

(a) (Beraisa): Just as we may not raise small Behemos, also we may not raise small Chayos.
(b) R. Shimon ben Elazar says, we may raise Kufri (midget; some say, large hunting) dogs, cats, monkeys, and bush weasels because they clean the house from mice.
(c) Question: What are bush weasels?
(d) Answer (Rav Yehudah): A rodent with thin (another version - small) thighs.
(e) [Version #1 (Rav Yehudah citing Rav): In Bavel, we adopted the law of Eretz Yisrael to forbid raising small animals.
(f) Rav Ada bar Ahavah (to Rav Huna): Why do you have small animals?
(g) Rav Huna: My wife Chovah guards them from damaging.
(h) Rav Ada bar Ahavah: She should bury her son!

1. As long as Rav Ada was alive, none of Rav Huna's children from Chovah survived.]

(i) [Version #2 (Rav Huna): After Rav came to Bavel, we adopted the law of Eretz Yisrael to forbid raising small animals.]
(j) Rav, Shmuel and R. Asi went to a circumcision; some say, to a feast in honor of the redemption of a firstborn. Rav did not want to enter in front of Shmuel; Shmuel did not want to enter in front of R. Asi; R. Asi did not want to enter in front of Rav.

1. They decided that Shmuel would wait outside.

i. Question: Why not have Rav or R. Asi wait outside?
ii. Answer: Really, they were both greater than Shmuel; Rav honored Shmuel and would not enter in front of Shmuel because he regretted having once cursed Shmuel.

2. Meanwhile, a cat came and cut off a child's hand.
3. Rav ruled: It is permitted to kill cats, and forbidden to raise them; there is no prohibition to steal them, nor a Mitzvah to return a lost cat.
4. Question: If it is permitted to kill them, obviously it is forbidden to raise them!
5. Answer: One might have thought, it is permitted to kill them, but there is no prohibition to raise them - we hear, this is not so.
6. Question: If there is no prohibition to steal them, obviously there is no Mitzvah to return a lost cat!
7. Answer (Ravina): There is not even a Mitzvah to return the skin (if one finds it dead).

(k) Question (Beraisa - R. Shimon ben Elazar): We may raise Kufri dogs, cats, monkeys, and bush weasels because they clean the house from mice.
(l) Answer: White cats often harm people, they may not be raised; black cats may be raised.
(m) Question: But the cat in the above story was black!
(n) Answer: It was a black cat born to a white cat.
(o) Question: But Ravina never settled that question!

1. Question (Ravina): May one raise a black cat born to a white cat?

(p) Answer: Ravina's question was when the cat's grandmother was black; the grandmother of the cat in the above story was white.

(a) (Rav Acha bar Papa (or 1 of his brothers)): We announce (Rashi - with shofars and trumpets) on Shabbos about boils, so people will pray; a locked door is not easily opened; one who buys a house in Eretz Yisrael, the document of sale may be written on Shabbos.
(b) Question (Beraisa): For other calamities that come, such as boils, locusts, flies, wasps, mosquitoes, and invasions of snakes and scorpions, only individuals cry out in prayer.
(c) Answer: For dry boils, we announce; for moist boils, only individuals cry out.

1. (R. Yehoshua ben Levi): The boils that Hash-m brought on the Mitzrim were wet on the outside and dry on the inside.

i. He learns from "Avabu'os Pore'ach" - they were moist (only) where they spread (on the outside).

(d) Question: 'A locked door is not easily opened' - to what does this refer?
(e) Answer #1 (Mar Zutra): If one was unable to get Semichah (be ordained as a Rav empowered to give rulings), it will be hard to get it later.
(f) Answer #2 (Rav Ashi): If Hash-m afflicts someone, He is not quick to bestow good upon him.
(g) Answer #3 (Rav Acha mi'Difti): (If Hash-m afflicts someone,) He will never bestow good upon him.

1. This is wrong - Rav Acha only spoke about his own situation.

(h) Objection: 'One who buys a house in Eretz Yisrael, the document of sale may be written on Shabbos' - this cannot be!
(i) Answer: It means, as Rava said (elsewhere) - we tell a non-Jew to write the document.

1. Even though it is normally forbidden (mid'Rabanan) to ask a non-Jew to do forbidden labors, Chachamim did not decree in this case, to facilitate settling in Eretz Yisrael.

(j) (Rav Shmuel bar Nachmani): One who buys a city in Eretz Yisrael, we force him to buy paths to it from all 4 directions, to promote settlement of Eretz Yisrael.