Study Avodah Zarah folio 12A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
ששפתו שתי קדירות על גבי כירה אחת? ולא חשו להם חכמים! מאי ״לא חשו להם חכמים״?
place two pots on one stove, and yet the rabbis were not concerned and did not issue a prohibition with regard to the meat that was in the pot belonging to the Jew, despite the fact that forbidden food was in close proximity to the permitted food? Similarly, in this case as well, the rabbis were not concerned about the bazaar’s proximity to Gaza and did not prohibit engaging in business there. The Talmud asks: What did he mean in stating: The rabbis were not concerned, with regard to the meat, and how does that case relate the issue here?
אמר אביי: משום בשר נבילה לא אמרינן, דלמא מהדר אפיה ישראל לאחוריה ושדי גוי נבילה בקדירה, דכוותה הכא נמי לא חשו להם חכמים משום דמי עבודה זרה.
Abaye said: The rabbis were not concerned with regard to the possibility of eating the meat of an unslaughtered animal carcass. We do not say: Cooking in this manner is prohibited since perhaps the Jew will turn his face and at that moment the non-Jew will throw meat of an animal carcass into his pot. Here too, in the corresponding situation, although the permitted and prohibited places are in close proximity, the rabbis were not concerned about engaging in business transactions in the bazaar of Gaza, even due to the possibility that money associated with idol worship would end up in the hands of the Jews. If the money were for the purchase of an animal used as an offering for idolatry, those coins would be prohibited by Torah law. Nevertheless, the rabbis were not concerned about this possibility, just as they were not concerned that the non-Jew might add his meat to the Jew’s pot.