Study Avodah Zarah folio 65B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
הוה שפיך להו חמרא לגוים, ואזיל מעבר להו מעברא, ויהבו ליה גולפי באגרא. אתו אמרו ליה לאביי, אמר להו: כי קא טרח — בהתירא קא טרח.
would pour wine which he sold to non-Jews into their wineskins and go and ferry them over the crossing, and they would give him the jugs in which the wine had been stored as payment. The jugs that the wine had been stored in were included in the sale, and the non-Jews would pay him by returning the jugs. People came and told Abaye that Rav Ika was accepting a wage from the wine of non-Jews. Abaye said to them: When he labored, he labored with permitted wine, since he was pouring kosher wine into the wineskins, and only subsequently the wine was rendered forbidden by being in the possession of the non-Jews.
והא רוצה בקיומו, דלא נצטרו זיקי! דמתני בהדייהו? אי נמי, דמייתו (פריסדקי) [פרדיסקי] בהדייהו.
The Talmud asks: But doesn’t he desire the preservation of the wine in the wineskins in that the wineskins should not be torn, as he would then need to return the jugs he received in payment? The Talmud answers: It is a case where he stipulated with the non-Jew purchasers that even if the wineskins were to tear it would be at their expense and not his, and he would keep the jugs in any event. Alternatively, it is a case where the non-Jew purchasers brought jugs [perisdakei] with them, so that they could pour the wine into them should the wineskins be torn.
והא קא מעבר להו מעברא, דקא טרח באיסורא! דאמר ליה למברויא מעיקרא, אי נמי, דנקיטי ביה קיטרי.
The Talmud asks: But didn’t he ferry them over the crossing, which is laboring with forbidden wine? The Talmud answers: This is not a case where he was ferrying the wine over the crossing himself, as he made an arrangement with the ferrymen and said to the ferryman initially that the latter would ferry the buyers and the jugs without payment. Alternatively, it was a case where he held special signal knots in collusion with the ferryman that he would ferry these people without payment. In any event, he was not laboring for them himself.