Study Avodah Zarah folio 71A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
גמ׳ ורמינהי: עיר שכבשוה כרקום — כל כהנות שבתוכה פסולות! אמר רב מרי: לנסך אין פנאי, לבעול יש פנאי.
Talmud: And the Talmud raises a contradiction to the assumption that soldiers during wartime do not have time to commit transgressions from that which is taught in another Mishnah (Ketubot 27a): With regard to a city that was conquered by an army laying siege, all the women married to priests located in the city are unfit and forbidden to their husbands, due to the concern that they were raped. Rav Mari resolved the contradiction and said: They do not have time to pour wine for libations, as their passion for idolatry is not pressing at that time, but they have time to have sex, because their lust is great even during wartime.
מתני׳ האומנין של ישראל ששלח להם נכרי חבית של יין נסך בשכרן — מותר לומר: ״תן לנו את דמיה״, משנכנסה לרשותן — אסור.
Mishnah: With regard to Jewish craftsmen to whom a non-Jew sent a jug of wine used for a libation in lieu of their wage, it is permitted for them to say to him: Give us its monetary value instead. But once it has entered into their possession, it is prohibited for them to say so, as that would be tantamount to selling the wine to the non-Jew and deriving benefit from it.
גמ׳ אמר רב יהודה אמר רב: מותר לאדם לומר לגוי: ״צא והפס עלי מנת המלך״.
Talmud: Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: It is permitted for a person to say to a non-Jew: Go and placate the collectors of the governmental tax on wine for me, and I will reimburse you subsequently, even if he pays the tax with wine used for a libation.
מיתיבי: אל יאמר אדם לגוי ״עול תחתי לעוצר״. אמר ליה רב: ״עול תחתי לעוצר״ קאמרת? הא לא דמיא אלא להא, אבל אומר לו ״מלטני מן העוצר״.
One of the rabbis raised an objection from a baraita: A person may not say to a non-Jew: Go in my stead to the commissary [la’otzer] to pay the wine tax for me, if he pays it in wine used for a libation. Rav said to him: You say that the case I am referring to is similar to one who says to a non-Jew: Go in my stead to the commissary? In that case, since he says: In my stead, whatever the non-Jew gives the commissary is considered as though the Jew gave it himself. This case that I am referring to is comparable only to that which is taught in the baraita: But the Jew may say to a non-Jew: Save me from the commissary.