Study Bava Metzia folio 90B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
which non-Jews steal and castrate. Since it is prohibited for Jews to castrate animals, they would sometimes arrange for a non-Jew to pretend to steal the animal and subsequently return it after castrating it, as it is easier to handle a castrated animal. What is the halakha with regard to a case of this kind? Shmuel’s father sent to him: They used artifice; therefore, you should use artifice with them and make them sell it as a punishment. This shows that it is prohibited to instruct a non-Jew to perform a prohibition on one’s behalf.
אמר רב פפא: בני מערבא סברי לה כרבי חידקא, דאמר: בני נח מצווין על הסירוס, וקא עברי משום ״ולפני עור לא תתן מכשל״.
Rav Pappa said: This provides no conclusive proof, as the inhabitants of the West, i.e., Eretz Yisrael, who are the ones who raised this question, hold in accordance with the opinion of R' Ḥideka, who says: The descendants of Noah are commanded with regard to castration. They too are prohibited from performing this practice. And consequently, those Jews who cause them to do it transgress the prohibition of: “Nor put a stumbling block before the blind” (Leviticus 19:14).
סבר רבא למימר ימכרו לשחיטה. אמר לו אביי דיין שקנסת עליהם מכירה.
Rava thought to say that it is not enough that the owners may not use these animals castrated for them by non-Jews, but they must even sell the animals for slaughter, but not for plowing, so that they would derive no benefit at all from the increase in the value of their property that resulted from a transgression. A castrated animal is worth more if it is sold for plowing, but not if it is sold for slaughter. Abaye said to him: It is enough for them that you penalized them by requiring them to sell the animals.