Study Beitzah folio 11B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
התם לא מוכחא מלתא, משום דחזי למזגא עליה. הכא אתי למימר: מאי טעמא שרו לי רבנן — כי היכי דלא לסרח. מה לי למשטחינהו, מה לי לממלחינהו.
The Talmud answers: There, in the case of spreading out the hide, the matter is not so evident that it is spread out for tanning because in its current state, it is fit to recline on, and therefore it can be said that one placed it for this purpose. However, here, with regard to fats, he himself might come to say: What is the reason that the rabbis permitted it to me? So that it will not emit a foul odor. If so, what is the difference to me if I spread them out, and what is the difference to me if I salt them? This reasoning will lead one to salt hides, which is a prohibited labor.
אמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל: מולח אדם כמה חתיכות בשר בבת אחת, אף על פי שאינו צריך אלא לחתיכה אחת. רב אדא בר אהבה מערים ומלח גרמא גרמא.
Rav Yehuda said that Shmuel said: A person may salt on a Festival several pieces of meat at one time, although he requires only one piece, as it is all one act of salting. Rav Adda bar Ahava would employ artifice and salt bone by bone. After salting one bone, he would say: I prefer this one instead, and would thereby salt all the meat in his possession.
מתני׳ בית שמאי אומרים: אין מסלקין את התריסין ביום טוב, ובית הלל מתירין אף להחזיר.
Mishnah: Beit Shammai say: One may not remove the shutters [terisin] of a store on a Festival, due to the prohibition against building and demolishing. And Beit Hillel permit one not only to open the shutters, but even to replace them.
גמ׳ מאי תריסין? אמר עולא: תריסי חנויות.
Talmud: The Talmud asks: What are these shutters? Ulla said: This is referring to shutters of shops. The marketplace shops or stalls were large crates or wagons, not buildings. They were closed at night with shutters. The shopkeepers would open the shutters on the Festival so that people who did not manage to finish all of their Festival preparations before the Festival could take the articles they required and settle accounts with the storekeeper later. Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel disputed whether the shutters may be opened and closed on the Festival itself.