Study Shabbat folio 115B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
אילימא תנא קמא דרבי יוסי — ודילמא בהא קמיפלגי, מר סבר: ניתנו לקרות בהן, ומר סבר: לא ניתנו לקרות בהן. אלא רבי יוסי ותנא דגיפטית.
If we say it is the first tanna who disagrees with R' Yosei, that is not necessarily so, and perhaps they are disagreeing about this: This Master, the first tanna, holds that books written in other languages may be read; and this Master, R' Yosei, holds that they may not be read, and their dispute is unrelated to the dispute between Rav Huna and Rav Ḥisda. Rather, it is the dispute between R' Yosei and the first tanna, who spoke about books written in Coptic. According to that tanna, even books that may not be read are rescued, whereas R' Yosei holds that they are not rescued.
תנו רבנן: הברכות והקמיעין, אף על פי שיש בהן אותיות של שם ומעניינות הרבה שבתורה — אין מצילין אותן מפני הדליקה, אלא נשרפים במקומן [הן ואזכרותיהן]. מכאן אמרו: כותבי ברכות כשורפי תורה. מעשה באחד שהיה כותב בצידן, באו והודיעו את רבי ישמעאל, והלך רבי ישמעאל לבודקו. כשהיה עולה בסולם הרגיש בו, נטל טומוס של ברכות ושקען בספל של מים. ובלשון הזה אמר לו רבי ישמעאל: גדול עונש האחרון מן הראשון.
A baraita states: The blessings that are written and the amulets, even though there are the letters of the Name of God in them and matters that appear in the Torah are mentioned in them, they are not rescued from the fire; rather, they burn in their place, they and the names of God contained therein. From here the rabbis said: Writers of blessings are like burners of Torah scrolls, as it is prohibited to rescue these texts from the fire on Shabbat even though it is likely that they will be destroyed. There was an incident involving one who was writing pages with blessings in Sidon. They came and informed R' Yishmael of his actions, and R' Yishmael went to examine him to determine if the report was true. When R' Yishmael was ascending the ladder to confront him, the scribe sensed his presence, took a bundle [tomos] of blessings, and submerged it in a basin of water to conceal it from R' Yishmael. And in these words R' Yishmael said to him: The punishment for the latter action is greater than the punishment for the former. Although it is prohibited to write blessings, destroying them is a greater violation.