Shabbat 148B

ניפרוס סודרא ⁠— אתי לידי סחיטה. נכסייה בנכתמא ⁠— זימנין דמיפסק, ואתי למקטריה. הלכך לא אפשר.

If you say that, in order to draw water in an unusual manner, we should require a woman to spread a cloth over the vessel, she may come to violate the prohibition of squeezing water from the cloth. And if we would cover it with a lid, sometimes it is severed from the pitcher, and one will then come to tie it. Therefore, since it is impossible to require women to draw water any other way, women draw water on a Festival in the usual manner.

ואמר ליה רבא בר רב חנן לאביי: תנן לא מספקין, ולא מטפחין, ולא מרקדין ביום טוב. וקא חזינן דעבדין, ולא אמרינן להו ולא מידי! ולטעמיך, הא דאמר רבא: לא ליתיב איניש אפומא דלחייא, דילמא מיגנדר ליה חפץ ואתי לאיתויי, והא קא חזינן נשי דמיתיין חצבי ויתבן אפומא דמבואה, ולא אמרינן להו ולא מידי! אלא: הנח לישראל, מוטב שיהו שוגגין ואל יהו מזידין.

And Rava bar Rav Ḥanan said to Abaye: Did we not learn in a Mishnah that one may not clap hands, or clap one’s hand against one’s body, or dance on a Festival? And we see, however, that people do these things, and we do not say anything to stop them. Abaye responded: And according to your reasoning, what about this halakha that Rava said: One may not sit on Shabbat at the entrance of a private alleyway next to the post, which delineates its boundaries, lest an object roll away into the public domain and he come to bring it back? And yet we see that women put down their jugs and sit at the entrance of the alleyway, and we do not say anything to stop them. Rather, in these matters we rely on a different principle: Leave the Jewish people alone, and do not rebuke them. It is better that they be unwitting in their halakhic violations and that they not be intentional sinners, for if they are told about these prohibitions they may not listen anyway.