Study Shabbat folio 29A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
גוי שחקק קב בבקעת — ישראל מסיקה ביום טוב. ואמאי? נולד הוא! לדבריהם דרבי אליעזר ורבי עקיבא קאמר ליה, וליה לא סבירא ליה.
When a non-Jew carved out a vessel the size of a kav from a piece of wood on a Festival and thereby rendered it a new vessel, a Jew may burn the vessel on a Festival ab initio. And why may he do so? This new vessel that was made from the wood is an object that came into being [nolad] on a Festival, and is set-aside [muktze]. Since Rav Adda bar Ahava permitted doing so, apparently he holds that the laws of set-aside do not apply on a Festival, contrary to the opinion of R' Yehuda. The Talmud answers: Rav Adda bar Ahava said this statement in explanation of the statements of R' Eliezer and R' Akiva in the Mishnah; however, he himself does not hold that way. Although he explained the opinions in the Mishnah in accordance with the opinion of R' Yehuda, he himself does not hold that that is the halakha.
רבא אמר, היינו טעמא דרבי אליעזר: לפי שאין מדליקין בפתילה שאינה מחורכת ולא בסמרטוטין שאינן מחורכין. אלא הא דתני רב יוסף ״שלש על שלש מצומצמות״ למאי הלכתא? לענין טומאה. דתנן: שלש על שלש שאמרו — חוץ מן המלל, דברי רבי שמעון. וחכמים אומרים: שלש על שלש מכוונות.
Rava said, this is the reasoning behind R' Eliezer’s opinion with regard to lighting the wick: Because he holds that one may neither light on Shabbat using a wick that is not slightly singed and prepared for lighting nor light with rags that were not singed before Shabbat. If a person singes the wick slightly before lighting it, it will burn well. A wick that has not been singed does not burn well and will not show the appropriate deference to Shabbat. The Talmud asks: If so, that which Rav Yosef taught: 3 by 3 exactly, to what halakha is it relevant? According to Rava’s explanation, the precise size of the garment used in making the wick is irrelevant. The Talmud responds: Rav Yosef’s statement was with regard to another matter, the halakhot of ritual impurity. As we learned in a Mishnah in tractate Kelim: 3 by 3 fingerbreadths that they stated as the smallest sized garment that can become ritually impure, excludes the portion used for the hem, i.e., those threads that emerge at the edge of the garment and are sewn into a hem; this is the statement of R' Shimon. And the Rabbis say: 3 by 3 exactly, even including the hem. That is the context of Rav Yosef’s statement: 3 by 3 exactly.