Study Taanit folio 24A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
יומא חד שמעיה דקא גריס, אמר שמואל: השולה דג מן הים בשבת, כיון שיבש בו כסלע — חייב. אמר ליה: ולימא מר ובין סנפיריו! אמר ליה: ולא סבר לה מר דההיא רבי יוסי בן רבי אבין אמרה? אמר ליה: אנא ניהו.
One day R' Yosei bar Avin heard Rav Ashi studying and reciting the following statement. Shmuel said: With regard to one who removes a fish from the sea on Shabbat, when an area on the skin of the fish the size of a sela coin has dried up, he is liable for violating the prohibition against slaughtering an animal on Shabbat. A fish in that condition cannot survive, and therefore one who removed it from the water is liable for killing it. R' Yosei bar Avin said to Rav Ashi: And let the Master say that this is the case provided that the skin that dried is between its fins. Rav Ashi said to him: And doesn’t the Master maintain that R' Yosei ben R' Avin said this ruling? Why didn’t you state it in his name? R' Yosei bar Avin said to him: I am he.
אמר ליה: ולאו קמיה דרבי יוסי דמן יוקרת הוה שכיח מר? אמר ליה: הין. אמר ליה: ומאי טעמא שבקיה מר ואתא הכא? אמר ליה: גברא דעל בריה ועל ברתיה לא חס, עלי דידי היכי חייס?!
Rav Ashi said to him: And didn’t the Master sit before and frequent the study hall of R' Yosei from Yokrat? R' Yosei bar Avin said to him: Yes. Rav Ashi said to him: And what is the reason that the Master left him and came here? R' Yosei bar Avin said to him: I was concerned and departed because he is so severe and unforgiving. He is a man who has no mercy on his own son, and no mercy on his daughter. How, then, could he have mercy on me?
The Talmud asks: What is the incident involving his son? One day R' Yosei from Yokrat hired day laborers to work his field. It grew late and he did not bring them food. The workers said to the son of R' Yosei from Yokrat: We are starving. They were sitting under a fig tree, so the son said: Fig tree, fig tree. Yield your fruits, so that my father’s workers may eat. The fig tree yielded fruit, and they ate.