Beitzah 36

Okay, this one made me laugh out loud . . .

It was taught in the mishna: And one may place a vessel beneath a leak in order to catch the water on Shabbat. A Sage taught in a baraita: If the vessel became full with the leaking water, he may pour out its contents, place the vessel back under the leak, and repeat the entire process if necessary, and he need not refrain from doing so.

The Gemara relates a story: Abaye’s millhouse once developed a leak on Shabbat. Abaye was concerned about the potential damage to the millstones, which were made partly of clay and which would become ruined from the leaking water, and he did not have enough buckets to catch all the water without emptying and refilling them. But the water was unfit for drinking and was therefore muktze and could not be removed. Abaye came before Rabba to ask him how to proceed. Rabba said to him: Go and bring your bed into the millhouse, so that the dirty water will be considered like a container of excrement, which, despite being muktze, may be removed from one’s presence due to its repulsive nature, and then remove the water.

Abaye sat and thought and examined the matter and posed a difficulty: And may one initiate a situation of a container of excrement, i.e., may one intentionally place any repulsive matter into a situation which will bother him and will then have to be removed, ab initio?

In the meantime, as he was deliberating the issue, Abaye’s millhouse collapsed. He said: I had this coming to me for having gone against the words of my master, Rabba, by not following his ruling unquestioningly.

Ha!

Abaye seeks out his teacher’s thoughts on how to save his millstones and when his teacher gives him a solution he begins to debate the minutia of the law – and during this time the rainwater continues to poor into the millhouse and it collapses before Abaye does anything to save his space.

So many lessons. 1) Sometimes you need to just trust the authority, do what is asked of you, and ask questions later. 2) Sometimes you need a fast answer and a fast reaction. 3) Sometimes we get so bogged down in process we lose out on opportunities. It reminds me of my friend and colleagues Miriam Ternlinchamp’s video: Little Table.

Enjoy