then,’ said the fox, ’do you not leave that dangerous element and try the dry land with me?’ ‘Surely,’ replied the fish, ’thou art in this most foolish and unfoxlike, for if it is dangerous for us to dwell in this, our native element, how much more would it be if we left it for the dry land?’ So,” continued Agiba, “all those who study the Law have the Divine Promise,” Deut. xxx, 20:  “He is thy life and the length of thy days.”

DIVISION II—­FEASTS (MONGeD)

[contains directions for observing the festivals, including the Sabbath.  The aim in all is professedly to make explicit what is implicit in the Pentateuch.  But many late ideas and customs are brought into this division, of which the Pentateuch knows nothing.  Even the feast of Purim mentioned here it quite unmencioned in the Pentateuch.]

1.  TREATISE ON THE SABBATH.  Law regarding transfer of goods on the Sabbath.

M.  It is commanded in Exodus xvi, 29, that no man go out of his place on the Sabbath day.  This implies that no one is to take goods from his own premises to those of another.(6).  What, however, constitutes one’s own premises? (Reshut). There are many cases to be considered.  Suppose a beggar stand outside and the master of the house inside.  If the first reaches his hand through a window or door to the second, or takes something out of the hand of the latter, the beggar is guilty, but the master is absolved.  If, on the other hand, the master puts his hand outside the house, and places something in the beggar’s hands, he is guilty, but the beggar is absolved.

[There are in all four cases treating of the man inside and four of the man outside.]

G.  Rabbi Mathra said to Abazi, “There are eight or even ten cases of transfer.”  Rab questioned Rabbi, “Suppose one from the outside were laden in the house with food, fruit, etc.  How stands the law?  Is the removal of his body tantamount to the removal of a thing from its place?” “Yes,” said Rabbi; “this is not like the case of removing the hand, because the latter was not at rest, while in the former, the body, before and after removal, was entirely at rest.”  “Suppose,” said one Rabbi to another, “that a person has put bread into an oven and it is not done by the time the Sabbath begins.  May he take it out before it is spoiled?” “He may lawfully do so if he put it there, believing it would be fully baked before the Sabbath arrived.”

Acts forbidden on Sabbath eve.

M.  Just before the time of Sabbath evening prayer (7), a man is not allowed to sit to a barber, to enter a bath, a tanyard, to sit to a meal, or to begin to act as judge in a Law Court.  He must first of all perform his devotions.  But supposing that one has commenced any one of these acts, then let them be finished.

G.  A man begins the act of haircutting when the barber’s cloth is spread over him.  Bathing has begun if the outer coat has been pulled off.  A man has commenced to tan if his working apron has been tied around him.  A meal begins when the hands are washed or (as some say) when the girdle has been removed.  The process of judging has begun when the judges have donned their professional robes, or (as some have it) directly the litigants begin pleading.