Bava Kamma 80a — the Talmud in English

And the butcher

who gathers the animals for market day,

takes

the animals

and slaughters

immediately; or, if he wishes, he

takes

them thirty days before market day

and waits

with them until market day.

Provided that he does not keep

the

delayed one

among them

the last one that he bought close to market day

for thirty days

from the day that he bought it; and just as they said with regard to the Festival.

The students of Rabban Gamliel asked him:

What is the law concerning raising

small livestock in the Land of Israel?

He said to them,

Rabban Gamliel:

It is permitted

to raise them.

And we raise an objection to this:

But we learned

in our Mishna:

One may not raise

small livestock in the Land of Israel!?

Rather, this is what they asked him

this is what his students asked him:

What is the law concerning keeping

small livestock in the house, so that it does not go out to graze in the herd?

He said to them,

Rabban Gamliel:

It is permitted

to keep it in the house,

provided that it does not go out and graze in the herd, but rather he ties it to the legs of the bed.

The Sages taught: There was an incident involving a certain pious man

who was groaning from his heart

crying out because of heart pain,

and they asked the physicians, and they said: He has no remedy until he drinks hot milk

from the animal’s udders

from morning to morning.

And they brought him a goat, tied it to the legs of his bed, and he was

suckling from it from morning to morning.

After some time

later

the

Sages,

his companions,

of that pious man

entered to visit him; when they saw

the Sages

that goat

which was

tied to the legs of the bed, they turned

the Sages

backward and said: An armed robber

is in this man’s house, and we should enter to him!?

They sat and examined, and found in him

in that pious man

only that sin of that goat.

And he too —

the pious man —

at the time of his death,

said: I know that there is no sin in me except the sin of that goat, for I transgressed the words of my colleagues.

Rabbi Ishmael said: Among the householders of the Upper Galilee was my father’s household; and why were they destroyed? Because they grazed

their small livestock

in the woods

in the forests,

and judged monetary cases alone.

And although they had woods near their houses,

and in the woods it is permitted, as explained in the beraita above, on 79b, nevertheless

a small field

belonging to others

was

between their house and the woods,

and they transferred

the animals

by way of it,

and therefore they were destroyed.

The Sages taught: A shepherd

who has small livestock of his own,

who repented

who came to repent, so as not to raise small livestock any longer,

is not required to sell

all his animals

immediately,

but he sells them gradually

little by little.

And likewise a convert to whom dogs and pigs fell through his inheritance

from his gentile father, and it is forbidden to raise them as explained in our Mishna,

is not required to sell immediately

all of them,

but he sells them gradually.

And likewise one who vowed to acquire a house and to acquire a wife in the Land of Israel,

is not required to acquire immediately

from all those whom he finds,

until he finds one suitable for him.

And there was an incident

that occurred

with a certain woman,

a widow or divorcee,

whose son caused her distress

that she should marry a man,

and she hastily swore: Whoever comes

to seek a match with me —

I shall not send him away!

And there hastened to her

to marry her

people who were unfit.

And when the matter came before the Sages, they said: This woman intended only

to marry

a

man who is

fit for her,

and she is not obligated to marry them.

Just as they said: One may not raise small livestock

in the Land of Israel,

so they said: One may not raise small wild animals

deer and foxes in the Land of Israel.

Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar says: One may raise: dwarf dogs

small and dwarfed,

and cats, and monkeys, and bush rats,

rats that dwell in a bush,

because they are made to clear the house

of mice.

And we explain:

What are “bush rats”?

Rav Yehuda said:

It is what is called:

“shartza hartza.”

Some say:

“Bush rat” is what is called

“hartza,”

whose legs are thin,

its legs are thin; and therefore it is called “hartza,” for the furrows are discernible between its legs because they are thin and appear high,

and it grazes among the rosebushes,

it grazes among the bushes; and it is not the holed written in the Torah among the creeping creatures.

And what is “

shartza,”

and which is the holed written in the Torah among the creeping creatures? It is this one

whose legs are short,

and it swarms upon the earth.

Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: We have made ourselves in Babylonia like the Land of Israel with regard to small livestock,

so that they should not raise small livestock there; and because from the exile of Jeconiah onward, students multiplied in Babylonia and settled there in a permanent settlement.

Rav Adda bar Ahava said to Rav Huna:

What about yours

what is yours? That is, you have small livestock; how do you raise them in Babylonia!?

He said to him,

Rav Huna to Rav Adda bar Ahava:

Ours —

Hova guards them

my animals are guarded by my wife, whose name is Hova.

He said to him,

Rav Adda bar Ahava to Rav Huna:

Hova, may she bury her sons

may she bury her son; you rely on her, but she is unable to guard them.

And because of these words that Rav Adda bar Ahava said:

Throughout the second year of Rav Adda bar Ahava, Rav Huna had no surviving offspring from Hova,

all the days of Rav Adda bar Ahava, Rav Huna’s offspring from Hova did not survive.

Some say: Rav Huna said

Rav Huna was the one who said:

We have made ourselves in Babylonia like the Land of Israel with regard to small livestock, from the time Rav came to Babylonia,

from the time of Rav’s arrival in Babylonia; for then the settlers there multiplied because of his academy.

An incident involving

Rav, Shmuel, and Rav Asi,

who

happened to come to the house of the week of the son

a circumcision,

and some say, to the house of the salvation of the son

the redemption of the firstborn. When they reached the entrance of that place, the Sages deliberated what they should do, for:

Rav does not enter before Shmuel

it was not Rav’s practice to enter before Shmuel, as the reason is explained later in the matter —