Avodah Zarah, Daf Tet Zayin, Part 3
Introduction
This section continues to discuss selling wild animal to non-Jews. The material here is the same as we learned yesterday but presented in a different fashion.
רבינא רמי מתניתין אברייתא ומשני תנן אין מוכרין להן דובין ואריות ולא כל דבר שיש בו נזק לרבים טעמא דאית ביה נזק הא לית ביה נזק מוכרין. ורמינהי כשם שאין מוכרין בהמה גסה כך אין מוכרין חיה גסה ואפילו במקום שמוכרין בהמה דקה חיה גסה אין מוכרין
Ravina cast our mishnah against a baraita and then resolved the contradiction: We learned: one should not sell them bears, lions or anything which may injure the public. The reason is because they may injure the public, but if they may not injure the public they may be sold! Against this he cast [the following baraita]: Just as it is forbidden to sell them large cattle, so it is forbidden to sell them large wild animals, and even in such places where they do sell them small cattle, they may not sell them large wild animals.
Ravina notes a direction contradiction between the mishnah and a baraita. The mishnah implies that as long as the animal is not dangerous it may be sold to non-Jews. But the baraita prohibits selling large wild animals under any circumstances.
ומשני בארי שבור ואליבא דר’ יהודה רב אשי אמר סתם ארי שבור הוא אצל מלאכה
Rabbah b. Ulla said: [Our Mishnah may refer] to a maimed lion in accordance with the opinion of R. Judah.
R. Ashi said: Generally, any lion may be regarded as maimed in regard to work.
These are the same opinions we saw yesterday. Rabbah b. Ulla says that the mishnah refers to a maimed lion and follows R. Judah who allows selling maimed animals. R. Judah does not allow selling maimed dangerous animals. If it is not dangerous, it may be sold. But other wild animals may not be sold even if they are not dangerous.
R. Ashi says that lions cannot perform work in any case. Therefore, they cannot be sold if they are dangerous. But animals that could possibly be put to work may be sold.
מתקיף לה רב נחמן מאן לימא לן דארי חיה גסה היא דלמא חיה דקה היא
R. Nahman objected: Who says that a lion is to be regarded as a big animal? Perhaps it is a small animal.
R. Nahman objects to the entire difficulty. Perhaps a lion is not a large animal. Perhaps it is to be considered a small animal. As we have seen, in places where the custom is to sell small animals to non-Jews, they may be sold. Thus a lion may not be sold because it is dangerous. But other small animals may be sold.
רב אשי דייק מתניתין ומותיב תיובתא תנן אין מוכרין להן דובים ואריות ולא כל דבר שיש בו נזק לרבים טעמא דאית ביה נזק הא לית ביה נזק מוכרין וטעמא ארי דסתם ארי שבור הוא אצל מלאכה אבל מידי אחרינא דעביד מלאכה לא תיובתא דרב חנן בר רבא תיובתא
R. Ashi read the mishnah precisely and raised the following refutation: We learned: one should not sell them bears, lions or anything which may injure the public. The reason is that it is a danger to the public, but if it is not a danger to the public it can be sold. And the reason why lion is mentioned, is because a lion is generally regarded as maimed vis a vis workd, but any other animal which can perform work, the prohibition does apply. This refutes R. Hanan b. Rava.
R. Ashi reads the mishnah such that it refutes R. Hanan b. Rava who allowed selling non-dangerous large wild animals to non-Jews. We should note that this is yet another organization of the same material we have seen above.
אמר אביי אמר לי מר יהודה דבי מר יוחני טחני ריחים בערודי
But what kind of work can a large wild animal perform?
Abaye said: Mar Judah told me that at the house of Mah Yohani they work mills with wild asses.
This is probably a question you had earlier what kind of work can a wild animal perform? The answer is that it can be tied to a mill and made to grind grain.