Flax has long been a valuable crop because it is not only edible but can also be spun into fiber for textiles, but processing it is laborious and requires vigorously beating the stalks to separate the seed pods. This was difficult to do and, it turns out, sometimes dangerous:
When the members of the household of bar Maryon, son of Ravin, would beat their flax, the chaff would fly off and harm people. Those people came before Ravina to complain. Ravina said to them: “When we say that Rabbi Yosei concedes with regard to his arrows, this statement applies only when the damaging item moves by his direct force. Here, by contrast, it is the wind that carries the chaff.”
To explain: We learned in a mishnah that a tree is supposed to be planted at least 25 cubits away from a cistern to prevent the roots from breaching the cistern and rendering it unusable. When the cistern is on one property and the tree on another, Rabbi Yosei says that this rule does not apply because each person has a right to do what they want on their own land. But this doesn’t mean all neighbor behaviors are acceptable to Rabbi Yosei:
Rabbi Yosei concedes with regard to his arrows.
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Rabbi Yosei’s permissiveness has its limits. You may be able to plant a tree even if your neighbor has dug a cistern relatively near the property line, but an archery range, Rabbi Yossi explains, must be placed a safe distance from the property line to ensure that stray arrows won’t cause harm to the neighbors.
So is the projectile chaff like an arrow? In the case of the household of bar Maryon and their flying flax, Ravina rules that Rabbi Yosei’s arrow concession does not apply. Why? The chaff, while separated initially by those working the threshing floor, arrives in the neighbor’s yard as a result of being blown there by the wind. This, says Ravina, is unlike an arrow that is propelled by human force. This is good news for the bar Maryons who, as a result, are not held accountable for their neighbors’ chaff-induced injuries.
It is lucky for the Maryon family that their case did not land in the court of Mar bar Rav Ashi, who questions Ravina’s decision — not based on whether wind-blown chaff is comparable to arrows, but rather, based on the laws of Shabbat. Winnowing is one of the prohibited categories of labor on Shabbat and, as Mar bar Rav Ashi reminds us, the laws of Shabbat do not differentiate between winnowing on the threshing floor and wind assisted winnowing: Both are forbidden. If winnowing and wind-blown winnowing are considered to be the same thing for Shabbat, says Mar bar Rav Ashi, they should be considered to be the same thing here too. And, if it were up to him, the members of the household of bar Maryon would be held responsible for the damage caused by the chaff of their flax.
Read all of Bava Batra 26 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on July 21, 2024. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
