Commento su Besah 5:7

מי שזימן אצלו אורחים – from another town and they would come to him via the Eruv.

Introduction The first section of the last mishnah of Betzah deals with guests taking food home with them. The last part of the mishnah deals with giving water to animals.

לא יוליכו – after the meal [they should not bring] portions in their hands to their homes.

If one invited guests to his home, they may not take away with them [any] portions unless he [the host] had assigned for them their portions on the eve of Yom Tov. In mishnaic times the portion of meat that one received at a dinner party was considered very important. Important guests might receive bigger portions. Sometimes people wouldn’t eat their entire portion and they would be allowed to bring home the leftovers. After all, with no refrigeration the host wouldn’t be able to do anything with the leftovers in any case. Our mishnah teaches that on Yom Tov guests can’t take their leftovers home with them unless the host gave them ownership over the portions before Yom Tov began. In this way, the portions belong to the guests when Yom Tov begins and they can then go as far as they can go.

אא"כ זיכה להם – at the hand of another [he gave them possession of those foodstuffs].

One may not give drink and then slaughter wilderness animals, but one may give drink and slaughter household animals. The following are household animals: they that spend the night in town. Pasture animals are they that spend the night in pasture ground. Animals that pasture out in the wild are muktzeh they have not been set aside before Yom Tov for use on Yom Tov. Hence one cannot give them water or slaughter them on Yom Tov. However, one can give water to and slaughter household animals because they are automatically “set aside” to be slaughtered. The mishnah goes on to define what household animals are and what pasture animals are. Congratulations! We have finished Betzah. It is a tradition at this point to thank God for helping us finish learning the tractate and to commit ourselves to going back and relearning it, so that we may not forget it and so that its lessons will stay with us for all of our lives. Mishnah Betzah was all about the laws of Yom Tov. I think at this point it would be worth it to think about how important the Jewish holidays are to the Jewish people. The matzot and seders of Pesah, sitting in the sukkah on Sukkot, waving the lulav and receiving the Torah on Shavuot these are some of the most important parts of the Jewish year. They remind us of our shared history and hopefully our shared destiny. Unfortunately I think that the sanctity of Yom Tov has eroded substantially in many of our communities. I hope that learning this tractate will help inspire you to increase your own personal commitment and to help lead others to increase their commitment as well. And again, as always, congratulations on learning another tractate of Mishnah. We are getting close to having finished half of the Mishnah. May you have the strength and time to keep on learning more! Tomorrow we begin Rosh Hashanah.

[מנותיהם מערב יום וטוב ש] – that the owner of the house distributed them to another person through “pulling’ on the eve of the Festival day, and said to him: have so-and-so and so-and-so acquire these portions, for one acts in a person’s interest in his absence (see Tractate Eruvin, Chapter 7, Mishnah 11).