Na ryby nie można „polować” z łowisk jom tov. [Mimo że ubój, pieczenie i gotowanie należą do avoth melachoth (proto-labors) i są dozwolone dla potrzeb jom tov, polowanie jest podobne do żniwa, a żniwa nie były dozwolone na jom tov.] I nie kładzie się przed nimi jedzenia [ryby; bo mogą przeżyć bez niego i nie ma obowiązku ich karmić.] Ale na zwierzęta i ptaki [przygotowane dzień wcześniej] można polować z [małych] wiwariów [gdzie są chętnie polowane]. R. Shimon ur. Gamliel mówi: Nie wszystkie vivaria są takie same. [R. Shimon b. Gamliel nie różni się od pierwszego tanna, ale wyjaśnia jego znaczenie.] Oto zasada: Zabrania się wszystkiego, na co nie poluje się łatwo [tj. Tam, gdzie trzeba obmyślić pułapki]; a wszystko, na co chętnie poluje się [tj. co można złapać jednym susem], jest dozwolone.
Bartenura on Mishnah Beitzah
אין צדין דגים – even though slaughtering and baking and cooking are from the primary forms of [prohibited] work, they are permitted for the needs of the Festival day/Yom Tov, hunting is similar to reaping and reaping is not permitted on the Festival day. Vivarium of fish are pools of water where fish are raised there. Vivarium of wild beasts, enclosures (especially, an enclosed space outside for a settlement) surrounded by a fence all about and they bring there wild animals who give birth and who are raised there.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Beitzah
Introduction
This mishnah deals with catching fish, fowl or game on Yom Tov. While slaughtering an animal is permitted on Yom Tov because it is done in the preparation of food, catching is not permitted because it could have been done the day before. Our mishnah defines what is considered “catching.” As an aside, the word in Hebrew for “catching” or “trapping” animals, fish or fowl is the same word as for hunting. However, I have translated the word as “catching” because hunting, that is killing the animal while catching it, is not allowed.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Beitzah
ואין נותנין – [they do not place] before the fish food, for it is possible for them [to survive] without food, and their feeding is not upon you.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Beitzah
One may not catch fish from a fishpond on Yom Tov nor give them food, While fish in a pond are already to a certain extent trapped in a small enclosure, they still must be caught in order to eat them. Since catching a fish from a fish pond is still considered catching it is therefore forbidden on Yom Tov. It is forbidden to feed these fish lest by doing so he come to catch one of them.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Beitzah
אבל צדין חיה ועוף – who are ready from yesterday.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Beitzah
But one may catch game or fowl from animal enclosures and one may put food before them. However, an animal which is trapped in a small enclosure is considered to already have been caught and hence one may “catch” such an animal or fowl on Yom Tov. Since it is permitted to catch them, he may also put food in front of them.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Beitzah
מן הביברין – the small vivarium, which do not lack some phase of the process of hunting. And Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel does not to argue against the first Tanna [of our Mishnah], but rather to explain [his reasoning].
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English Explanation of Mishnah Beitzah
Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel says: not all enclosures are alike. This is the general rule: anything that still needs to be trapped is forbidden but anything that need not be trapped is permitted. Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel points out that not all enclosures are alike. Fish in a bucket are basically already caught, whereas a deer in a very large pen is not caught. The general rule is that anything that still needs to be caught may not be caught on Yom Tov.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Beitzah
כל המחוסר צידה – that one needs to request a company of intriguers to catch him, and all the runners after it and reach it at once when the wild beast is not lacking some phase of the hunting process, and if not, it is lacking some phase of the hunting process.
