Beitza ( he, ביצה) or Bei'a (
Aramaic
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated i ...
: ביעה) (literally "egg", named after the first word) is a tractate in the Order of
Moed
Moed ( he, מועד, "Festivals") is the second Order of the Mishnah, the first written recording of the Oral Torah of the Jewish people (also the Tosefta and Talmud). Of the six orders of the Mishna, Moed is the third shortest. The order of ...
, dealing with the laws of
Yom Tov (holidays). It is Moed's seventh tractate in the
Mishna
The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah ...
, but the eighth in the
Talmud Yerushalmi
The Jerusalem Talmud ( he, תַּלְמוּד יְרוּשַׁלְמִי, translit=Talmud Yerushalmi, often for short), also known as the Palestinian Talmud or Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century ...
and typically fourth in the
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...
Bavli.
Structure
The tractate consists of five chapters with a total of 42 mishnayot. Its Babylonian
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...
version is of 40 pages and its
Jerusalem Talmud
The Jerusalem Talmud ( he, תַּלְמוּד יְרוּשַׁלְמִי, translit=Talmud Yerushalmi, often for short), also known as the Palestinian Talmud or Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century ...
version is of 22 pages.
An overview of the content of chapters is as follows:
* Chapter 1 () has ten mishnayot. The main theme of this chapter is the law of
muktzeh, which is "a thing laid aside" and that cannot be used at the present time. There is a difference of opinion between the schools of
Shammai
Shammai (50 BCE – 30 CE, he, שַׁמַּאי, ''Šammaʾy'') was a Jewish scholar of the 1st century, and an important figure in Judaism's core work of rabbinic literature, the Mishnah.
Shammai was the most eminent contemporary of Hill ...
and
Hillel as to the force of the law of muktzeh, specifically the application of the carrying prohibition to holy days.
[ ]
* Chapter 2 () has ten mishnayot.
* Chapter 3 () has eight mishnayot.
* Chapter 4 () has seven mishnayot.
* Chapter 5 () has seven mishnayot.
References
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