Tracts Baba Kama (First Gate): Chapter VII

"No dog shall be kept," etc. The rabbis taught: No one shall raise a dog unless he is kept on a chain, or unless in a town adjoining the frontier, in which he is permitted to keep him without a chain only in the night-time. There is a Boraitha: R. Eliezer the great said: The raising of dogs is equivalent to the raising of swine. For what purpose is this equivalence? That the curse said of him who raises swine should apply also to him. R. Joseph b. Maniumi said in the name of R. Na'hman: Babylon [Nahardea] is considered a city located at the frontier. R. Dosthai of Biri lectured: It is written [Numb. x. 36]: "And when it rested, he said, Return, O Lord, among the myriads of the thousands of Israel." Infer from this that the Shekhina does not rest on Israel unless they number two myriads two thousand. If it should happen that this number should be one less and there should be a pregnant woman whose child when born would complete it, and a dog should bark and cause the woman to miscarry, it would appear that he caused the Shekhina to withdraw from Israel. p. 181 It happened with a woman that entered a house to bake there, etc. (See Sabbath, p. 124). "No nets are spread," etc. But do we go as far as that? Have we not learned in the following Mishna: "Dove-cots may be located at a distance of fifty ells from a town"? Said Abayi: They fly for a much longer distance, but as to pecking up food they do so only within fifty ells. But do they fly only thirty ris? 1 Have we not learned in the following Boraitha that nets should not be spread out in the neighborhood of inhabited places, even at a distance of one hundred mil? R. Joseph said that "inhabited" means where vineyards are laid out, Rabba said that it means where dove-cots are kept. If so, let him say that it must not be done for the doves themselves, in order that they should not be caught in? If you wish, it can be answered that the doves are ownerless; and if you wish, it can be answered that he himself is the owner of the doves.

151:1 Leeser does not translate this word literally. 156:1 This is explained in Section Moed. 158:1 R. Meir's statement and the full discussion of it will be found translated in the forthcoming tracts at the proper place. 170:1 Because it now belongs to the Sanctuary and not to him who consecrated it, it is considered as if it would be stolen from the house of the Sanctuary. 177:1 Papa had many children, and the Gemara is not certain who of them was the author of this statement. 177:2 There were many sages who were worthy of this honor, but circumstances prevented them from getting the diploma. The well-known Samuel was one of them, (See Vol. XI., Tract Baba Metzia.) 181:1 Seven and a half ris equalled one Palestinian mile.