1With regard to swollen meat that began to putrefy, it is permitted to move it because it is food for non-domesticated animals. With regard to exposed water, from which a snake might have drunk and into which it injected its venom, it is permitted to move it because it is suitable for a cat, which is somewhat immune to snake venom. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: Exposed water itself may not be kept due to the danger that one may inadvertently drink it.
2MISHNA: One may overturn a basket in front of the chicks so that they can climb on and climb off of it. Likewise, with regard to a hen that fled that one seeks to retrieve, one may push it even with his hands until it reenters the house.
3One may help calves and foals to walk, and likewise a woman may help her son to walk. Rabbi Yehuda said: When is it permitted? When her son picks one foot up and puts one foot down by himself. However, if her son were dragging both his feet, it would be prohibited because it would be like carrying him in the public domain.
4GEMARA: Rav Yehuda said that Rav said: With regard to an animal that fell into an aqueduct, one brings cushions and blankets, and throws them into the water ditch, and places them beneath the animal in the aqueduct. And if the animal thereby emerges, it emerges.
5The Gemara raises an objection from a Tosefta : With regard to an animal that fell into an aqueduct on Shabbat, one provides it with sustenance in its place so that it will not die. This implies that providing it with sustenance, yes, that is permitted, providing it with cushions and blankets, no, that it is prohibited.
6The Gemara answers: This is not difficult, as there is room to distinguish between the cases. This, the Tosefta in which it was taught that one provides the animal with sustenance, is referring to a case where it is possible to provide it with sustenance. That, the mishna in which Rav said that one brings cushions and blankets, is referring to a case where it is impossible to provide it with sustenance. Where it is possible to provide it with sustenance, yes, he does so. And if it is not possible to provide it with sustenance, he brings cushions and blankets and places them beneath the animal.
7The Gemara asks: Does he not, by placing the cushions and blankets, negate a vessel’s preparedness? The cushions and blankets are no longer fit for their designated use on Shabbat, and this negation of their designated use is similar to the prohibited labor of dismantling. The Gemara answers: Rav holds that negating a vessel’s preparedness is prohibited by rabbinic law. Causing a living creature to suffer is a Torah prohibition. And a matter prohibited by Torah law comes and overrides a matter prohibited by rabbinic law.
8We learned in the mishna: With regard to a hen that fled that one seeks to retrieve, he may push it back to its place. By inference: Push the hen, yes, it is permitted, help it to walk, no, it is prohibited. The Gemara comments: We already learned this, as the Sages taught: One may help domesticated animals, non-domesticated animals, and fowl walk in the courtyard on Shabbat, but not hens.
9The Gemara asks: With regard to a hen, what is the reason that one may not help it walk? Abaye says: It is prohibited because the hen lifts itself off the ground. As a result, one actually carries it.
10It was taught in one baraita : One may help domesticated animals, non-domesticated animals, and fowl walk in the courtyard, but not in the public domain. And a woman may help her son walk in the public domain, and, needless to say, it is permitted in the courtyard. And it was taught in another baraita : One may not lift domesticated animals, non-domesticated animals, and fowl off the ground in the courtyard, but one may push them so that they will enter.
11The Gemara first seeks to clarify the second baraita . This baraita itself is difficult. On the one hand, you said that one may not lift, from which it may be inferred, however, that one may help it walk. Then you said: Push, yes, it is permitted, help walk, no, it is prohibited. Abaye said: The latter clause, which states that one may not help it walk, we came to the halakha of a hen, which, as mentioned above, one may not help it walk.
12Having mentioned moving the hen, the Gemara cites that which Abaye said: One who slaughters a hen should force its legs into the ground, or alternatively lift it entirely into the air. Failure to do so leads to the concern lest the hen place its claws into the ground and convulse during the slaughter and dislocate the signs, the trachea and gullet. This would invalidate the slaughter and render the hen an unslaughtered animal carcass.
13MISHNA: One may not birth an animal on a Festival, and all the more one may not birth it on Shabbat. However, one may assist it to give birth. And one may birth a woman even on Shabbat, and call a midwife for her to travel from place to place, even when the midwife’s travel involves the desecration of Shabbat. And one may desecrate Shabbat for a woman giving birth. And one may tie the umbilical cord of a child born on Shabbat. Rabbi Yosei says: One may even cut the umbilical cord. And all the requirements of circumcision may be performed for a baby whose eighth day of life occurs on Shabbat.
14GEMARA: The Gemara asks: How may one assist in the birth of an animal? Rav Yehuda said: One holds the newborn so that it will not fall to the ground. Rav Naḥman says: One presses the flesh around the womb so that the newborn will emerge.
15It was taught in a baraita in accordance with the opinion of Rav Yehuda: How may one assist in the birth of an animal? One holds the newborn so that it will not fall to the ground, and he blows into its nostrils to remove mucus obstructing the air passages, enabling the offspring to breathe, and he places the mother’s teat into its mouth so that it will suckle.
16Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: We would have mercy on kosher animals on a Festival, to help the offspring. The Gemara asks: How does one have mercy? Abaye said: If the mother does not draw her offspring near and tend to it, one may bring a lump of salt and place it in the animal’s womb, so that it will suffer, remember its suffering while giving birth, and have mercy on the offspring. And one may pour fluids of the afterbirth on the offspring so that the mother will smell it and have mercy on it, her offspring. And this may be done specifically for a kosher animal, but for a non-kosher animal, no, it may not be done.
17The Gemara asks: What is the reason one may not do so for a non-kosher animal? The Gemara answers: A non-kosher animal does not distance its offspring, and if it does distance its offspring, it will not draw it near again. No purpose is served by taking these steps with a non-kosher animal.
18We learned in the mishna: And one may birth a woman even when that involves the desecration of Shabbat The Gemara asks: After all, it was taught explicitly in the mishna: And one may birth a woman even on Shabbat, and call a midwife for her to travel from place to place. The phrase: And one may desecrate Shabbat for a woman giving birth, what does it come to include? All the possible acts of desecrating Shabbat for the birthing woman were already listed.
19The Gemara answers: It comes to include that which the Sages taught with regard to this issue: If a woman giving birth were to need a lamp, her friend lights the lamp for her on Shabbat. And if she were to need oil, her friend brings her oil via the public domain in an atypical manner, carrying it in the palm of her hand but not in a vessel. And if the oil that her friend brings in her hand is not enough, she brings oil in her hair. And if oil that she brings in her hair is not enough, she brings oil for her in the typical manner, in a vessel.
20The Master said in the baraita : If a woman giving birth were to need a lamp, her friend would light the lamp for her on Shabbat. The Gemara asks: This is obvious. The Gemara answers: It is necessary to teach this halakha only in the case of a blind woman giving birth. Lest you say: Since she cannot see even with the light it is prohibited to bring a lamp for her, it teaches us that lighting the lamp is permitted to settle her mind. The blind woman thinks: If there is something that needs to be done in the course of childbirth, the lamp will enable my friend to see and she will do it for me.
21We learned in the mishna: And if she needed oil, her friend brings her oil in her hair. The Gemara asks: What good is this advice? Derive that it is prohibited due to the prohibited labor of wringing. The friend will need to wring her hair in order to extract the oil for the birthing woman.
22It was Rabba and Rav Yosef who both said: There is no prohibition of wringing with regard to hair, since hair does not absorb liquids like other materials. Rav Ashi said: Even if you say that there is a prohibition of wringing with regard to hair, here the friend does not actually bring the oil in her hair. Rather, she brings it in a vessel tied through her hair. She does this because as much as it is possible to change the manner in which one performs a labor that is being done to save a life, we change it.
23Rav Yehuda said that Shmuel said: With regard to a woman in childbirth, as long as the womb is open, whether she said: I need Shabbat to be desecrated, or whether she did not say: I need Shabbat to be desecrated, one desecrates Shabbat for her. Generally, a woman in childbirth is in danger, and prohibited labors may be performed in life-threatening circumstances.
24Once the womb closed after birth, whether the woman who gave birth said: