Study Bava Metzia folio 90B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
which non-Jews steal and castrate. Since it is prohibited for Jews to castrate animals, they would sometimes arrange for a non-Jew to pretend to steal the animal and subsequently return it after castrating it, as it is easier to handle a castrated animal. What is the halakha with regard to a case o
Rav Pappa said: This provides no conclusive proof, as the inhabitants of the West, i.e., Eretz Yisrael, who are the ones who raised this question, hold in accordance with the opinion of R' Ḥideka, who says: The descendants of Noah are commanded with regard to castration. They too are prohibited f
Rava thought to say that it is not enough that the owners may not use these animals castrated for them by non-Jews, but they must even sell the animals for slaughter, but not for plowing, so that they would derive no benefit at all from the increase in the value of their property that resulted from
With regard to the same issue, the Talmud comments: It is obvious that if one sold the castrated animal to his adult son, the son is considered like another person, i.e., there is no need to sell to a complete stranger. If the buyer was his minor son, what is the halakha? Rav Aḥai prohibited this,
§ Rami bar Ḥama raises a dilemma: If one placed a thorn in the mouth of a threshing animal, what is the halakha? The Talmud is puzzled by this question: If he placed the thorn in its mouth, this is certainly considered proper muzzling. Rather, the dilemma should be formulated as follows: If a thor