Study Shabbat folio 104B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Mishnah: One who writes two letters on Shabbat during one lapse of awareness is liable. The following substances used as ink are explained in the Talmud. One is liable if he wrote with deyo, with sam, with sikra, with gum [komos], or with copper sulfate [kankantom] or with any substance that makes
If one wrote with liquids or with fruit juice, or if one drew letters with road dust, with scribes’ dust that they use to dry the ink, or with any substance with which the writing does not endure, he is exempt. Similarly, if one wrote by holding the pen on the back of his hand, with his foot, with
Talmud: The Talmud defines the terms used in the Mishnah. Deyo is deyota made from soot. Sam is samma, which is yellow-tinged arsenic. Sikra, Rabba bar bar Ḥana said: It is called sikreta in Aramaic and is a lead-based red paint. Komos is koma in Aramaic, and it is an ink made with gum Arabic from
And we learned in the Mishnah that one who writes with any substance that makes a mark is liable. The Talmud asks: What does this statement come to include? The Talmud answers: It comes to include that which R' Ḥananya taught with regard to writing a bill of divorce: If one wrote it with the juice
We learned in the Mishnah: If one unwittingly scratches letters on his flesh on Shabbat, R' Eliezer deems him liable to bring a sin-offering and the rabbis deem him exempt. It was taught in a baraita that R' Eliezer said to the Rabbis: Didn’t the infamous ben Stada take magic spells out of Egypt in