1)

(a)We have just discussed our Mishnah in detail. The Tana adds that Shomrei Peiros may eat not according to Torah law, but because of Minhag.

(b)Rav confines this Halachah to laborers who are hired to guard what is still attached, who cannot eat min ha'Torah because it is prior to the Gmar Melachah.

(c)In a case where they are guarding food that is detached (such as the wine-press or piles of corn) they may eat even min ha'Torah, because he considers a guard as if he was actually performing a Melachah.

(d)Shmuel disagrees with Rav in the last point. According to him, guarding is not considered a Melachah.

2)

(a)Shmuel therefore confines the Din of our Mishnah to a Shomer Talush, but a Shomer Mechubar is forbidden to eat even mid'Rabanan (see Maharam).

(b)The Beraisa declares Tamei someone who guards a Parah Adumah (from Tum'ah, between the Shechitah until the gathering of its ashes), even to the extent that he renders his clothes Tamei too.

(c)Rav Acha bar Rav Huna asks from here on Shmuel who does not consider guarding an act.

(d)Rabah bar Ula answers that according to Shmuel, the Tana is referring (not to Tum'ah d'Oraisa, but) to Tum'ah d'Rabanan, which Chazal decreed because of the likelihood of his inadvertently moving one of its limbs.

3)

(a)Rav Kahana queries Shmuel from another Beraisa. which states that a laborer who is picking cucumbers from four or five cucumber fields belonging to as many different owners is not permitted to eat his fill from one of the fields, but must distribute his eating among all five fields.

(b)To accommodate Shmuel, Rav Shimi bar Ashi interprets the word 'Maksha'os' to mean cucumbers that have already been picked.

(c)Nevertheless, they are not Nigmerah Melachtan le'Ma'aser because the Tana is speaking where their stalks have not yet been removed (which is the Gmar Melachah of cucumbers).

4)

(a)Rav Ashi extrapolates from ...

1. ... the Reisha of our Mishnah 've'Eilu she'Ochlin min ha'Torah ... ' that there are cases where one may only eat mid'Rabanan.

2. ... the Seifa 've'Eilu she'Ein Ochlin that in the cases listed in the Seifa (including Mechubar before the Gmar Melachah), one may not eat at all (even mid'Rabanan).

(b)We cannot extrapolate from the Seifa that they may not eat min ha'Torah, but that mid'Rabanan they may because that would merely be repeating the Din of the Reisha.

(c)Rav Ashi knows that it is from Shomer Mechubar before the Gmar Melachah that he cannot eat even mid'Rabanan, but that from Shomer Talush he can, and not vice-versa because if, in the Seifa, the Tana does not even permit a laborer who has done an act to eat even mid'Rabanan from Mechubar before the Gmar Melachah, then how much more so if he only guarded it.

(d)Rav Ashi has now proved Shmuel right.

5)

(a)The Tana of our Mishnah lists four Shomrim. When he says that a Shomer Chinam is Patur from everything (when in fact, he is Chayav for Peshi'ah [negligence]) he means that he is Patur from all the cases that the Torah specifically obligates by the other Shomrim (and Peshi'ah is not written explicitly.

(b)The parallel Din of ...

1. ... a Sho'el is that he is liable for everything (theft, loss and Ones).

2. ... a Nosei Sachar and a Socher are Patur from breakage, captivity and death (Ones), but Chayav for theft and loss.

6)

(a)We inquire who the author of our Mishnah is who lists four Shomrim. This question cannot be taken literally because everyone agrees that there are four Shomrim. What we are really asking is who is the author of our Mishnah who compares a Socher to a Shomer Sachar.

(b)Rav Nachman Amar Rabah bar Avuha replies that the author of our Mishnah is Rebbi Meir, and that Rebbi Yehudah holds that a Socher has the Din of a Shomer Chinam.

(c)The problem with this is that we have a Beraisa which reverses their opinions.

(d)We resolve the problem by pointing out that Rabah bar Avuha inverts the opinions in the Beraisa (presumably in order to establish our Stam Mishnah like Rebbi Meir).

(e)And when our Mishnah lists four Shomrim it means literally what it says, despite the fact that there are only three Dinim.

7)

(a)When that shepherd was grazing his flocks on the banks of the River Papa one of the sheep slipped and fell into the water and drowned.

(b)Rabah exempted him from paying because he guarded the sheep in the same way as all the shepherds did (in which case the accident was considered an Ones).

(c)When Abaye asked Rabah whether, if a shepherd went into town and left the sheep unguarded or if he took a nap 'like everyone does', he would also be Patur he replied in the affirmative.

8)

(a)From the Beraisa which cites the Pasuk in Iyov where 'a band of robbers who took the animals and killed the youths' as an example of Ones for which a Shomer Sachar is exempt, we can imply that for a lesser Shemirah than that, a Shomer Sachar will be liable (a Kashya on Rabah).

(b)Rabah will therefore establishes the Beraisa by a security guard who is paid to guard the town at night time, and on whom the entire town rely (in which case, his obligations exceed that of a regular Shomer Sachar).

(c)Similarly, we Rabah from the Pasuk in Vayetzei, where Ya'akov told Lavan how he had suffered from the heat by day and the frost by night. Although Ya'akov was not actually a town security guard he was telling Lavan that he had personally undertaken the responsibilities of one.

9)

(a)In a case where a shepherd leaves the flock and goes to town, and a wolf or a lion come and kill one of the sheep the Beraisa rules that he is liable for forsaking the sheep only if, according to our assessment, he would have been able to save the sheep had he been there.

(b)Rabah will establish this Beraisa where the shepherd took his trip at a time when it was not customary to do so.

(c)The problem with this is why the Tana then exempts him in a case where he would not have been to save the sheep anyway. Why is this not 'Techilaso bi'Peshi'ah, ve'Sofo be'Ones', for which a Shomer is liable (as we learned earlier in 'ha'Mafkid')?

(d)Rabah will answer that he did not simply forsake his flock, but fled to the safety of the town when he heard a lion roaring.

10)

(a)The point of the assessment is whether he could not have enlisted the help of other shepherds in the vicinity to help drive the lion away (in which case, he ought not to have fled).

(b)A Shomer Chinam would be liable too, if, in the same circumstances, he was able to obtain help from his fellow shepherds with their sticks, only, as Rabah himself explains ...

(c)... he is not be obligated to offer to pay the shepherds for their services, whereas a Shomer Sachar is.

11)

(a)A Shomer Sachar is of course, not liable for Onsin and his obligation to offer his own money for help is part of his Shemirah. He later reclaims the money from the owner.

(b)He is obligated to offer the shepherds up to the value of the sheep that are under attack.

(c)Rav Papa asked Abaye what the owner gains if the Shomer presents him with a bill to the value of his animal, to which he replied that the owner would prefer his own animals (with which he is acquainted) to the replacements that he will need to purchase, and, in any event, he would rather be spared the trouble of having to purchase new ones.

12)

(a)Rav Chisda and Rabah bar Rav Huna disagree with Rabah. According to them a Shomer Sachar is not automatically Patur if he follows the custom of other Shomrim under the same circumstances, because since the owner pays him for his services, he expects him to look after the article properly.

(b)bar Ada S'vula'a was taking the animals he was guarding over the bridge of Neresh when one animal pushed the other off the bridge into the water below, where it drowned.

(c)Rav Papa obligated him to pay because he should have taken them across one by one.

(d)When bar Ada S'vula'a claimed that it was too much trouble to do that, Rav Papa replied that many before him had made the same complaint, but that it hadn't helped them one bit.

13)

(a)When Shavu stole the flax that Eyvu had placed for safekeeping with Runya (without pay), and the identity of the robber became known, Rav Nachman ruled that the latter was obligated to pay, and that the onus of claiming from Shavu lay on him.

(b)Rav Huna bar Avin ruled, in a case where an article of safekeeping is stolen be'Ones from the house of ...

1. ... a Shomer Chinam that he has the option of swearing that it was indeed stolen, or he must pay and claim the money from the Ganav.

2. ... a Shomer Sachar that he has only the second option.

(c)Rava reconciled Rav Nachman with Rav Huna bar Avin by establishing his case when there were members of the local constabulary on hand, in which case Runya was negligent for not having shouted for help.

14)

(a)Everyone agrees that, under normal circumstances, one wolf is not considered an Ones, but two wolves are. Rebbi Yehudah maintains that even one wolf is considered an Ones during a plague of wolves.

(b)Even two dogs however, are not considered an Ones, according to the Tana Kama. Yadua ha'Bavli in the name of Rebbi Meir however, considers even two dogs an Ones if they attack from opposite directions.

(c)The Mishnah considers an attack by ...

1. ... a robber an Ones.

2. ... a lion, a bear, a tiger, a polecat (or hyena) or a snake an Ones.

(d)The shepherd is nevertheless Chayav in all these cases of these if he took his flock into their territory.

15)

(a)The Mishnah rules that if ...

1. ... a sheep dies naturally, it is an Ones, but not where it died because the shepherd drove it too hard.

2. ... the animal ascended the mountain and fell, it is an Ones, but not if the shepherd led it up.

(b)When the Tana speaks about the animal ascending the mountain, he means that it dragged the shepherd up the mountain, and he was unable to restrain it.

16)

(a)Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak establishes the Beraisa which considers one wolf an Ones like Rebbi Yehudah, during a plague of wolves.

(b)We ruled that if the flock is attacked by a robber, this is an Ones because the Tana is speaking about an armed robber. Otherwise, the shepherd would be obligated to drive the robber away.

(c)We ask what the Din will be if both the shepherd and the robber are armed, and we conclude that this is an Ones because the robber, who is desperate, has come to kill or to be killed, whereas the shepherd is under no obligation to give up his life to save the sheep.

(d)Abaye asked Rava whether, if the shepherd meets the robber, and after showing him the location of his sheep, he warns him that their camp comprised so many shepherds, and that they had so many dogs and weapons between them, he is Patur in the event that the robber subsequently stole his sheep, since he did attempt to scare him away.

(e)Rava replied that the shepherd is nevertheless liable for having divulged the location of their camp in the fist place.