Chazer on Shabbos 154b

Published on September 15, 2026

אִם יִרְצֶה הַשֵּׁם

Shabbos 154b chiour of Rav Avigdor Miller ztl

The one question on the page

The Gemara does not change subjects when it leaves the donkey and starts talking about a sukkah.

There is one issur. On Shabbos and Yom Tov you may not use a tree, and you may not use an animal. The Rabbanan put those two together. A person who treats a tree like furniture may break a branch. A person who treats an animal like a chair may ride it, and then look for a stick.

Everyone agrees you may not use the top.

Tree: do not climb it, sit on it, hang a coat on a branch, or take a coat off a branch.
Animal: do not sit on its back, put a load on it, or lift a load off it with your hands.

You may untie the ropes so the load falls by itself.

The whole amud asks only this: does “use” include the side, or only the top and the back?

The donkey cases are that question asked about an animal. How do you get a load off without using the animal? May you lean on its side? May you slide a child along its side?

The sukkah is the same question asked about a tree. Abaye cannot prove his point from the donkey Mishnah, so he brings a sukkah that has a tree in it. If you may not walk into that sukkah on Yom Tov, he wants that to mean: using the side of the tree is also forbidden.

Rabbah: sides are allowed. His proof is the donkey Mishnah (on his read, you have to lean to untie).

Abaye: that is not a proof. His counter-proof is the sukkah with a tree.

Same din. Two pictures.

Terms of art

אִילָן ilan (a tree).
בְּהֵמָה behemah (an animal).
גְּזֵירָה gezeirah (a rabbinic ban, made to keep a person away from a melachah of the Torah).
צְדָדִין tzidadin (sides). Not the top of the tree and not the back of the animal. A pole stuck into a hole in the trunk. The animal’s side, not its spine.
צִדֵּי צְדָדִין tzidei tzidadin (sides of the sides). One more object away. A basket hanging from a peg that is already in the tree. Schach resting on poles that are already in the holes.
שָׁלִיף שֶׁל תְּבוּאָה shelif shel tevuah (a sack of grain on the animal’s back).
מַתִּיר אֶת הַחֲבָלִים וְהַשַּׂקִּין נוֹפְלִין matir es ha-chalaim ve-ha-sakin noflin (untie the ropes, and the sacks fall by themselves).
חֲבוֹי גַּוְולְקֵי chavoi gevalki (two packs, one on each side, joined by one belt over the middle. To open the buckle you lean on the animal and lift the belt).
חֲבוֹי אַגְלַוְוקֵי chavoi agluvki (each pack hangs from its own ring on a peg. Pull a wooden pin. Both fall. No lean).
לִכְתָּא lichtecha (that wooden pin).
כְּשֶׁהִדְבִּישׁ keshe-hidbish (when the honey went sour).
כְּתִיתָא דְּגַמְלֵי ketita de-gamlei (ointment for a camel’s sore back. That is still a use for sour honey. It is not a Shabbos use).
זִיקִין zikin (the jars or skins that hold the honey).
מֻקְצֶה muktzeh (set aside. You may not handle it on Shabbos).
כֵּלִים הַנִּטָּלִין בְּשַׁבָּת keilim ha-nitalin be-Shabbos (objects you may pick up on Shabbos).
מְבַטֵּל כְּלִי מֵהֵיכָנוֹ mevatel keli meihechano (you make a vessel unusable. Here, the pillows become greasy).
צַעַר בַּעֲלֵי חַיִּים tzaar baalei chayim (causing pain to a living animal). Some hold this is d’oraita. Raban Gamliel holds it is only derabbanan.
דְּאוֹרַיְיתָא d’oraita (from the Torah). דְּרַבָּנַן derabbanan (from the Sages).
שִׁנּוּי shinui (not the normal way of doing the act).
מְשַׁפְשֵׁף meshafshef (sliding back and forth. Rabbah sliding the child along the donkey’s side).
סֻכָּה sukkah (the booth of Sukkos). It needs three walls and a roof of סְכָךְ schach.
שְׁתַּיִם בִּידֵי אָדָם וְאַחַת בָּאִילָן shtayim bidei adam ve-achas ba-ilan (two walls built by people, one wall that is a tree).
חָק בּוֹ בָּאִילָן chak bo ba-ilan (he cut holes in the tree and put poles in the holes).
כְּפָיֵיהּ לְאִילָן kafyeih le-ilan (he bent the tree over and put the schach on the tree itself).
גּוֹאזָא פַּרְסַכְנָא goaza parskana (a wide bush of many stems, used as a wall, not as a post under the roof).
זֶה הַכְּלָל zeh ha-klal: if you could take the tree away and the sukkah would still stand, you may go in on Yom Tov.
נָעַץ יָתֵד בָּאִילָן וְתָלָה בָּהּ כַּלְכָּלָה na’atz yated ba-ilan ve-talah bah kalkalah (he drove a peg into the tree and hung a basket on the peg).
עֵרוּב eruv (here, food placed in a spot in order to join courtyards). The food must be food you can reach and use on Shabbos.
טְפָחִים tefachim (handbreadths). Above ten, the basket is its own domain. You cannot take the food on Shabbos, so the eruv is not valid.
מְנִיד אֶת הָאִילָן menid es ha-ilan (he makes the tree move). That is using the tree itself.

I. How to get the load off without using the animal

The Mishnah of this perek: a man comes in from the road with a loaded animal and reaches the outer courtyard. What you may handle, take off. What you may not handle, untie the ropes. The sacks fall.

תָּנֵי רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן יוֹחַאי: הָיְתָה בְּהֶמְתּוֹ טְעוּנָה שָׁלִיף שֶׁל תְּבוּאָה, מַנִּיחַ רֹאשׁוֹ תַּחְתֶּיהָ וּמְסַלְּקוֹ לְצַד אַחֵר, וְהוּא נוֹפֵל מֵאֵלָיו.

Kashya. The Mishnah already said untie and let them fall. Why a second method?

Terutz. Not every load has a buckle you can open from the ground. Sometimes the sack is only balanced on the back. Put your head under one side and move your head. The sack loses its balance and falls. You did not pick it up with your hands. The head is a shinui.

Sevara. Lifting with the hands is using the animal as a table. Tipping with the head is not that act. The animal is also relieved of the weight.

What to keep: the animal can be unloaded. Your hands stay off the load.

II. Raban Gamliel’s donkey

His donkey came in carrying jars of honey. He did not unload it. The donkey stood loaded all Shabbos. After Shabbos it fell and died.

Kashya. The Mishnah says take off the things you may handle. Honey is food. Why not take the jars off?

Terutz. כְּשֶׁהִדְבִּישׁ. The honey had gone sour. It was no longer food.

Kashya. Sour honey is still a thing. What is it fit for?

Terutz. לִכְתִיתָא דְּגַמְלֵי. People used sour honey as ointment on a camel’s sore back. That is not a Shabbos use. The jars are not keilim ha-nitalin. You may not pick them up.

Kashya. Then untie the ropes. Let the sacks fall.

Terutz. מִיצְּטְרוּ זִיקִין. The jars would break. The honey would be lost.

Kashya. Put pillows on the ground, as they did for glass on the last amud. Untie. The jars fall on the pillows and do not break.

Terutz. The outside of the jars is greasy. The pillows become greasy. Then you cannot handle the pillows. That is mevatel keli meihechano. You took vessels that were usable and made them unusable. Rav Miller ztl: this is the same issur as putting muktzeh down on a vessel so you can no longer move the vessel.

Kashya. וְהָא אִיכָּא צַעַר בַּעֲלֵי חַיִּים. The animal is in pain. For glass they allowed pillows. Allow pillows here.

Terutz. קָסָבַר צַעַר בַּעֲלֵי חַיִּים דְּרַבָּנַן. Raban Gamliel holds that the ban on animal-pain is only derabbanan. Making the pillows unusable is also derabbanan. He would not push aside one derabbanan in order to avoid the other. He left the load.

Rav Miller ztl: he was strict on himself. Other Amoraim hold tzaar baalei chayim is d’oraita. On that view you put the pillows.

Sevara. “The animal is suffering” does not by itself allow every other issur. You have to know whether that suffering is a Torah prohibition or a rabbinic one, and what you would be violating in order to stop it.

What to keep: three separate problems sat on that donkey. The honey was muktzeh. The jars would break. The pillows would become unusable. His view on tzaar baalei chayim is why he did not use the pillows.

This piece is still “how do I unload.” It is not yet the fight about sides.

III. Rabbah uses the side on purpose

אַבַּיֵי אַשְׁכְּחֵיהּ לְרַבָּה דְּקָא מְשַׁפְשֵׁף לֵיהּ לִבְרֵיהּ אַגַּבָּא דְּחַמְרָא.

Abaye found Rabbah sliding his small son back and forth on a donkey, as play.

Abaye: קָא מִשְׁתַּמֵּשׁ מָר בְּבַעֲלֵי חַיִּים. You are using an animal on Shabbos.

Rabbah: צְדָדִין הֵן, וּצְדָדִין לֹא גָּזְרוּ בְּהוּ רַבָּנַן. I did not put him on the back. I only used the side. The Rabbanan forbade riding. They did not forbid the side.

Kashya from Abaye. How do you know they did not forbid the side?

Terutz from Rabbah. דִּתְנַן: מַתִּיר אֶת הַחֲבָלִים וְהַשַּׂקִּין נוֹפְלִין. The Mishnah already lets you untie so the sacks fall. Rabbah reads that Mishnah as chavoi gevalki: two packs, one belt over the middle. That belt is heavy. To open the buckle you must lean on the animal’s side and lift. The Tanna allowed the unloading. So he allowed the lean. So the sides are permitted.

This is the first time the page says the word tzidadin as a din. Until here we were unloading. Now we are asking what counts as use.

IV. Abaye says that Mishnah is not a proof

Abaye: the same Mishnah can be a different pack.

What we are deciding	How Rabbah reads the Mishnah	How Abaye reads the Mishnah	What follows
May you lean on the animal’s side?	Chavoi gevalki: one belt joining two packs	Chavoi agluvki: each pack hangs from its own ring on a peg	Rabbah needs a lean. Abaye does not
How do the sacks come off?	You lift the belt, so you lean, then the buckle opens	You pull out the lichtecha. Both packs fall	“They fall by themselves” fits Abaye without a lean

Abaye also gives a second picture like the first: each pack hangs on its own. You still do not lean.

Sevara. The Mishnah said “untie, and they fall.” It did not say “lean.” A proof that needs leaning is only a proof if that is the only way to read the Mishnah.

Rav Miller ztl: Abaye removed Rabbah’s proof. Abaye did not yet prove that the sides are forbidden. Rabbah’s din (sides are allowed) is still his din. It just has no Mishnah under it.

What to keep: Rabbah holds sides are allowed. Abaye will not accept this Mishnah as the reason. That is why Abaye now needs another source. That other source is a tree, because tree and animal are the same gezeirah.

V. A sukkah that uses a tree

שְׁתַּיִם בִּידֵי אָדָם וְאַחַת בָּאִילָן, כְּשֵׁרָה, וְאֵין עוֹלִין לָהּ בְּיוֹם טוֹב.

A sukkah needs three walls. Here two walls were built by people. The third wall is a tree. The sukkah is kosher. You may eat in it on a weekday. You may not go into it on Yom Tov (and the same din applies to Shabbos).

Why not? Because going in means using that sukkah, and using that sukkah may mean using the tree.

Abaye’s read: מַאי לָאו דְּחַק בֵּיהּ בְּאִילָן. He cut holes in the tree, put poles in the holes, and laid the schach on the poles. The poles are the sides of the tree. People put pots on the schach. Using the schach is using the poles. Using the poles is using the sides. They forbade going in. So the sides are forbidden.

That is all the sukkah is doing on this page. It is Abaye’s source that tzidadin are assur.

Rabbah’s read: לָא. דִּכְפָיֵיהּ לְאִילָן וְאַנַּח סִיכּוּךְ עִילָּוֵיהּ. He bent the tree over and tied it so it stayed bent. The schach rests on the tree itself. That is using the tree, not the side. Of course they forbade going in. This line does not talk about sides at all.

VI. The next line of that same teaching

שָׁלֹשׁ בִּידֵי אָדָם וְאַחַת בָּאִילָן, כְּשֵׁרָה, וְעוֹלִין לָהּ בְּיוֹם טוֹב.

Now three walls were built by people. The tree is a fourth wall. You may go in on Yom Tov.

Kashya on Rabbah. If he bent the tree so the schach sits on it, the tree is still holding up the roof. Adding more man-made walls does not stop that. Why is this case allowed?

Kashya on Abaye. If the first case is poles in holes, this case is also poles in holes. Why does a third man-made wall make the poles allowed?

Both reads have a problem with this second line.

VII. The tree is only a wall

אֶלָּא הָתָם בְּגוֹאזָא פַּרְסַכְנָא, דְּאִילָן גּוּפֵיהּ דּוֹפֶן בְּעָלְמָא הוּא דְּשַׁוְּיֵיהּ.

A different picture. Not holes. Not a bent tree. A wide bush with many stems. It stands as a wall. Nobody put schach on it on purpose. Nobody asked it to hold up the roof.

How many walls did people build?	What is the bush doing?	May you go in on Yom Tov?	Why
Two	Two walls cannot hold up schach by themselves. The bush has to help hold the roof	no	you are using the tree as a post
Three	Three walls can hold up the schach. The bush is only an extra wall	yes	an extra wall that the roof does not need is not “using the tree”

The Tanna says this himself. זֶה הַכְּלָל: כָּל שֶׁאִילּוּ יִנָּטֵל הָאִילָן וִיכוֹלָה לַעֲמוֹד, עוֹלִין לָהּ בְּיוֹם טוֹב.

The rule: imagine taking the tree away. If the sukkah would still stand, you may go in on Yom Tov. If the schach would fall, you were using the tree. Do not go in.

Sevara. The problem is not “there is a tree near the sukkah.” The problem is “this roof needs that tree.” A spare wall is not that.

Rav Miller ztl: this explains the two lines with one idea. It does not tell us whether sides are allowed. Rabbah still has no proof that sides are allowed. Abaye still has no proof that sides are forbidden. The argument between them is still open.

What to keep: count whether the roof needs the tree. That is the test the Tanna wrote down. The sukkah has not yet decided tzidadin.

VIII. Maybe the Tannaim argue about sides

A Baraisa on this same kind of sukkah.

One Tanna: do not go in on Yom Tov.

R. Shimon ben Elazar in the name of R. Meir: you may go in on Yom Tov.

First try: they argue about tzidadin. One forbids the sides. One allows the sides.

Abaye: לָא. דְּכוּלֵּי עָלְמָא צְדָדִין אֲסוּרִין, וְהָכָא בְּצִדֵּי צְדָדִין קָמִיפַּלְגִי.

No. Everyone forbids the sides. They argue about the sides of the sides.

Picture it in three levels.

The tree itself. Forbidden. Everyone agrees.
Poles in holes in the tree. Those poles are tzidadin (the sides). Abaye says everyone forbids using them.
Schach laid on those poles. The schach is tzidei tzidadin (the sides of the sides). Putting a pot on the schach is using that third level.

One Tanna: even that third level is forbidden. Stay out of the sukkah.

The other Tanna: the third level is allowed. You may go in.

Sevara. A pole in the tree is still right against the tree. A roof sitting on that pole is farther away. The gezeirah might stop after the first extra object.

IX. Rava does not separate the two levels

רָבָא אָמַר: מַאן דְּאָסַר בְּצְדָדִין, אָסַר נַמִּי בְּצִדֵּי צְדָדִין. מַאן דְּשָׁרֵי בְּצִדֵּי צְדָדִין, שָׁרֵי נַמִּי בְּצְדָדִין.

Rava: the person who forbids the sides also forbids the sides of the sides. The person who allows the sides of the sides also allows the sides. It is one gezeirah. Do not split it into two dinim.

X. A peg and a basket

נָעַץ יָתֵד בָּאִילָן וְתָלָה בָּהּ כַּלְכָּלָה.

A man drove a peg into a tree. He hung a basket on the peg. He put food in the basket. That food is an eruv. It joins the courtyards.

An eruv has to be food you can use on Shabbos. If you cannot get to it, it does not work.

If the basket is higher than ten tefachim, you cannot take the food on Shabbos. The eruv is not valid.

If the basket is lower than ten tefachim, the eruv is valid. That means you are allowed to take food out of the basket on Shabbos.

Kashya on Rava. Why is taking food out allowed? Because the peg is tzidadin and the basket is tzidei tzidadin. If he had hung the basket straight on a branch, the basket itself would be tzidadin, and you could not take food out. He needed the peg so the eruv would work. So there is a difference between the two levels. That is against Rava.

XI. Rava: the peg is so you will not shake the tree

Rava’s answer: the basket is narrow. When you pull food out, you have to tug. If the basket is hanging on a young tree, the tug moves the tree. Moving the tree is using the tree itself. That is forbidden even according to the view that sides are allowed.

So he puts in a peg. You tug the basket. The tree stays still.

The peg is not there to teach us that “sides” and “sides of sides” are two different dinim. The peg is there so you will not menid es ha-ilan.

Rav Miller ztl’s last picture from the shiur:

On Shabbos, do not hang an object on that peg, and do not take an object off that peg. That is using the sides.
If a basket has been hanging on that peg since erev Shabbos, you may put food into the basket and take food out. That is using the sides of the sides.
Do not hang the basket itself today, and do not take the basket off today.

He does not say “this is the final halachah” in so many words. That is the picture he leaves.

What the hour is doing, in order

Unload without using the back. Head-tip. Sour honey. Pillows. Tzaar baalei chayim.
Rabbah uses the side and calls it allowed. Proof: the donkey Mishnah, read as one belt that forces a lean.
Abaye reads that Mishnah as a pin. No lean. No proof.
Abaye looks for a source that sides are forbidden. He takes the tree half of the same gezeirah. A sukkah with a tree: do not go in on Yom Tov.
Rabbah reads that sukkah as a bent tree, so it proves nothing about sides.
The next line (three man-made walls) forces a third picture: a bush that is only a wall when the roof does not need it.
After that picture, sides are still not decided.
A Baraisa looks like a Tanna fight on sides. Abaye says the fight is one object farther out: sides of the sides.
Rava will not split the gezeirah.
Peg and basket look like a split. Rava gives the peg a different job: keep the tree from shaking.

Open kashya

Rabbah used the side of a donkey and said the Rabbanan never forbade sides. Abaye would not let him use the Mishnah as a proof, and would not let him use the sukkah as a proof. After the bush-picture, we still do not have a proof either way.

Rava said: do not make two dinim out of one gezeirah. The peg and basket looked like a proof that the two levels are different. Rava gave the peg a different job.

The question that is still open: when the Rabbanan said “do not use a tree,” did they mean only the tree and the thing touching the tree, or also the next object after that?