Protecting our Water

Noise Pollution

(3) A person should not open a bakery, nor a dye-shop, under the storehouse of one's neighbor. Nor a cowshed. In truth, they allowed it with wine, but not a cowshed. [If one wishes to open] A store that is in a courtyard, one can protest and say: "I cannot sleep because of the noise of those coming and the noising those going." One who makes items may go out and sell them in the market, but one may not protest and say: "I cannot sleep due to the noise of the hammer, the mill-stone, and the children."

(8) They must distance a permanent threshing floor fifty cubits of the town. One may not make a permanent threshing floor within his own domain unless his ground extends fifty cubits in every direction. And one must distance it from one's fellow’s plants and from that person's furrow so that it will not cause damage.

(9) They must distance animal carcasses, graves and tanneries from a town by fifty cubits. And they may not make a tannery except to the east of a city. Rabbi Akiva says: One may set it up on any side except the west, and one must distance it fifty cubits [from the town].

(10) They must distance a pool for soaking flax from vegetables, and leeks from onions, and mustard plant from bees. Rabbi Yose permits mustard plant.

Rabbi Yochanan said on behalf of Rabbi Bana'ah: What is the meaning of the verse, "Happy are those that sow beside all waters, that send forth the feet of the ox and the ass?" (Isaiah 32:20)

[It means this:] Happy is Israel when they occupy themselves with Torah and acts of loving-kindness. Their inclination (toward self-needs) is mastered by them, not they by their inclination--for it is said, "Happy are you that sow beside all waters."

For what is meant by 'sowing' must be “doing acts of loving kindness” as it is said, "Sow to yourselves in justice, reap according to loving-kindness" (Hosea 10:12) and what is meant by 'water' is “Torah”, as it is said, “Ho, all that are thirsty come to the water.” (Isaiah 55:1)

(14) Anyone who can save and does not save transgresses 'do not stand by the blood of your neighbour'. So too one who sees his friend drowning in the sea, bandits attacking him or a bad animal attacking him and he is able himself to save him or he could hire others to save him but he does not; one who hears idol worshippers or informers plotting harm for him or laying a trap for him and he doesn't tell his friend and inform him; or if he knows that an idol worshipper or a thug are on their way to his friend and he could appease them on behalf of his friend to change their intention and he doesn't appease him; and so too any similar case; One who does any of these transgresses 'do not stand idly by your neighbour's blood'.

The Gemara raises a contradiction between this statement of Rabbi Yosei and another statement of Rabbi Yosei. It was taught in a baraita: In the case of a spring belonging to the residents of a city, if the water was needed for their own lives, i.e., the city’s residents required the spring for drinking water, and it was also needed for the lives of others, their own lives take precedence over the lives of others. Likewise, if the water was needed for their own animals and also for the animals of others, their own animals take precedence over the animals of others. And if the water was needed for their own laundry and also for the laundry of others, their own laundry takes precedence over the laundry of others. However, if the spring water was needed for the lives of others and their own laundry, the lives of others take precedence over their own laundry. Rabbi Yosei disagrees and says: Even their own laundry takes precedence over the lives of others, as the wearing of unlaundered clothes can eventually cause suffering and pose a danger. The Gemara clarifies the difficulty presented by this baraita: Now, if with regard to laundry, Rabbi Yosei said that refraining from laundering one’s clothes involves pain and affliction,