Rif Shabbat 50a {Shabbat 126b continues ... 127a}

HIDE/SHOW IMAGE
50a

{Shabbat 126b continues}
BEGIN PEREK EIGHTEEN

MISHNA:
ONE MAY CLEAR AWAY EVEN FOUR OR FIVE BASKETS OF STRAW OR PRODUCE [GRAIN] TO MAKE ROOM FOR GUESTS OR ON ACCOUNT OF THE NEGLECT OF THE BETH HAMIDRASH {to make room for the students to sit}, BUT NOT THE STORE.

ONE MAY CLEAR AWAY CLEAN TERUMAH, DEM'AI, THE FIRST TITHE WHOSE TERUMAH HAS BEEN SEPARATED, REDEEMED SECOND TITHE AND HEKDESH, AND DRY LUPINES, BECAUSE IT IS FOOD FOR GOATS.
BUT [ONE MAY] NOT [CLEAR AWAY] TEBEL, THE FIRST TITHE WHEREOF TERUMAH HAS NOT BEEN TAKEN, UNREDEEMED SECOND TITHE OR HEKDESH, LOF OR MUSTARD.
R. SIMEON B. GAMALIEL PERMITS [IT] IN THE CASE OF LOF, BECAUSE IT IS FOOD FOR RAVENS.

Gemara:
{"ONE MAY CLEAR AWAY EVEN FOUR OR FIVE BASKETS OF STRAW":}
Seeing that five may be cleared away, need four be stated?
Rav Chisda said: [It means] four out of five.
{If the entire store consists of five, only four may be removed, but not all, lest depressions in the ground are revealed which may be levelled on Shabbat.}

And what is meant by "BUT NOT THE STORE?"
That one must not commence [dealing] with a store for the first time {if he had not already starting using it for food before Shabbat}; and which [Tanna] rules [thus]? Rabbi Yehuda, who holds by muktzeh.

And Shmuel said: [It means] four or five,
{Shabbat 127a}
just as people speak; yet if one desires even more may be cleared away. And what does BUT NOT THE STORE mean? That one must not complete[ly remove] the whole of it, lest he come to level up depressions; but one may indeed commence therewith. And who [rules thus]? It is Rabbi Shimon, who rejects [the interdict of] muktzeh.

In this matter, we have seen a dispute amongst the {post-Talmudic} Sages. There is one who rules like Rav Chisda, for the sugya in the gemara is based on him, and the Tanna of the Mishna stated simply {satam} like him, and the gemara asks and answers to explain the measures {four or five} of the Mishna. And there is one that rules like Shmuel, because he establishes our Mishna like Shmuel, whom we have established like.

The Sages learnt {in a brayta}: One must not commence with a store for the first time, but he may make a path through it to enter and go out. 'He may make a path'! but surely you say, 'One must not commence'? — This is its meaning: one may make a path through it with his feet as he enters and goes out.

The Sages learnt {in a brayta}: If produce is heaped together [for storage] and one commenced [using] it on erev Shabbat, he may take supplies from it on the Sabbath; if not, he may not take supplies from it on the Shabbat: this is Rabbi Shimon's view; but Rabbi Acha permits it.

Whither does this tend?! {for Rabbi Shimon generally says there is no muktzeh!}
Rather say: this is Rabbi Acha's view; but Rabbi Shimon permits it.

A Tanna taught {tana}: What is the standard quantity for produce that is heaped together? — A letek.
{Half a kor=fifteen se'ahs. But less does not constitute a store, and the prohibition of mukzeh does not apply to it in any case.}

It was a question to them: These four or five that are stated, [does it mean] even if he has more guests; or perhaps it all depends on the [number of] guests?
And should you say that it all depends on the number of guests, can one person clear [them] away for all of them, or perhaps each man must do so for himself?

And we conclude that it all depends of the [number of] guests, but whether each man must clear them for himself we do not come to a conclusion, and since it is a matter of prohibition {issura}, we conduct ourselves stringently.