Rif Shabbat 66a {Shabbat 153a continues ... 153b}

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66a

{Shabbat 153a continues}
Why did the Rabbis permit him to entrust his purse to a Gentile? {Though that is tantamount to instructing the Gentile to carry it for him, which is forbidden.}
It was established to the Rabbis {=they knew for certain} that no man will restrain himself where his money is concerned; if you do not permit it to him, he will come to carry it four cubits in public ground.

Rava said: His purse only, but not something found {a metzia}.

"IF THERE IS NO GENTILE WITH HIM HE PLACES IT ON THE ASS":
The reason is that there is no Gentile with him, but if there is a Gentile with him he must give it to him.
What is the reason?
As for an ass, you are under an obligation that it should rest {since there is a Biblical command that your animals should rest as well}; but as for a Gentile, you are under no obligation [to ensure] that he should rest.

[If there is] an ass, and a{n Israelite} deaf-mute, imbecile, or minor: he must place it on the ass and not give it to the deaf-mute, imbecile or minor. What is the reason? The latter are human beings {who would otherwise be keeping the Shabbat} whereas the former is not.

[In the case of] a deaf-mute and an imbecile: [he must give it] to the imbecile; [in the case of] an imbecile and a minor — to the imbecile.

It was a question to them: What of a deaf-mute and a minor?

{Shabbat 153b}
There are those that say he must give it to the deaf-mute; others say he must entrust it to the minor.

And since we do not explicitly, he who does like this one has done {well}, and he who does like this one has done {well}.

What if neither a Gentile, a deaf-mute, an imbecile, a minor, nor an ass is there?
Rav Yitzchak said: There was yet another [expedient], but the Sages did not wish to reveal it.
What was the other [expedient]? — One may carry it in stretches of less than four cubits at a time.

The Master said {in the Mishna}: 'If there is no Gentile with him, he places it on his ass'.
But he [thereby] leads a [laden] ass, whereas Scripture says: