ביצה · Beitzah

About Masechta Beitzah · מסכת ביצה

Beitzah - named for its first word, an egg laid on Yom Tov - learns the laws of Yom Tov: what may be done on a festival and what may not. Its opening dispute of Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel about that egg leads into muktzeh and nolad on Yom Tov, and into hachanah, the rule that what is used on a Yom Tov after Shabbos must be prepared beforehand.

The second perek learns eruv tavshilin, the cooked food a person sets aside before a Yom Tov that falls on Friday so that he may cook on Yom Tov for Shabbos, and the immersions before the festival. The third perek, Ein Tzadin, learns trapping and shechting on Yom Tov and taking meat from the butcher without weighing or naming a price. The fourth learns carrying jars of wine and wood, and the fifth, Mashilin, the things forbidden on Shabbos as shevus that are forbidden on Yom Tov too, and the techum of animals and vessels, which follow their owners.

At the centre of the masechta stands ochel nefesh: food a person needs for the day may be prepared on Yom Tov, and the line between preparing food and every other melachah. Beitzah also teaches that the Torah was given to Israel because they are bold, and that a person's food for the year is set from Rosh Hashanah - except what he spends on Shabbos and Yom Tov, which is added to him.

From the pages of Beitzah

Hashem gives a Jew an extra soul on Erev Shabbos and takes it back after Shabbos; Shammai would buy the finest animal he found all week for Shabbos, while Hillel's way was 'blessed is Hashem day by day', every deed for the sake of Heaven; and the second day of Yom Tov outside Eretz Yisrael is kept as the custom of our fathers, though the calendar is known to all.

This page holds 146 shiurim on Masechta Beitzah from 4 maggidei shiur; the most come from Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer (49), Rabbi Eli Stefansky (46) and Rabbi Shmuel Silber (31). 82 of them learn the whole daf and 64 are short reviews. 39 dafim have their own shiurim here, each in its own row above, and “Learn in the Daf Room” opens that daf with its text and its shiurim side by side.

Masechta Beitzah in the Daf Yomi

The 14th Daf Yomi cycle learned Masechta Beitzah one daf a day for 39 days, from daf 2 to daf 40, from September 2, 2021 to October 10, 2021; the 15th cycle, which opens with Berachos on June 8, 2027, reaches it on February 3, 2029. Masechta Beitzah is in Seder Moed, the second of the six orders of the Mishnah, and in the order of the Daf Yomi it comes after Masechta Sukkah and before Masechta Rosh Hashanah. On each of those days the Daf Room opens the day's daf with its text and every shiur on it, and the rows above keep the shiurim of every daf of the masechta for anyone who learns at his own pace.

The perakim of Beitzah

Masechta Beitzah has five perakim, from daf 2a to daf 40b. Each perek below opens its first daf in the Daf Room, where the Gemara’s text and every shiur on that daf sit together.

1. Perek 1 ביצה 2a – 15a
2. Perek 2 יום טוב 15b – 23b
3. Perek 3 אין צדין 23b – 29b
4. Perek 4 המביא כדי יין 29b – 35b
5. Perek 5 משילין 35b – 40b