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20 ‎[1] It is forbidden to transfer a burden on an animal on the Sabbath, as [Exodus 23:12] states, "[On the seventh day, you shall cease activity,] and thus your ox and your donkey may rest." This includes [not only] an ox and a donkey, but all animals, beasts, and fowl.
Although a person is commanded to have [his animals] rest, he is not liable [for causing them to work], for the prohibition is derived from a positive commandment. Therefore, a person who directs his animal [while] it is carrying a burden on the Sabbath is not liable. ‎[2] Behold, there is [also] an explicit prohibition in the Torah [against working with an animal] as [Exodus 20:10] states: "Do not do any work on the Sabbath. [This includes] you, your son, your daughter, your servant, your maidservant and your beast."
[This means that one should not perform forbidden labors such as] plowing and the like [together with an animal]. Since this is a prohibition which is punishable by death, [its violation does not incur] lashes. ‎[3] It is forbidden for a Jew to lend or hire a large animal to a gentile so that the latter may perform work with it on the Sabbath, since [the Jew] is commanded to have his animal rest.
Our Sages forbade selling a large animal to a gentile, lest one come to lend or hire [an animal to work on the Sabbath]. A person who makes such a sale is penalized and is required to repurchase the animal, even if this requires paying ten times its worth.
Even an animal that is injured should not be sold [to a gentile]. It is, however, permitted to sell [an animal to a gentile] through a broker, since a broker neither lends nor hires [beasts]. ‎[4] It is permitted to sell a gentile a horse, since a horse is used only for human transportation and not for transporting burdens. [Hence, there is no forbidden labor involved, because] "a living entity carries itself."
Just as it is forbidden to sell [such an animal] to a gentile, so too is it forbidden to sell it to a Jew who, we suspect, might sell it to a gentile.
One may, however, sell [a gentile] a cow for the purpose of slaughter, [provided] he slaughters it in the seller's presence. One should not, however, sell [any animal], even an ox fattened for slaughter, without an explicit condition, lest the purchaser delay and work with it [on the Sabbath in the interim]. ‎[5] In a place where the accepted custom is to sell a small animal to gentiles, one may make such a sale. In a place where the accepted custom is not to make such sales, one should not.
In all places, however, a large non-domesticated animal should not be sold [to a gentile], just as a large domesticated animal should not be sold unless one does so via a broker. ‎[6] [The following rules apply when] a person is on a journey and night falls on Friday, [but] he is not accompanied by a gentile to whom he could give his purse: If he has an animal with him, he should place his purse on [the animal] while it is walking, and when [the animal] desires to stand, he should remove [the purse] from it, so that it will not stand still while carrying [the purse]. [In this manner,] neither the removal of an article from its place, nor placing it down in a new position will have been performed [by the animal].
It is forbidden for him to direct the animal, even with his voice alone, as long as the purse is on it, so that he will not be considered to be directing his animal on the Sabbath. Our Sages decreed that one should not place a purse on an animal on the Sabbath unless one is not accompanied by a gentile. ‎[7] Although the person is also accompanied by a deaf mute, a mentally incompetent individual, and a minor, he should place his purse on the donkey rather than give to one of these individuals, for they are humans and are members of the Jewish people.
If he is accompanied by a deaf-mute and a mentally incompetent individual, and does not have an animal with him, he should give it to the mentally incompetent individual. If [he is accompanied by] a mentally incompetent individual and a minor, he should give it to the mentally incompetent individual. If [he is accompanied by] a deaf-mute and a minor, he may give it to whomever he desires.
If he does not have an animal with him, nor is he accompanied by one of these individuals, he should walk [carrying his purse] less than four cubits [at a time]. Even if he has acquired a lost article, he may [move it] by walking less than four cubits [at a time].
[Different rules, however, apply to a lost article that] he has not acquired: If he can linger and wait until nightfall, he should. If not, he may [carry it] by walking less than four cubits [at a time]. ‎[8] It is permitted to lead an animal in the public domain with its reins and its bridle, provided the bridle and reins are appropriate for it - for example, a horse with a neck-ring, a camel with a rope tied to its mouth, a female camel with an iron bit, and a dog with a muzzle.
If, however, one took out an animal with a bridle that is insufficient - e.g., one tied a rope in the mouth of a horse - or with a bridle that is excessive, for it would be controlled with a lesser one, - for example one took out a donkey with a horse's neck-ring, or a cat with a muzzle, it is considered to be a burden. For any excessive or insufficient restraint is considered to be a burden. ‎[9] A person should not tie camels together and lead them. [Moreover,] even when they were tied together on Friday, he should not lead them on the Sabbath. One may, however, gather the ropes [of many camels] in one's hand, provided none of the ropes extends more than a handbreadth outside one's hand and the rope leading from [each] camel's mouth to one's hand is at least a handbreadth above the earth.
Why is one prohibited from leading camels that are tied to each other? Because it appears as if he is leading them to the marketplace where animals are sold or used for sport. For this reason, a person should not go out [leading] an animal wearing a bell around its neck, even if its clapper is plugged [so that] it does not produce a sound. ‎[10] An animal should not go out with a bell [attached to] its coverings, a seal [attached to] its neck, a seal [attached to] its coverings, a strap on its foot, or a ladder on its neck.
A donkey may not go out with a saddle-cloth unless it is tied to it on Friday. A camel should not go out with a patch attached to its hump or its tail unless it is tied to both its hump and its tail.
A camel should not go out with its foreleg tied to its hind legor its foreleg bound. The same applies to all other animals. ‎[11] Chickens may not go out with cords, nor with straps on their feet. Rams may not go out with a small wagon under their fat tail. Ewes may not go out with [chips of] wood that are placed in their nostrils so that they sneeze and dislodge the worms in their brains.
A calf may not go out with a small yoke [that is placed] on its neck to break [its nature] and accustom it [to bearing a yoke so that later it will wear a larger yoke for] plowing. An animal may not go out with a muzzle placed in its mouth so that it will neither bite nor eat. A cow may not go out with a hedgehog skin on its teats so that crawling animals will not suck from it when it sleeps, nor may it go out with a strap between its horns, regardless of whether it is placed there as an ornament or as a restraint.
When a goat's horns are pierced, it may go out with a rope tied to its horns on the Sabbath. If the rope is tied to [the goat's] beard, it is forbidden, lest it tear off and the person carry it in his hands in the public domain. The same applies in all similar situations. ‎[12] Rams may go out with a wide strap tied against their genitals so that they will not copulate with females, with a hard piece of leather strapped over their hearts so that they will not be attacked by wolves, and with an embroidered cloth that is placed on them to make them more attractive.
Ewes may go out with their fat tail tied to their backs, [exposing them] so that rams will copulate with them, or tied downward so that rams will not copulate with them. They may go out covered with a cloth so that their wool will remain clean.
Goats may go out with their teats tied so that their milk will dry up. They should not go out, however, [with their teats tied] so that no milk will flow out until they are milked in the evening. ‎[13] A donkey should not go out [wearing] a saddle even when it is tied upon it on Friday. A horse may not go out wearing a fox's tail or with a scarlet thread between its eyes.
An animal should not go out with a feeding bag [attached] to its mouth, nor with metal shoes, nor with an amulet that has not proven its efficacy for an animal. An animal may, however, go out with a bandage placed on a wound, with plates placed on a broken bone, or with a placenta that is hanging from it.
We may plug up a bell hanging around its neck and allow [an animal] to stroll with it in a courtyard. Similarly, one may place a saddlecloth on a donkey and allow it to stroll in a courtyard. One may not, however, attach a feeding bag to [an animal] on the Sabbath [even when it will not go beyond a courtyard]. ‎[14] Just as a person is commanded that his animals rest on the Sabbath, so too, he is commanded that his servants and maidservants rest. Although they have the power of thought, and act according to their own volition, [their master] is obligated to watch over them and prevent them from performing [forbidden] labor on the Sabbath, as [Exodus 23:12] states: "Thus your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your maidservant and the foreigner may find repose."
The servants and maidservants whom we are commanded to have rest [on the Sabbath] are servants that have been circumcised and have immersed themselves [in the *mikveh*], so that they be granted the status of servants who have accepted the mitzvot that servants are obligated to observe. By contrast, servants who have not been circumcised and have not immersed themselves, but have merely accepted [the observance of] the seven [universal] laws commanded to the descendants of Noach, are considered equivalent to "resident aliens" and are permitted to perform [forbidden] labors for their own sake in public as the Jews may during the week. [The status of] a resident alien is granted only in the era when the Jubilee year is observed.
[One might ask:] Since a resident alien may perform [forbidden] labors on his own behalf on the Sabbath, and a convert is considered equivalent to a native-born Jew in all matters, who is referred to with [the term הגר] in the phrase, "and the son of your maidservant and the foreigner [הגר] may find repose"?
This refers to a resident alien who is an employee of a Jew, like "the son of [his] maidservant." Such a resident alien may not perform [forbidden] labors on behalf of his Jewish master on the Sabbath.He may, however, perform [such labors] on his own behalf. Moreover, even if this foreigner is a servant [belonging to a Jewish master], [this foreigner] may perform [labors] for his own sake [on the Sabbath].
Version: Mishneh Torah, trans. by Eliyahu Touger. Jerusalem, Moznaim Pub. c1986-c2007
Source: https://www.nli.org.il/he/books/NNL_ALEPH001020101/NLI
License: CC-BY-NC