Commentary for Shabbat 9:18

אמר רבי חייא ברי' דרב הונא כגון שקלט מעל גבי הכותל על גבי כותל נמי והא לא נח כדאמר רבאבכותל משופע הכא נמי בכותל משופע והיכא איתמר דרבא אהא דתנן

R. Abin said in R. Elai's name in the name of R. Johanan: If he [the recipient stands still in his place and catches it, [the thrower] is liable; if he moves from his place and catches it, he [the thrower] is exempt. It was taught likewise: Others say: If he stands still in his place and catches it, he [the thrower] is liable; if he moves from his place and catches it, he [the thrower] is exempt.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. supra 5a notes. ');">¹⁶</span> R. Johanan propounded: What if he throws an article and himself moves from his place, and catches it? What is his problem?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' On what grounds should be he exempted: did he not remove it from one place and deposit it in another? ');">¹⁷</span> — Said R. Ada b. Ahaba: His problem concerns two forces in the same man: are two forces in the same man accounted as the action of one man, hence he is liable, or perhaps they count as the action of two men?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The throw is one manifestation of his force: the catch arrests that force and is in the nature of a counter act; hence they may be regarded as performed by two people, which involves no liability. ');">¹⁸</span> The question stands over. R. Abin said in R. Johanan's name: If he puts his hand into his neighbour's courtyard and receives [some] rain, and then withdraws it, he is liable. R. Zera demurred: What does it matter whether his neighbour loads him<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' In which case the Mishnah declares him exempt. ');">¹⁹</span> or Heaven loads him; he himself did not effect removal? — Do not say, he [passively] receives rain, but, he catches it up.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Actively. This is assumed to mean that he intercepts the flow of rain, beating it with one hand into the other. ');">²⁰</span> But removal must be from a place four [square], which is absent? — Said R. Hiyya son of R. Huna: E.g., he catches it up [as it rebounds] from the wall. But even on the wall, it does not rest there?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The side of a wall — it being assumed that an ordinary vertical one is meant — affords no resting place for the rain, whereas removal must be from a place where it can stay. ');">²¹</span> — It is as Raba<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Rashal reads: Rabbah. ');">²²</span> said [elsewhere], It refers to a sloping wall; so here too it refers to a sloping wall. Now, where was Raba's [dictum] said? — In connection with the following. For we learnt:

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