We are beginning Klal 30, which discusses the melacha of tzad. This melacha is unique in certain ways, so we will begin with some examples.
The most common example of tzad is taking a living being into one’s hands. Before, it was a free animal, and now it is under the control of the human. Trapping an animal in a net is the equivalent of taking it into one’s hand.
However, tzad extends beyond this definition. Even if nothing is touching the animal, if the animal is confined because a person contained it, they are also performing tzad. This applies both when a person actively directs the animal into an enclosure (whether by hand, by gunshot, with a guard dog, etc), and also when an animal wanders into an enclosure on their own, and someone closes the openings.
There is a machlokes achronim in understanding this melacha. One understanding is that the primary aspect of the melacha is gaining control over the animal (ie, that the person is now in charge and not the animal). The other is that the animal has been confined, and the animal’s freedom has been limited. A practical difference between these understandings applies to a slow animal, such as a turtle. One does not gain significant control over a turtle by enclosing it, because it anyways moves slowly enough that the human could theoretically take it at any time, so little control has been gained. But on the other hand, by enclosing the turtle, its freedom has been removed and it is now confined.
There are multiple conditions necessary for the melacha to apply mideoraysa:
- The animal has to be b’mino nitzad, the type of animal normally trapped for human usage.
- The animal cannot be sick, in that if the animal is too sick to fight when it is caught, it is considered already trapped and the human does not add anything by enclosing it.
- It has to be confined into an area which makes it easily accessible. For example, if an animal is confined to a large house, it is not considered tzad.
- A person has to trap the animal for the purpose of using it, because otherwise it is a melacha she’eina tzricha legufa
- It has to be an animal which does not submit willingly to a human. For example, there is no issur in closing one’s dog in their house, because it already willingly submits to its owner.
Summary
- Tzad is the melacha of trapping an animal, whether by hand, in a net, or by actively enclosing it, or by enclosing it after it has wandered into an enclosure on its own.
- There are a few conditions which need to be met for the melacha of tzad to apply mideoraysa:
- The animal is b’mino nitzad.
- The animal was not already sick enough to be considered already trapped.
- The act of tzad confines it in a way that it is easily accessible to the human.
- It is trapped for the purpose of using it
- It is not an animal which submits willingly to a human
