Avodah Zarah 7

Today’s daf introduces a new mishnah on the same subject as the first mishnah in the tractate:

Rabbi Yishmael says: On the three days before the festivals of gentiles and on the three days after them, it is prohibited to engage in business with those gentiles.

And the rabbis say: It is prohibited to engage in business with them before their festivals, but it is permitted to engage in business with them after their festivals.

Whereas the first mishnah only elaborated the prohibition of business, gift giving, lending and collecting loans on the three days prior to the idolatrous festivals, Rabbi Yishmael, holding the minority position, extends this prohibition to the three days following as well. But then the rabbinic majority affirms the position we saw in the first mishnah: These transactions are prohibited only on the three days leading up to a festival.

Shmuel points out a takeaway from Rabbi Yishmael’s position:

Rav Tahlifa bar Avdimi says that Shmuel says: With regard to a Christian, according to the statement of Rabbi Yishmael it is always prohibited for a Jew to engage in business with him.

Christians are named infrequently in the Gemara, in part due to later censorship. Rashi explains Shmuel’s statement as follows: Christians observe a “festival” every seven days, on Sunday. This means business with a Christian is prohibited on the three days prior (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) and the three days after (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday). In other words, if we accept Shmuel’s view, and Rabbi Yishmael’s prohibition, it is forbidden to do business with a Christian for the entire week, every week.

Shmuel’s observation is strange on many levels. For one, as noted, explicit references to Christianity in the Gemara (as we’ve received it) are far less common than reference to idolaters writ large or other sub-groups, like Persian Zoroastrians. Additionally, Shmuel spent most of his life in Babylonia, where there was not yet a substantial Christian community. And finally, his statement reveals an understanding of Christian practice that might surprise us: Either he believes that Christians are doing something on Sunday that constitutes a sacrifice (perhaps this is how he understands the Eucharist), or at the very least he believes they are worshipping a deity entirely distinct from the Jewish God.

Later on the daf, the Gemara introduces us to another teaching of Shmuel:

In the diaspora it is prohibited to engage in business with gentiles only on their festival day itself. Shmuel has dramatically limited the scope of this prohibition in the diaspora, declaring it only applicable on the day of a festival itself. Rashi explains that this is because the idolaters in the diaspora were not so religious, and we are therefore less worried that even things happening in the days leading up to a festival will prompt their praise and offerings to other gods.

Taking his two opinions together, Shmuel has suggested that in the diaspora, where there are (in his day) few Christians and most people were less religious, there were only a few days throughout the year in which it would be impossible to do business with non-Jews. By contrast, in the land of Israel, there were far fewer days on which to do business with non-Jews and even an entire group that Jews were essentially forbidden to do business with. This is, of course, only the case if one follows Rabbi Yishmael’s opinion, which is a distinct minority view.

Nonetheless, Shmuel’s statements are of interest, and could be read as a comment on the relative statuses of the Jews in Babylonia and the land of Israel. During Shmuel’s lifetime, Christians in the land of Israel were gaining increasing influence and, simultaneously, Jews experienced difficult oppression under Roman rule. Jewish life was more of a struggle to sustain. On the other hand, where Shmuel was living in Babylonia, the Jewish community was experiencing a period of relative calm and prosperity. So, from where he sat, it’s possible that he viewed commerce with non-Jews as posing less of a threat.

Read all of Avodah Zarah 7 Sefaria.

This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on June 25, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.