Q&A: The Labor of Trapping
The Labor of Trapping
Question
A person trapped two animals through a single action, for example, he closed the door of a house on two animals. Is he liable for each and every animal?
Answer
This is the same labor done within one lapse of awareness, and therefore he is liable to bring only one sin-offering. The question is how many prohibitions are involved here, and here too it seems that he violates only one prohibition. He performed one act of trapping. At most, this is a case of multiplying the measure.
Discussion on Answer
The same is true of cooking: the essence of the labor is that the food be cooked. All labors have results, but that doesn’t mean the definition of the labor is determined by the result. Beyond that, the punishment imposed on me is still according to the number of actions, and here there is only one action.
Isn’t it more reasonable to say that since the essence of the labor of trapping lies in the result—that the animals are enclosed—and in this case he enclosed two animals, he should be violating two prohibitions?