Pt1 To Kill or Not to Kill: Scorpions, Snakes, and Other Dangerous Creatures on Shabbat (Shabbat 121b)

This is the first part of a two-part series. Outline follows.

Outline

1. Permissible Actions on Shabbat: Protecting from and Killing Dangerous Creatures

2. Debating the Permissibility of Killing Dangerous Creatures on Shabbat: A Clash Between Piety and Practicality

3. A Providential Encounter: Indications for Miraculous Survival from Snakes and Scorpions

4. A Snake in the Study Hall: The “Niyoti” Rescuer and Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi's Sarcasm

5. Permissibility of Killing Dangerous Creatures on Shabbat: A Discussion in R' Yannai's Courtyard

6. Trampling Harmful Objects on Shabbat: Views of Rav Yehuda, Rav Sheshet, and Rav Ketina

7. Abba bar Manyomi: An Indebted Torah Scholar's Stressful Brush With the Exilarch’s Household

The Passage

Shabbat.121b.4-10

Permissible Actions on Shabbat: Protecting from and Killing Dangerous Creatures

The Mishna permits covering a scorpion on Shabbat to prevent it from biting. R' Yehoshua ben Levi stated that all harmful creatures may be killed on Shabbat.

A baraita lists five creatures that may be killed on Shabbat: 

1. a poisonous fly (זבוב) in Egypt, 

2. a hornet / wasp (צירעה) in Ninveh

3. a scorpion in Adiabene (חדייב) 

4. a snake in Eretz Yisrael, 

5. a “mad” (שוטה, meaning rabid) dog everywhere

ועל עקרב שלא תישך. 

אמר רבי יהושע בן לוי: כל המזיקין נהרגין בשבת. 

[...]

חמשה נהרגין בשבת, ואלו הן: 

1. זבוב שבארץ מצרים, 

2. וצירעה שבנינוה, 

3. ועקרב שבחדייב, 

4. ונחש שבארץ ישראל, 

5. וכלב שוטה בכל מקום. 

[...]

And we also learned in the mishna that one may cover a scorpion with a bowl on Shabbat so that it will not bite. 

R' Yehoshua ben Levi said: All harmful creatures are killed on Shabbat. 

[...]

Five creatures may be killed even on Shabbat, and they are: 

1. The poisonous fly that is in the land of Egypt,

2.  and the hornet that is in Ninveh, 

3. and the scorpion that is in Ḥadyab, 

4. and the snake that is in Eretz Yisrael, 

5. and a mad dog in any place. 

[...]

Debating the Permissibility of Killing Dangerous Creatures on Shabbat: A Clash Between Piety and Practicality

In this passage, a reciter (תנא) recites a teaching before Rava bar Rav Huna, stating that those who kill snakes and scorpions on Shabbat displease “the spirit of the pious (חסידים - the hasidim)”. Rava bar Rav Huna wittily responds that “the spirit of the Sages (חכמים)” disapprove of these pious, as snakes and scorpions pose a danger to people. 

The Talmud tells a story of Rav Huna witnessing someone kill a hornet on Shabbat and sarcastically asking if he has managed to kill all the hornets (presumably implying that killing one doesn't solve the overall problem of hornets, and is therefore pointless).

תני תנא קמיה דרבא בר רב הונא: 

ההורג נחשים ועקרבים בשבת — אין רוח חסידים נוחה הימנו. 

אמר ליה: ואותן חסידים אין רוח חכמים נוחה מהם. 

[...]

רב הונא חזייה לההוא גברא דקא קטיל זיבורא, 

אמר ליה: שלימתינהו לכולהו?!

The tanna who recited tannaitic literature before Rava bar Rav Huna taught a baraita: 

One who kills snakes and scorpions on Shabbat, the spirit of the pious is not pleased with him. 

Rava bar Rav Huna said to him: And with regard to those pious, the spirit of the Sages is not pleased with them, as snakes and scorpions harm people. 

[...]

Rav Huna saw a person killing a hornet on Shabbat and said to him: Have you finished killing all the hornets?!