Rocky Raccoon TB Shabbat 106

Many of the prohibited labors are not relevant to my life. I don’t weave, dye material, nor sew. I certainly don’t hunt, but a Mishna on daf 106b resonated. “MISHNA: If a deer entered a house on its own and one locked the door before it, he is liable for trapping. If two people locked the door, they are exempt, because neither performed a complete labor. If one person is incapable of locking the door and two people locked it, they are liable because that is the typical manner of performing that labor. And Rabbi Shimon deems them exempt as he holds that two people who perform a single labor are never liable by Torah law.” (Sefaria.org translation)

My house has a “Harry Potter bedroom” underneath the stairwell leading to the basement. That’s where we store all our Passover dishes, pots and pans. One day close to Passover my job was to bring up all those Passover boxes. I opened the door and saw a raccoon. I don’t know who was more afraid, me or the raccoon because I immediately shut the door and locked it while the raccoon scampered somewhere. We had to call wildlife affairs to get somebody to trap that raccoon. He brought a one way trap where the raccoon could enter, but not leave. He baited it with cat food since raccoons love the stuff. A couple days later we caught the raccoon, and it was taken far away and released into the wild unharmed. It had entered the house through an old vent which we immediately closed in and made raccoon proof.

While none of this ever happen on a Shabbat, I wondered whether I would have violated the prohibition of trapping if my initial discovery had happened on Saturday. I don’t think so for two reasons. In the Gemara commenting on the Mishna “Rabbi Yirmeya bar Abba said that Shmuel said: One who traps a lion on Shabbat is not liable for trapping unless he traps it in its cage, and until that point it is not considered trapped.” (Sefaria.org translation) In my mind a rabid raccoon can be as dangerous as a lion. Consequently, he would not be considered trapped until he entered that trap. I have no idea whether it was rabid are not but, I didn’t want take any chances. Secondly, I think we can apply the rule that it was a labor that is not necessary for its own sake (מלאכה שאינה צריכה לגופה), i.e., a person performs the labor for a purpose other than the direct result of that action. I certainly did not want to trap the raccoon when I first saw it. I just didn’t want it to enter the rest of the house. It had free reign to go wherever it went inside the walls or even leave our home the same way it entered.

I’m glad that I would not have violated Shabbat if I discovered that pesky raccoon on Shabbat and closed the door on it thanks to my daf yomi journey.