Beis Shammai: A ladder cannot be moved from one dovecote to another. But it can be moved from one window to another. Beis Hillel permits this.
Beraisa: Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar: Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel agree that the ladder may be moved from dovecote to dovecote. The question is only whether the ladder may be put away afterwards. Beis Shammai: It may not be put away. Beis Hillel: It may even be put away.
Rabbi Yehuda: This is only said regarding a smaller ladder, but everyone would agree that a ladder which is used for roof repairs, is forbidden.
Rabbi Dosa: It can be inclined from one window to the other.
Acherim from Rabbi Dosa: If it is carried in an unusual manner with constant stops, it is permitted.
Rabbi Chiya’s sons [Yehuda and Chizkiyah] went out to the villages [to inspect that everything was being done according to the Torah]. When they returned Rabbi Chiya asked them “Did any questions come up?”
They said: A question of moving a ladder on Yom Tov came up, and we permitted it.
Rabbi Chiya: Go back out and prohibit what you permitted.
They thought that only Rabbi Yehuda makes a distinction between ladders but according to the Tanna Kamma, Beis Hillel would permit even a large ladder. But it is not so. Rabbi Yehuda was explaining the Tanna Kamma’s opinion.
Question: How do we know that the Tanna Kamma agrees with Rabbi Yehuda?
Response: It states: “the ladder may be moved from dovecote to dovecote”. If it were not discussing a dovecote ladder, if it were discussing a construction ladder, it would say: “the ladder may be brought to the dovecote”! So we see that the Tanna Kamma is only discussing a dovecote ladder.
Rabbi Chiya’s Sons understood it differently: It is discussing a construction ladder, the reason it doesn’t say “the ladder may be brought to the dovecote” but rather “the ladder may be moved from dovecote to dovecote” is to teach us that it may be moved around between many dovecotes.
Some Say: Rabbi Chiya’s Sons said to him “A question about inclining a [construction] ladder came before us and we permitted it”. Rabbi Chiya replied “ Go back out and prohibit what you permitted”.
They thought that Rabbi Dosa came to permit what Rabbi Yehuda prohibited. But actually Rabbi Dosa is being stricter than Rabbi Yehuda and he holds that even a dovecote ladder may only be inclined but not more.