According to the Mishnah salt needs a shinui. According to Shmuel [and a Beraisa] it may be pounded without a shinui.
Rav Acha Bardela to his son: When you pound salt, incline it [to create a minor shinui].
Rav Sheishes heard the sound of pounding [in the street on Yom Tov], he said: This sound is not coming from my house.
Question: Perhaps they inclined when they pounded?
Response: The sound was clear.
Question: Perhaps they were pounding spices?
Response: Only salt makes a clear sound when pounded.
Beraisa 1: Tissni [when grain is pounded finely until each kernel is split in four] cannot be made and grain cannot be pounded in a pounder.
Challenge: Those are two separate [contradictory] statements?
Resolution: It means: What’s the reason you cannot make Tissni? Because a pounder may not be used [to pound it to a lesser degree, a pounder is not necessary].
Challenge: If so, the Beraisa could have simply said “a pounder should not be used on Yom Tov”?
Resolution: Such wording would imply that a professional grade pounder may not be used but a small one would be permissible, this is why the Beraisa must make both statements.
Challenge: “Beraisa 2: A large [professional] pounder may not be used, but a small one is permissible.”?
Abayye: Beraisa 1 is also only discussing a professional pounder. [The Beraisa is saying that Tissni cannot be made, and even a coarser grain cannot be made with a professional pounder].Rava: [rejects Abayye’s explanation and explains Beraisa 1 as follows: You cannot make Tissni, nor can you use a pounder (even a small one), because it is used to make Tissni]. Beraisa 2 was said in Bavel [where no slaves were kept and the people were conscientious in the laws of Yom Tov, therefore a small pounder was permitted] Beraisa 1 was said in Eretz Yisroel [where slaves were common and the laws had to be stricter].
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