For the source text click/tap here: Beitzah 21
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Rav Huna was asked to rule on the following question: when the government requires villagers to bake for soldiers who are stationed in the area, are they permitted to do so on Yom Tov?
When Rabbi Yehudah ben Bava asked where he had been, Shimon explained that a baleshet had come to the town and threatened to steal the possessions of the inhabitants. To save the town a calf was butchered and prepared, and the baleshet left them in peace. Rabbi Yehudah ben Bava objected to this story, pointing out that the passage permitting cooking on Yom Tov (Shemot 12:16) only allows it lahem – for you – not for non-Jews. As the Gemara explains, in this case the animal that was prepared for the baleshet was not kosher, so it could not have been eaten by Jews and the entire preparation was for non-Jews only.
The term baleshet apparently refers to an army unit that was sent to search for valuables (in modern Hebrew the word balash means a detective). Usually these units were employed in enforcing payment of taxes, which made it essential for the local communities to stay on good terms with them, since their broad mandate often allowed them to stray well-beyond their official tasks into violence and looting.
We cite a dream of the gaon Rav Ayyash of Algiers in which saw a girl saved the city...from a baleshet...in 1775.