Search Results

Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 2b

Apr 18, 2009 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

The Tosefta above is an odd text. It tells us that there are four Shabbat domains. We are prohibited from carrying from one type of domain to another on Shabbat. For instance, we may not carry anything of significance from our house (a “private domain”) to a major street (a “public domain”) on Shabbat. So far, so good. The odd thing here is that the Tosefta seems to provide only two of its four domains. Are there not two more domains that the Tosefta omits?

Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 133a

Apr 11, 2009 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

Some mitzvot require us to violate Shabbat and festivals. For instance, the Torah requires that brit milah, the covenant of circumcision, take place on the eighth day of an Israelite boy’s life. The eighth day is its required time, even though that day may fall on Shabbat or a festival. The same is true with regard to the mitzvah of bringing the Paschal sacrifice—our Israelite ancestors were required to slaughter their Paschal lambs and offer their blood upon the altar on the fourteenth of the Hebrew month of Nisan and eat them on the night of the fifteenth, no matter whether one of these days was Shabbat or not.

Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 141a

Apr 4, 2009 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

We have learned that one is not allowed to carry from a private space (such as a home or synagogue) to a public space (such as a street or walkway) on Shabbat. A range of complex Torah and Rabbinic prohibitions and exceptions are wrapped up in this general mitzvah. Here, Rava presents his vision of one such exception. In his view, the Torah does not prohibit carrying children in and out of doors on Shabbat. However, one may not strap a diaper bag to the child and claim to merely be carrying the child, with the bag along for the ride. Carrying the bag in and out of doors is prohibited, says Rava, regardless of the child’s role. If one carries the child without the bag, one has not violated the Torah’s vision of Shabbat.

Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 128b

Mar 28, 2009 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

As Jews, what are our responsibilities to our animals? The Torah requires that we preserve not only our own animals from pain, but our enemies’ animals as well (Exod. 23:5). Other obligations aside, we are not to pass by a struggling animal without giving assistance. What are the limits of this obligation to prevent animal suffering on Shabbat and festivals? We have seen that we may violate Shabbat for the sake of human life. May we do so for animal life as well?

Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 122b

Mar 21, 2009 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

Shemuel visited Avin of Turan’s house. A non-Jewish [acquaintance of Avin’s] came and lit the lamp [on Shabbat]. Shemuel turned his face away [from the light]. When he saw that [the non-Jew] had brought a document and was reading it, [Shemuel] said, “He lit it for his own benefit!” So he turned his face back towards the lamp.

Mishnah Yoma 8:5

Mar 14, 2009 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

This passage comes from Yoma, the tractate dealing with the laws of Yom Kippur. The prohibitions against work on Yom Kippur are very similar to the prohibitions against work on Shabbat. The forbidden labors for both of these days are divided into the thirty-nine Torah-prohibited categories we saw in Mishnah Shabbat 7:3 called אבות מלאכות (avot melakhot). Excavating a ruin would ordinarily be forbidden on Shabbat and Yom Kippur. The specific category under which it would be forbidden might vary, depending on the intent of the excavator (as we have seen in our discussions of intent). If one is actually doing the demolishing, it would fall under the category of soter (סותר or demolishing). If one were cleaning or leveling an already demolished building, it would fall under the category of boneh(בונה or building).

Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 103a

Mar 7, 2009 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

I have mentioned previously that the thirty-nine Torah-prohibited categories of labor (the avot melakhot) assume their meaning based on conventional definitions of the act they describe. For example, though cooking is prohibited as one of these thirty-nine categories, frying an egg on the hood of a car on a hot summer day would not be a Torah-prohibited act, since people do not conventionally define this as an act of cooking.

Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 113a

Feb 28, 2009 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

Some of our Sages felt that objects which could not be used on Shabbat in any permitted way should be utterly outlawed for the entire twenty-five-hour period of Shabbat. This prohibition, termed by the Talmud, Issur Tilltul (the prohibition on moving an object), eventually came to be known as muktzeh(things placed to the side). If an object has no use on Shabbat, it is in this category and, generally, may not be picked up and moved to another location on Shabbat.

Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 102b

Feb 21, 2009 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

Of the thirty-nine categories of prohibited labor that the Mishnah lists, one of the most puzzling is “the hammer blow.” Often this category is invoked to demonstrate that the final act of production of an object is an act forbidden in its own right—in other words, it is the final hammer blow that this category prohibits. But in this text we see quite a different understanding of this prohibition. Here the act of knapping away at a piece of marble is seen as violating the category of the hammer blow. This is likely because the act is literally taking blows at a chisel with hammer, even though no actual blow of the hammer finishes the marble sculpture: the smoothing and sanding process does that.

Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 106a

Feb 14, 2009 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

Among the thirty-nine Torah-prohibited labors of Shabbat is trapping an animal. One violates this prohibition whether one captures the animal with one’s hands and body, or with a net or corral. Here the Mishnah describes a case in which an animal has gone into a doorway and one blocks the door with one’s body to keep the animal trapped. In such a case, one is accounted as having violated Shabbat—he has trapped the animal using his body. However, if one merely sat in the doorway to rest, partially blocking the animal’s way out, one has not violated the prohibition. Only a second person, sitting and thereby fully blocking the door would be liable.

Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 41b

Feb 7, 2009 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

As we have seen, cooking is one of the thirty-nine Torah-prohibited Shabbat labors (avot melakha). It seems clear to us that bringing water to a boil is cooking. But there’s a gray area. Under what circumstances may we put cold water into a container of water that has already been brought to boiling?

Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 73a

Jan 31, 2009 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

One who performs any of the forbidden labors on Shabbat is held criminally liable. If one, however, does so inadvertently (either because one forgot that it was Shabbat, or because one did not know that the act was forbidden), the Torah requires a sacrifice for each violation.

Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 12b

Jan 24, 2009 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

The light from an oil lamp flickers when the fuel begins to run low. At this point, normally, the reader would tip the lamp to move the viscous oil to the wick in order to extend the time the lamp can burn on its first filling of oil. This act is forbidden on Shabbat. On Shabbat, the lighting of a fire, or extending, or shortening its combustion is prohibited by Torah. Reading by the light of an oil lamp is prohibited by our Sages on Shabbat, lest one tip the lamp out of habit, in a momentary mental lapse. All of this background is encoded in the Mishnah’s terse statement: “Nor should he read by the light of an oil lamp.”

Babylonian Talmud, Betza 3a

Jan 17, 2009 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

In the past few weeks, we have seen that there are two different types of prohibitions on Shabbat: Torah prohibitions and Rabbinic prohibitions. We have seen that there are a number of reasons why our Sages instituted prohibitions beyond those of the Torah. For instance, they prohibited a number of activities which are similar or could be confused with Torah prohibitions, acts which could lead to violations of Torah prohibitions, and acts which they deemed not in consonance with the “spirit of Shabbat.” But sometimes, as is the case in our passage, there will be a disagreement in the Talmud about whether a particular prohibition devolved from the Torah or was instituted by our Sages.

Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 146b

Jan 10, 2009 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

There is another type of prohibition that applies not only to the rules of Shabbat, but to all other areas of Jewish living as well. Marit ayin—literally in sight of eye—is a principle that demands not only that our actions accord with what is right, but that the appearance of all those actions be above suspicion. The Mishnah, in tractate Sheqalim (3:2), explains, “One must fulfill human expectations, just as one does Divine.” Our Sages understood that religious communities are human communities. We believe that living in a human community requires that we take other people’s needs and concerns into account.

Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Shabbat 24:13

Jan 3, 2009 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

Often the Talmud will offer a range of related laws without expressing the coherent goal standing behind them. We have seen an example of this phenomenon over the last several weeks. We have studied a range of sources from the Talmud propounding Rabbinic expansions on Shabbat rest. We have not encountered, however, a single statement that distills the major concern standing behind these non-Torah prohibitions.

Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 21b

Dec 27, 2008 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

We have seen that our Sages forbade a range of acts that have the potential to lead to Torah-level violations of Shabbat. Among these is a prohibition on lighting oil lamps, just prior to Shabbat, with fuels that do not provide adequate, clear, and clean light. Oil lamps were the primary form of artificial illumination in the time of the Talmud.

Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 113a-b

Dec 20, 2008 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

A third type of Rabbinic prohibition on Shabbat is designed to prevent behaviors that interfere with the spirit of the day. The Torah, the Prophets, the Elders of the Writings, and our Talmudic Sages all had an aesthetic religious vision of what Shabbat should properly be. They all felt that the day should have an utterly different character than the other days of the week. The most eloquent description of this idea is contained in the book of Isaiah, in the passage quoted above. The prophet presents a powerful conception of the religious experience of Shabbat. It is to be a day when mundane human concerns of business, transport, and even the idle gossip of daily life are put to the side.

Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 148a

Dec 12, 2008 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

Another type of behavior that our Sages proscribed on Shabbat includes acts that may lead to Torah prohibitions. For example, we have seen that writing two letters (or a single word) is seen by the Mishnah as a Torah prohibition. Our Sages inherited a non-Torah prohibition on transacting business over Shabbat, lest one record the transaction in a ledger. (The prohibition on business can already be found in the Prophets and Writings. See for example, Isaiah 58:13, Amos 8:5, and Nehemiah 10:32.) However, our Sages remained aware that this prohibition was not of the same magnitude as Torah prohibitions and treated it with leniency.

Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 38b

Dec 7, 2008 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Text Study

Last time, we mentioned that our Sages inherited prohibitions on a number of activities that are permitted by the Torah, but not in consonance with the spirit of Shabbat. Our Sages knew that prohibiting all everyday activities on Shabbat would not only be impossible, but also make Shabbat overly burdensome. Shabbat is a day of sanctified rest as an offering to Heaven, but it is also a day of earthly pleasures. As a result, the Sages limited these protective “Rabbinic prohibitions” on Shabbat to a small number of categories.

Pages:
Less
1
2
3
4
More

Reset Search

SUBSCRIBE TO TORAH FROM JTS

Our regular commentaries and videos are a great way to stay intellectually and spiritually engaged with Jewish thought and wisdom.

JTS Torah Archive

Search Results

SUBSCRIBE TO TORAH FROM JTS

Share This Page