Shabbat 78 – Useful small amounts

It is forbidden to carry in a public area on Shabbat. How much? – Enough to be useful. For example, oil – enough to anoint a small limb of a small child; rope – enough to make a handle for a basket; paper – enough to write a tax collector's receipt; erased paper – enough to make a bottle stopper for balsam oil.

Hide – enough to make an amulet; parchment (thinner, processed hide) – enough to write the smallest paragraph of the four paragraphs that are written inside a tefillin; ink – enough to write two letters. Why two and not one? – Because in the Temple the beams were marked with letters, so that two specific beams would always be assembled together. Eye paint – enough to paint one eye – because in some countries women would go out covering their head and leaving an opening for only one eye.

Art: Dirck Hals - Woman Tearing a Letter