Shabbat 149 - How to count guests and read cartoons on Shabbat

One can count his invited guests, to know how many loaves of bread he will need, and the deserts he will serve - if he does it orally, but he should not read them from a written note. Why? Because he might come to erase someone from the list, and erasing is prohibited on Shabbat. Another reason is that he might get accustomed to it and start reading business documentation. Some forbid even reading social correspondence.

What practical difference is there between the two reasons, erasing on Shabbat and reading business documentation? If the writing is very high on the wall, he will not come to erase it there. 

Can one read captions under a picture? Not on Shabbat! And the picture itself is forbidden to look at, even on a weekday. Why? Because of "do not turn to idols" which are born of your imagination. Some say that a cursory look is allowed, and others that it refers only to idols that were prepared but never worshiped.

Art: Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window by Johannes Vermeer

Shabbat 148 - How to borrow on Shabbat

In general, financial transactions are forbidden on Shabbat. Prophet Isaiah said that you should honor Shabbat by not pursuing business. However, one can run out of oil or wine on Shabbat or on a Yom Tov and may need more. Enjoying the holidays is also important. How did the Sages solve this dilemma? 

One is allowed to borrow pitches on wine or oil, provided he does not use the term "lend me" but instead says "can I borrow?" In Hebrew, these two terms are different. The first implies a financial loan and may lead to writing down a contract. The second implies consumable goods, where the borrower can return the same kind of produce.

If the lender wants to do good but does not trust the borrower without a written agreement? The lender can offer his cloak as a guarantee

Art: Still Life with Apples and Pitcher by Camille Pissarro

Shabbat 147 - Wet clothes, wet towels

If your clothes got wet on Shabbat, you can continue walking in them. You do not have to worry that people will suspect you of having washed your clothes on Shabbat. Neither are the Sages concerned that you may come to wring them dry, out of respect for human dignity. However, once you arrive at a safe place, you should take them off, and you can spread them in the sun to dry - but not in front of people.

If you bathe on Shabbat and dry yourself, you should not carry the towels back to your home, lest you squeeze them, even if you used ten towels. However, if there were ten people bathing, it would be the opposite: they could carry the towels back home, even if they all used the same towel. They will remind each other not to squeeze the towel.

Art: Bathroom Scene by Carl Larsson  

Shabbat 146 - How to open coke on Shabbat and other sundry issues

Let's say you have a cask of dried figs on Shabbat. You can open it and take out figs, but you should not plan to use this cask for storage afterward. You might think that making an opening somehow violates Shabbat, but in truth, it does not because you need the food, and for that, even destructive acts are permitted.

Similarly, you can open a Coke can on Shabbat. And yet, very careful people may squash the can afterward. 

Why did our rule mention dry figs? It wanted to address a complication we would otherwise not have guessed. Dried figs were usually pressed into a cake, and one would need a knife or a sword to cut them. Since he is allowed to use the knife to cut the figs, he would also be allowed to use it to open the barrel. However, this was a stringent position of only one Sage, Rabbi Nechemia, and therefore would not represent the final law. The Talmud derives this from the ruling and goes on to draw many other subtle observations.

Art: Still Life with Figs and Bread by Luis Melendez

Shabbat 145 - Squeezing grapes, honeycomb, and cooked vegetables - and Rabbi Yochanan dozing

Squeezing grapes for grape juice is prohibited on Shabbat because it was done in the Temple. You might think that squeezing grapes, honeycomb, and cooked vegetables follow the same law, but they do not. For example, squeezing cooked vegetables to make them taste better is completely permitted, but getting their juice might be prohibited by the Sages.

Rabbi Yochanan was dozing off while his two students discussed their questions. However, their answers were based on logic. For example, they asked, why are Holidays in Babylon more joyous than in Israel? Because they are poor and reserve celebrations for the Holidays, and so on.

At that, Rabbi Yochanan awoke and said, "Children! If something is clear, certain, and wise, say it. If not - do not say." Then he gave the Torah explanations. For example, the Holidays in Babylon are joyous because they were not included in the curse of "Your new moons and Holidays My soul hates - says the Holy One." That applied only to Israel but not to Babylon.

Art: Still Life with Four Bunches of Grapes by Juan Fernandez

Shabbat 100 - A nut on the water in a box in a cistern

In order to transgress Shabbat by "carrying," one must pick the object up in one place, move it four steps, and lay it at rest in a new place. Since one should not carry on Shabbat, one should NOT do so; thus, we have defined what one should NOT do.

If one takes water from a container with water, he has picked the water up from its (water's) natural resting place. That is an honest "picking up", and for that he will be liable on Shabbat. 

If one picks up a nut (I am thinking walnut) that is floating on the surface of the water, then he has not violated Shabbat because this is not the nut's natural resting place.

What is that nut is floating on the water that is in a box, and the box is floating on the water in its turn? The nut is at rest in the vessel, and he is liable? Or maybe we look at the box and see it floating on the water, and he is not liable?

The answer is "silence" or "teiku." Some say that the four letters of teiku stand for "Tishby iteretz kushiot veibayot", that is, "Eliyahu will explain all hard places and questions."

Art: Still Life of Fruit and Nuts by Giuseppe Ruoppolo

Shabbat 99 - Creating new areas on Shabbat

On Shabbat, there is a public area, like a street, and a private area, like a home, and one is prohibited from carrying objects from one to the other. Bringing into the house is forbidden, and taking out is forbidden. There are precise definitions of what a public area is, but you can think of it as a desert where Jews lived.

There are thus two major types of areas: public and private. In addition, there are many areas that are not as populous as a public area in the desert, but the Sages prohibited carrying there, because one might then come carry in a real public area. These are called "Karmelit." The root of this word is "Karmel," which means a field, cultivated or not.

To make yourself work hard, you can think of the following question. If you have a ditch nine tefachim (handbreadth) deep, it is not yet a real private area. One is allowed to carry things there. However, if he takes earth from that pit, he makes it into a private place. Has he violated Shabbat? When he started digging, it was not a private area, but by the time he finished, it was! The major question is when the area acquires the new status.

Art: Peasant Woman Digging by Van Gogh

Shabbat 98 - What precisely is allowed on Shabbat and what not?

When we derive Shabbat laws, for example, what and how we can carry on Shabbat, we compare everything to the building of the Temple. But why the Temple, of all things? The Temple existed to rectify all of Creation. Study its laws and their deeper meaning, and you will see it - but for now, you will have to take my word for it.

For example, at first it seems obvious to the Talmud that if one wanted to throw something eight amot in the public area (amot means elbows), and threw only four amot, then it is the same as if one wanted to write the name Shimon, and wrote only Shem, which is also a name, then he has violated Shabbat.

Many things require explanation here. What is a public area? That is similar to the Temple building site, which is visited by 600,000 people daily and has no roof or walls. And where did they throw objects when building the Temple? That is what they did with construction materials. And what is the size of the public area? - Sixteen amot, just as the size of the construction site that could fit the carriages used by the Levites.

But later, the Talmud changes its mind about what it thought was obvious. It has to define "carrying" or "throwing" as a sequence of two acts: picking up the object in one place and then letting it land in another. With this definition of carrying, logic becomes much clearer.

Art: Peasant Women with Brushwood by Jean-Francois Millet

Shabbat 97 - What Tzelafchad did on Shabbat

"And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks upon the sabbath day." - Who was he, and what exactly was he doing? He could be carrying the wood, cutting it, or tying it into sheaves, which would all be prohibited labor on Shabbat. But what does it matter to us now? Well, it does matter. Of 39 labors, one is really not so strict - there was such a tradition. Since they did execute him in the end, the above is not non-strict.

Rabbi Akiba deduced that this man was Tzelafchad. Rabbi Yehudah ben Beteira rebuked him on two accounts. If it was Tzelafchad, why did you, Akiba, reveal what the Torah wanted to hide? And if it was not him, you are maligning a righteous person. By the way, you should not suspect good people of wrongdoing. What if you did? - Give them a blessing.

The Talmud discusses various ways of prohibited throwing on Shabbat: from a house to a house with a street in between, or from a street to another street with a house in between. It makes a difference if we look at the object flying through the street as temporarily resting there. We might also consider a house as if fully filled with soil,  and view the object as landing in the house.

Art: Man Carrying Sticks by Louisa Anne Beresford

Shabbat 96 - Throwing things on Shabbat

We know that carrying things on Shabbat is not permitted if we are carrying them from the home (private domain) to the street (public domain). What about throwing? - This is also prohibited. In effect, one uproots from the home and lands it in the street, so it has the two elements of the transgression.

What if he hands an object over or throws it from one home to another, with the public street in between? Here, Rabbi Akiva makes him liable, while the other Sages do not. What is the argument about? Rabbi Akiva says that there is another principle: an object flying in the street is as if resting there. Thus, we view it as if having landed in the street. The Sages disagree with this principle.

But why is handing over forbidden at all? All kinds of labor needed for constructing the Temple are forbidden on Shabbat. And why - because the Temple is the microcosm of Creation. Since the Levites were handling beams from one wagon to another in building the Temple in the desert, this labor is forbidden.

Art: Girl Carrying a Basket by Winslow Homer

Shabbat 94 - Carrying a live person on a bed on Shabbat is allowed!

When a person carries foodstuff in a container, he really needs the food, and the container is there only for the food. Therefore, he is not violating Shabbat by carrying the container. Furthermore, if the amount of food is less than the violation limit (volume of a dried fig), he has not violated the Shabbat at all.

In the same way, if he carries a live person in a bed, he has not violated Shabbat because of the principle that a "live person carries himself," nor is he liable for carrying the bed because it is secondary to the person. "Live person carries himself" is explained thus: a person adjusts his weight and body position, and in this way, helps his carrying.

Finally, if one carries a corpse or an animal carcass or part of it - he is liable. Rabbi Shimon exempts him because of the principle of "work that is not needed for its own sake." That is, he is not interested in having the corpse in the street; rather, he just wants it out of this home. For that, says Rabbi Shimon, he is not liable on Shabbat.

Art: Man Carrying a Boy by Paul August Renoir

Shabbat 5 - Airspace, is it the same as resting on the ground?

So, after all, why is the poor man liable for violating Shabbat when he brings an object from the street into the hand of the householder inside? Complete Shabbat violation includes taking an object from a significant area of four by four cubits; a hand is much smaller.

The Talmud tries to ascribe this rule to Rabbi Akiva, who considers being in the airspace the same as resting on the ground. By extension, an object in the hand is resting on the ground. But it considers such attribution too tenuous. 

Then, it tries to say that it is the opinion of Rabbi Yehudah the Prince, who seemingly did not require the area of four by four. That does not work either because Rabbi Yehudah only talked about an area with a roof, and we have no roof in the street.

It tries to change the ruling, saying it should be "basket in his hand." The problem is that the rule needs to mention a basket, and it does not.

Finally, the Talmud concludes that because the hand can grasp things, it is considered by the person as if it were four by four "arms" (amot) - and that is why the poor man is liable.

Art: Breton Woman with a Basket by John Singer Sargent

Shabbat 4 - Do not confuse a scholar

Rav asked Rabbi Yehudah the Prince (his uncle) a question: if someone loaded a person with food and drink, and then this person carried his load into the street on Shabbat, what is the law? Since this person did not pick up the food, he did not perform the complete carrying on Shabbat, which requires both picking up and then putting it down. Or when he started moving his body, it was akin to picking up, and the person is liable.

Rabbi Yehudah replied, "He is liable." He added, "It is not the same as a hand." Rabbi Yehudah was anticipating a question of why putting it in his hand does not make him liable, but putting it on his shoulder does."

Rabbi Chiya (son of Rabbi Yehudah) addressed himself to Rav, "Son of scholars! When Rabbi Yehudah is teaching another area of law, do not distract him with questions about Shabbat. What if he does answer right? It might prove an embarrassment. Here, however, he answered correctly." His hand, unlike his body, is not at rest. So, it never performs the start of the first part of the Shabbat violation.

Shabbat 3 - Two that are four

On the previous page, we discussed two ways to break Shabbat, which are really four. Thus, there are four ways for one outside and four more for one inside, with a total of eight cases.

However, in another place in the Talmud where the idea of "two that are four" is discussed, only four cases of Shabbat violations are mentioned, and not eight. Here is what it says there. There are two kinds of oaths to violate: to do something in the future or not to do it. These are really four - adding oaths that he did or did not do something in the past. The list continues - two ways to remember that one was ritually impure when he went to the Temple, which is four. Two ways the spiritual leprosy (tzaraat) can look, which is four. So it is four or eight?

The Talmud answers: here in tractate Shabbat, it describes all the variations and details; thus, there are eight. But in another list, where the subject is oaths and Shabbat is only incidental, only the four major categories are discussed.

Art: Shabbat by Marc Chagall

Brachot 63 - When to Nullify the Torah and When to Uphold It - (Blessings)

There are times when one must nullify the Torah. The key is in the phrase, "Time to act for God; they have nullified Your law." It should be understood as thus: the righteous nullified the Law! Why? Because the time has come to act for God.

The classic example is Elijah bringing a sacrifice on Mount Carmel while it is prohibited outside the Temple. Another example is writing down the Talmud. Initially, it was forbidden to commit Talmud to writing. But when people's memory weakened, the Sages permitted it based on the same rule.

In general, learning the Torah is the source of strength and also of pleasure. But to understand and remember it, one must die for it. It says, "This is the Torah of a man who dies in a tent." On the surface, it talks about the purity laws for a corpse. But the Torah gives many lessons, and this one can be obtained by analyzing the phrase and seeing a different meaning in it.

One who wants to become wise should study monetary judgments because they require patience and exact knowledge of the Law. One should never be ashamed to ask even stupid questions.

Art: The Sacrifice of Elijah by Aert Jansz. Marienhof

Brachot 61 - All that God does is for the good (Blessings)

A person should accustom himself to saying, "All that God goes is for the good," like in the following story.

Rabbi Akiva was once traveling. He reached a city where no one would provide lodging for him. He said, "All that God does is for the good." He went to sleep in the fields. He had a rooster, a donkey, and a lamp. The wind came and blew out the lamp; a cat came and ate the rooster; a lion came and ate the donkey. At night, the army came and captured the city. He told his students, "Didn't I tell you, all that God does is for good."

Once, the Roman Empire decreed that Jews should not engage in Torah study. Pappus came and found Rabbi Akiva publicly teaching the Torah. Pappus said, "Akiva, are you not afraid of the regime?" Akiva answered with a parable. A fox saw schools of fish looking for a refuge. It said, "Why are you running away?" The fish replied, "From the people spreading their nets." The fox said, "Come live with me on dry land." The fish replied, "If we are in danger in water, how much more so would be on land!" 

If now, when we study the Torah, which says, "For it is your life and the length of your days," we are in danger, if we stop studying, how much more so!?

Art: A Scholar in His Study by the School of Rembrandt

Bava Kamma 108 - Unpaid custodian (Torts)

When one entrusts an item to his fellow, the fellow becomes an unpaid custodian. If one then comes to retrieve the object and his fellow says, "It is lost," the fellow is not obligated to pay since he was doing a favor. But if one insists and asks his fellow to swear and the fellow accepts an oath, things become more complex.

If witnesses come and testify that the custodian consumed the deposit himself, he is obligated to pay for it double what he stole. If the custodian repents and confesses his false oath, he must pay the total amount, plus one-fifth of the value, and bring a guilt offering to the Temple.

What if one robs his father and swears to him that he did not do it, the father dies, and the son then repents his false oath? The son pays the principal plus one-fifth to his father's heirs (his brothers and uncles.) If he does not have the money to repay, he can borrow from others and give it to his brothers; his creditors will come and collect from his portion of the inheritance.

Art: The Last Moments of Christopher Columbus by Claude Jacquand

Bava Kamma 105 - Flaky Humans (Torts)

We remember that one who robs his fellow of money, either by stealing, robbing, or not returning something deposited with him - and swears that he did not do it - but then repents, needs to fix it in a special way. He has to find the victim, restore what he stole, add one-fifth, and bring a guilt offering to the Temple.

What if he returned the principal but not the fifth and now swears that he returned the fifth? If he then confesses that he again took a false oath, he must restore the amount, add one-fifth, and bring another guilt sacrifice. This process can continue until the principal amount is reduced to less than a prutah (about five cents.)

Art: Train Robbery by Frederick Morris

Bava Kamma 103 - Title insurance using the name of the king (Torts)

A cryptic ruling: if one buys a field in the name of his fellow, we do not force him to sell; if he said "on condition," we force him to sell. Rav Sheshet explained it.

One comes to buy a field and says that he is buying it for the Exilarch (who was given a semi-royal authority over the Jews in Babylon.) He is really buying the land for himself, but he wants the deed to be written in the name of the Exilarch. He is doing it to discourage protesters to the sale, who might claim that they are the true owners of the land and not the seller. 

The ruling then says we do not force the seller to write another bill of sale with the buyer's name. The seller might not want to write two bills of sale because it may look like he is selling the field twice. However, if the buyer stipulated that he would want two bills of sale, the seller has to produce them. But that is obvious? The seller can say that he thought the buyer was talking to the witnesses.

Art: The Ploughed Field by Van Gogh

Bava Kamma 8 - What is considered the best land? (Torts)

If one causes damages to his fellow, he must compensate for it. Furthermore, "He shall pay from the best of his land." With that instruction, we still have many questions open. We already discussed whether it should be the damaged party's best land or the damager's best land.

The next question is this. When the court assesses land to determine which one is superior, do they look at the damager's lands and choose the best? Or do they look at the land quality in general? Perhaps the damager's lands are so excellent that even his worst land is still the best by the world's standard. 

Rav Abba gave an answer. Since the Torah said, "His best land," the quality of the world's lands has nothing to do with it! Still, they challenged his answer, contrasting it with the rule of paying to different categories of people: creditors, damaged parties, and widows claiming their Ketubah payment. But Rav Abba deflected their questions.

Art: Landscape with a Stone Bridge by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn