Daf Hayomi,
learning one blatt a day, the same daf itself being studied all over the world,
suggested originally by R’ Meir Shapiro over 80 years ago, has taken off
lately. The latest siyum worldwide to celebrate finishing the whole of Shas,
attracted hundreds of thousands of people including a few thousand at the Royal
Festival Hall here in London.
We are now
learning Mesechta Shabbos and I felt that this is a good opportunity to discuss
a particular matter which puzzled me for many years. There are 39 אב מלאכות, major works, which one may not carry out
on Shabbos. Interestingly enough, the mesechta does not start with them and the
Mishna which enumerates the 39 is on daf ע''ג
right in the middle of the mesechta. That itself should raise a few eyebrows as
to why the fundamentals are buried in the middle of the mesechta. Furthermore,
going through the 39 one finds that literally the last one is Hamoitzie mareshus
lereshus, namely, carrying from a reshus hayoched to a reshus harabim or vice
versa, that is a private domain to a public domain or public domain to a
private domain.
What puzzled me
always, was why does the mesechta start with the laws of carrying to or from a
private domain or a public domain?
In fact, the
first Mishna starts with
“The laws of
carrying in and out on Shabbos are two which become four inside the private
domain and two laws which are also four outside in the public domain”. It
continues “namely the poor man stands outside and the owner stands inside, in
his house, etc.” There is lengthy Mishna giving various examples of what one
may not or may do.
Looking at the
39 malochos, the Mishna on daf ע''ג starts as follows:-
The first eleven
melochos are a series commencing with זורע,
sowing and continuing with ploughing, reaping produce, gathering together the
sheaves, threshing, winnowing, selecting, grinding, sifting, kneading, and
finally baking. Baking includes all types of cooking.
What we are told
is that all the melochos which were needed for the construction of the Mishkan
and all the preparations of its components thereto, are the ones which are
considered melochos as far as Shabbos is concerned. When the Torah tells us לא תעשה מלאכה ביום השבת, that we may not perform
any melocha on Shabbos, this is the list that we are referring to.
These first
eleven melochos commencing with sowing, according to Rashi’s interpretation,
all had to do with the cooking that was needed to produce the dyes for the
colourings of the curtains etc. of the Mishkan.
That is one
series of melochos. The Mishna continues with other ones.
The next series
starts with הגוזז את הצמר, shearing wool and
continues with all the different processes including weaving in order to
produce the curtains of the Mishkan.
The Mishna
continues with various other melochos such as shechita, writing two letters,
building and demolishing, extinguishing fire and kindling fire and מכה בפטיש, which the Gemora understands as being
administering the finishing touches for the completion of a job. Last and apparently
least is transferring from public to private domain or vice versa.
Why I say apparently
least, is the fact that in all other cases, as explained in masterly fashion
by the late Dayan Grunfeld in a book on the subject, the state of the
particular object referred to, changes either immediately or over a period of
time and is therefore considered a melocha which is ossur on Shabbos. For
example, sowing, means taking a seed and putting it in the ground. It then
disintegrates and becomes eventually a new grown plant, so one has changed the
status, albeit over a long time. Baking occurs after taking raw dough and other
such materials and making it edible immediately. So can be explained 38
of the 39 melochos.
However, in the
case of carrying in and out from one domain to another, this does not apply,
there is no change in the status of the object that one takes from reshus
hayoched to reshus harabim or vice versa. In fact, Tosefes at the beginning of
the mesechta, calls it, therefore a melocha geruah, a lesser type of work.
Nevertheless, we
have a kabalah, a tradition, הלכה למשה מסיני that this was one of the 39 melochos. This is learned
from the request by Moshe for all the Yidden to bring materials for the Mishkan
which they all brought enthusiastically. He then commanded them to stop as
stated in Shemois ל''ו (see the Gemora in
Shabbos צ''ו the top of omod ב
for the details). There, it is stated, that this was in fact a commandment not
to bring items on Shabbos from people’s own private dwelling houses, each a private
domain, to where Moshe resided in the camp of the Leviim, which was a public
domain.
I would
reiterate my question namely why does the Mesechta start with the laws of
carrying to or from a private domain or a public domain?
I believe that
one could understand the reason for starting with these laws of הוצאה והכנסה, as follows:-
If one examines
all the 39 melochos in detail, one can find that there are numerous of them
that most people would not carry out ever in their lives. For example, sowing,
dyeing the wool, or setting two heddles in order to start a weaving process,
etc. There are others, that one might occasionally carry out and there are a few
that one would carry out more frequently, including baking which includes all
types of cooking.
Nevertheless, it
is quite possible for many people, especially men who have wives who are very
good cooks and baalaboostas, never to actually cook anything themselves.
There is one
melocha which virtually everybody performs every day and that is carrying
between two domains, leaving ones house and going into the street and vice
versa. Therefore, very sensibly, the mesechta starts with a practical melocha
which is the most frequent that one would come across. Our chochomim decided that
that was the appropriate way to start off Mesechtas Shabbos, giving a practical
example which everybody would be able to appreciate and would come across time
and time again.
If one would
have started with a different melocha, for example, sowing, people might say to
themselves “Oh I never do this” and, therefore, it would not have the same
effect.
This might also
be the reason why the mesechta starts off not, as I said at the beginning, with
the enumeration of the 39 melochos but with a practical example, because the
chochomim felt that one has to first concentrate on halocho l’maaseh, what is
the law in practical cases and then after having considered various melochos, enumerate
the whole list.
In fact, if you
look carefully through Shas, you will find that this is true of many Mesechtas,
which commence with a practical holocho. The principles being mentioned much
later in the mesechta.
I would like to
suggest an alternative and deeper idea as to why the mesechta starts with the
laws of הוצאה והכנסה.
If we go back to
the first day when Odom Harishon was created, it was a Friday, the sixth day of
creation and the Gemora in Sanhedrin ל'ח omad ב
right at the top, states exactly what happened in the 12 hours commencing 6am
in the morning. I quote below the actual
wording of the Gemoro.
Namely, in the
first hour 6 am to 7 am, Hashem gathered together the dust in order to create
Odom Harishon. The Gemoro then carries on with what happened every hour until in
the 4th hour, that is between 9.00am and 10.00 am, Hashem gave Odom Harishon a
neshomo. In the 5th hour, he already stood on his feet and was placed in Gan
Eden. By the 7th hour he had been given Chava as a wife, in the 8th hour, they had
two children.
During the 9th
hour, that is, between 2pm and 3pm, he was commanded not to eat from the Etz
Hadaas. Between 3pm and 4pm he did eat, then he was judged by 5pm. Late in the
afternoon, literally before Shabbos, Odom Harishon and his family were expelled
from Gan Eden, where, earlier on in the day, Odom Harishon had been placed, some
six hours previously. Then we are told that Odom Harishon tried very hard to
get back into Gan Eden and that is why there was להט החרב
המתהפכת, the flame of the ever turning sword, to stop him getting back
in.
He was excluded
from Gan Eden just before Shabbos, as of course, would have been Chava and the
other two who were born in the 8th hour (incidentally, one would assume that
they were Kayin and Hevel but Tosefes suggests it was Kayin and his twin
sister).
Hashem rested on
the seventh day as it says clearly in Torah, and no doubt, Odom Harishon also
did, in fact, we are told that on Motzei Shabbos, he took stones, created a spark
and so created fire, after that, he had to perform numerous other melochos, in
order to carry on with his life.
As we are aware,
the world degenerated from a spiritual point of view and only re commenced
uplifting properly from Avrohom Avinu and the Avos onwards. Eventually the
Torah was given which brought the world back to the level of Odom Harishon
before he sinned.
Unfortunately,
shortly afterwards, the story of the eigel hazohov, the golden calf, took place
and the world was once again plunged into spiritual chaos. Therefore, Hashem
commanded that a Mishkan should be erected and that this should be the focal
point of the shechina in future. This was analogous to the Gan Eden in which
Odom Harishon was supposed to serve and to guard it and that is the meaning of
the words לעבדה ולשמרה. To keep positive and
negative commandments as commanded by Hashem to Odom Harishon.
With the
building of the Mishkan, the focal point of the spiritual side of Klal Yisroel,
Hashem wanted to recreate an oasis comparable to Gan Eden and this continued
with the building of the Bais Hamikdosh, where, once again, the Shechina,
Hashem’s presence, dwelt. In fact, we are told that there were ten nissim,
miracles, which took place regularly in the Bais Hamikdosh.
What I am
suggesting is that the idea of reshus
hayoched, namely Gan Eden and the place outside, namely reshus harabim, was the
first set of circumstances that occurred with Odom Harishon just before
Shabbos Beirishis and in the same way as these were completely delineated
and separated by Hashem in that Odom Harishon had originally been inside in Gan
Eden and then was placed outside and not allowed to go back in, and, of course,
this happened just before the onset of Shabbos, there remains every erev
Shabbos, just before Shabbos, an echo of what happened originally. In
consequence, carrying from one reshus to the other became an important idea to
be remembered and rectified.
In the same way
as Odom Harishon made a mistake and, therefore, was excluded from his original
dwelling place, by us not carrying between reshus hayoched and reshus harabim,
we are in some small measure rectifying matters.
Also in
consequence, because this was the first major thing that happened and before
any other מלאכת, works, were performed by Odom Harishon,
therefore the whole mesechta starts off with the mitzvo concerning public and
private domains.
We learn all the
39 melochos from the Mishkan and what was needed in order to build and be used
in the Mishkan. That itself echoed the original Gan Eden in which Odom Harishon
was placed.
Just to
reinforce the idea, please look at the opening words of the first mishna which
I mentioned earlier on.
Namely, the laws
of going out on Shabbos are two which became four inside. This is an
allusion to Odom, Chava and the two children born to them whilst they were
still in Gan Eden. The mishna then continues, two that became four
outside, meaning when they were all excluded from Gan Eden and stood
outside. Obviously Odom Harishon would have liked to have gone inside, but he
was, in fact, the עני, the poor person, standing
outside and the Rebbono Shel Olam, Hashem who created the world, was the בעל הבית, the owner, inside Gan Eden.
I believe I have
demonstrated a deeper idea as to why the mesechta starts off with the laws of הוצאה מרשות לרשות
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