Shabbat: making time for rest and renewal TB Shabbat 2

Today we begin our journey that will last six months through Massechet Shabbat found in the Seder (Order) of Moed, Holidays. I can give you three reasons why Massechet Shabbat begins this Seder. First of all, Shabbat is a weekly holiday as opposed to all the other holidays which only come once a year. Shabbat is the holiest holiday we observe. The proof is in the number of people called up to the Torah. On a regular weekday only three people have aliyot. On Rosh Hodesh we call up for people to the Torah. On the Pilgrimage holidays (Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot) and Rosh Hashanah five people have aliyot. We call up six people to the Torah on Yom Kippur. But on Shabbat seven people have aliyot! The third reason why the order of Moed begins with Massechet Shabbat is probably the real reason. This tractate of 24 chapters is the longest of all the tractates. All the following tractates dealing with different holidays appear in descending order of the number of chapters.

To understand the first Mishna one needs to know several key definitions. They are:

רשות היחיד -Reshut Hayachid) A private domain like a house)

רשות הרבים -Reshut Harabim) A public domain)

הוצאה- Removing something from a private domain) to a public Hotza-ah) domain)

הכנסה- Removing something from a public domain to a private Hachnasah) domain)

עקירה -Akira) Lifting up)

הנחה -Hanachah) Placing down)

For a Torah violation of Hotza-ah and Hachnasah a person needs to do both Akira and Hanachah. If there are two people and one does Akira and the other does Hanacha, they (only) violate a rabbinic prohibition.

The first Mishnah daf TB Shabbat 2a begins:

“The acts of carrying out from a public domain into a private domain or vice versa, which are prohibited on Shabbat, are primarily two basic actions that comprise four cases from the perspective of a person inside a private domain, and two basic actions that comprise four cases from the perspective of a person outside, in a public domain. The mishna elaborates: How do these eight cases take place? In order to answer that question, the mishna cites cases involving a poor person and a homeowner.

“The poor person stands outside, in the public domain, and the homeowner stands inside, in the private domain. The poor person lifted an object in the public domain, extended his hand into the private domain, and placed the object into the hand of the homeowner. In that case, the poor person performed the prohibited labor of carrying from the public domain into the private domain in its entirety. Or, the poor person reached his hand into the private domain, took an item from the hand of the homeowner, and carried it out into the public domain. In that case, the poor person performed the prohibited labor of carrying out from the private domain into the public domain in its entirety. In both of these cases, because the poor person performed the prohibited labor in its entirety, he is liable and the homeowner is exempt.

“The Mishnah cites two additional cases. In these, and him him the prohibited labor is performed by the homeowner, who is in the private domain: The homeowner lifted an item in the private domain, extended his hand into the public domain, and placed the object into the hand of the poor person. In that case, the homeowner performed the labor of carrying out from the private domain into the public domain in its entirety. Or, the homeowner reached his hand into the public domain, took an object from the hand of the poor person, and carried it into the private domain. In that case, the homeowner performed the labor of carrying from the public domain into the private domain in its entirety. In both of those cases, because the homeowner performed the prohibited labor in its entirety, he is liable and the poor person is exempt.

“There are four additional cases where neither the homeowner nor the poor person performed the labor in its entirety, and therefore neither is liable: The poor person extended his hand into the private domain and either the homeowner took an object from his hand and placed it in the private domain or the homeowner placed an object into the hand of the poor person, and the poor person carried the object out into the public domain. In those cases and the two that follow, the act of transferring the object from one domain to another was performed jointly by two people, the poor person and the homeowner. Because each performed only part of the prohibited labor, both of them are exempt.

“So too, in a case where the homeowner extended his hand into the public domain and, either the poor person took an object from the homeowner’s hand and placed it in the public domain or the poor person placed an object into the homeowner’s hand and the homeowner carried the object into the private domain. Because each performed only part of the prohibited labor, both of them are exempt. (Sefaria.org translation)

The laws pertaining to the Sabbath day begin in chapter 7. You could say that the first six chapters of the massechet deal with getting ready for Shabbat with the exception of our Mishnah. The first Tosefot explains why Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi chose to begin the tractate thusly. He especially prized this Mishnah because it contains many important concepts like Hotza-ah and Hachnasah, a poor person and a rich person, the necessity of doing both Akira and Hanachah to violate the Torah prohibition, how two people both can be liable only for violating a rabbinic injunction, how person’s hand is considered to be four handbreadths long and 4 handbreadths wide even though person’s hand physically can only be one handbreadth by 1 handbreadth, and person’s hand is neither considered as a private domain nor a public domain.

All that is a lot to take in especially for the uninitiated Sabbath observer. To him or her all this seems overwhelming and burdensome. Keep an open mind when we continue our study of the Sabbath and all of his intricacies by remembering what Rabbi Chananyah ben Akashayah taught: “The holy Exalted One desire to benefit the people Israel: therefore, God gave them the Torah with an abundance of mitzvot as is written: ‘Adonai was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake, to make the Torah great and glorious’ (Isaiah 62:21)” TB Makkot 16.