(For those who don't know what Mishnah is, see Wikipedia's reference on the word Mishnah. Caution, lots of detail.)
Although I've got a blog entry in the making, it's rather long and will take me quite a bit more time to complete. So while you're all waiting, I don't want this space to go empty.
I've also decided that I need to get some daily study done and this probably isn't a bad place to stick up notes on progression. I'm going to try to stick with this through the tractate of Mo'ed (translation, Festivals), or through as much of it as I get. There are lots and lots of details and lots and lots of laws...
Got a question on something I put up, or a request for more detail? Just post a comment!
And so - Mishnah 1 of the first chapter of Shabbos:
One of the 39 prohibited forms of work (commonly known by the Hebrew 'Melocho') on Shabbos is carrying from a public domain to a private domain (or vice versa). Transferring from one domain to another, in effect.
This Mishnah talks about two ways that the Torah-prohibition (distinct from the Rabbinic-prohibition, which is mentioned next) can be violated by someone standing outside the house and two ways by someone standing inside the house. The Mishnah refers to the person outside as a pauper and the person inside as the home-owner; the object(s) being passed are most likely food and/or utensils.
If the pauper sticks his hand in the window and takes the food from the home-owner's hands, or returns the empty utensils through the window into the home-owner's hands, he has transgressed this Torah-prohibition.
The home-owner has not done the prohibition...but (depending on circumstances) he may be considered to have 'set a stumbling-block before the blind' by giving the food in such a manner or allowing the pauper to return the items in such a manner.
If the home-owner sticks his hands outside and places the food into the pauper's hands, or reaches out the window and takes the empty utensils from the pauper's hands, he has transgressed this Torah-prohibition.
Again, the pauper has not done the prohibition - but again, may (depending on circumstances) be liable for a different problem, that of causing the home-owner to transgress.
Breakdown: In order to transgress this prohibition of transfer-of-domain, one has to pick up the article from one domain (private or public) and place it down in the other domain. In the above cases, both of these actions were done by the one person - and so that one person has transgressed the prohibition, while the other has not.
If half of the action (the picking up) would be done by one party and the other party would complete the tranfer (the placing down), then neither party would be considered to have transgressed by Torah law. However, to prevent such obvious circumvention of the law (breaking of the 'spirit' of Shabbos), there was a Rabbinical-prohibition placed on such partial transfers as well.
And - first Mishnah done. See you tomorrow!
Posted by adam at May 8, 2006 02:05 AM