The Lantern

Shabbat23

Guggenheimer

MISHNAH: A person may ask from a neighbor wine jugs and oil jugs, only he may not say to him: lend me [Since this is a weekday occupation.] ; and similarly a woman loaves from her neighbor. If that one does not trust him he may leave his toga with him and settle the account after the Sabbath [Chapter 16, Note 103.] . Similarly, on a Passover eve in Jerusalem which happens on a Sabbath he leaves his toga with him [The person who is in Jerusalem but failed to buy a Passover lamb before Sabbath may take one from a sheep merchant and settle the account on Monday, after the holiday on Sunday.] , eats his Passover sacrifice, and settles the account after the holiday.

MISHNAH: A person counts his guests and his desserts orally but not from a written list [That he might not take a pencil and make modifications to the list.] . A person may make a lottery with his children and his family on the table on condition that he not make portions large or small, because of gambling [If the portions are more or less equal, one may make a competition or lottery to determine who gets what; but if the portions are unequal it would become a game of chance forbidden even on weekdays.] . One casts lots on sancta on the holiday [As described in Yoma Chapter 4.] but not on portions [Parts from the previous day may not be given away in a competition on the Sabbath.] .

MISHNAH: A person may not hire workers on the Sabbath [To work for him after the Sabbath. Doing so would violate a prophetic injunction, Is. 58:13.] and not say to another to hire workers for him. One does not wait for nightfall at the Sabbath boundary [To move outside immediately on the first occasion. This is a rabbinic prohibition.] to hire workers and to bring produce, but one may wait for nightfall to watch [To watch over his fields outside the Sabbath boundary since it is permitted to watch over one’s property inside the Sabbath boundary on the Sabbath proper.] and to bring produce in his hand [If he waited at the border for a legitimate cause he can bring some produce with him when returning.] . Abba Shaul formulated a principle: For anything which I am permitted to talk about I am permitted to wait for nightfall [Anything one may ask another Jew to do for him on the Sabbath he is permitted to wait for at the Sabbath border at the end of the Sabbath.] .

MISHNAH: One waits for nightfall at the Sabbath border to oversee preparations for a wedding or preparations for a burial [Since organizing either a wedding or a burial are meritorious deeds, one may talk about these to others on the Sabbath and therefore, following Abba Shaul, wait at the Sabbath boundary at the end of the Sabbath.] , to bring a casket and shrouds. If a Gentile brought fifes on the Sabbath, a Jew should not use them for dirges unless they came from a nearby place [From within the Sabbath boundary.] . If they made for him [The Gentile.] a casket and dug him a grave a Jew may be buried in it; but if it was made for a Jew he never should be buried in it.

MISHNAH: One does all that is needed for a corpse [On the Sabbath.] , one anoints, and rinses, on condition that none of his limbs be moved [Since the corpse is muqṣeh, it may not be moved but can be touched.] . One takes away the pillow under him [Since the pillow is an implement, it may be moved under all circumstances.] and lays him on sand so he can wait [Be cooled to deter decomposition.] . One ties the jaw, not to lift it but lest it descend. Similarly, if a beam broke one supports it by a bench or the long logs of a bed-frame, not to lift it but lest it descend [To avoid its breaking.] . One does not close the eyelids of a corpse on the Sabbath, nor on a weekday at the moment of death [Since this gives a signal to the dying person that he is considered dead; this may destroy his will to live and shorten his life, even if it is only for a few seconds.] . Anybody who closes the eyes at the moment of death is spilling blood.