Rabbi Mendel Agranovich
Dear readers!
One of the most important and difficult aspects of Torah study is deriving practical law from the Talmud and the later books that comment on it.
What could be simpler, you may ask? After all, at first glance, everything has been written down and commented on, and the main difficulty lies in reading what has been written…
I have heard questions of this kind not only from people beginning to observe the mitzvot, but also from people who have long been familiar with the foundations of Judaism.
Let us explain.
1) First of all, even to read what has been written requires years of study and painstaking effort (for example, to study the entire Talmud, one must study a full folio of Talmud every day for seven years and several months, including Yom Kippur, Tisha B'Av, and other busy days on our calendar, such as the eves of Pesach and Sukkot, which is no simple matter).
2) Alongside this (and partly afterward), one must study the works of the major commentators and codifiers: Rashi, Tosafot, Rif, Rambam, Rosh, and Ran.
3) Then one must study the “Tur” and “Beit Yosef”—the foundation of practical halachah—works containing all the laws derived from the Talmud and its commentaries.
4) Next comes the “Shulchan Aruch” (literally, “a set table”)—an abridged version of Rabbi Yosef Karo's book (his commentary on the “Tur”), which he wrote so that Jews could review the entire Torah in one (!!!) month.
5) But even that is not all. There are commentators on the “Shulchan Aruch”: “Magen Avraham,” “Taz,” “Shach,” the Vilna Gaon, and “Pri Megadim,” and this is far from a complete list!
6) And most importantly: one must analyze everything written in these holy books (composed by brilliant people wholly immersed in Torah study), compare the works with one another and with the sources, and reach the correct ruling. All of this is very, very difficult. Incidentally, we have already answered a frequently asked question: what do you study all day in those kollels and yeshivas? But that is another story altogether…
In view of this, at a certain point in Jewish history, a need arose for concise codes of practical law that would sum up centuries of debate and allow a coachman, cobbler, or tailor to know exactly how to act in a particular situation. Thus the books “Chayei Adam” and “Mishnah Berurah” came into being, written specifically for this purpose.
Let us note that the Almighty, blessed be He, arranged matters so that these works became far more significant than their authors had envisioned. Their works, “Mishnah Berurah,” “Chayei Adam,” and “Chochmat Adam,” became a cornerstone for Lithuanian Jewry in the halachic rulings of every rabbi, from a Belarusian shtetl to New York and Jerusalem. In other communities, the “Aruch HaShulchan” and “Shulchan Aruch HaRav” came into widespread use. Today, studying the Chafetz Chaim's code, “Mishnah Berurah,” is customary in almost all communities.
To one degree or another, each of the great works listed above helped resolve the problem we identified: serving as a concise and informative reference for a particular law whenever needed.
The book “Chazon Ish” stands apart from them in its form, though not in its importance: it was written not as a commentary on the “Shulchan Aruch,” but as the author's own notes and conclusions on the subjects set out in its headings.
One of the most important topics in halachah, both because of its significance and because of the frequency of situations requiring clear knowledge, is Shabbat, with its many requirements and prohibitions.
Technological progress and the advent of modern household appliances—and, before that, electricity—made it necessary to undertake a serious analysis and understanding of every nuance of the laws in the Talmud and “Shulchan Aruch,” in order to classify all these innovations clearly in light of halachah and modern reality. This required an understanding of both Torah and applied physics, and our teachers of the modern generation—Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz (“Chazon Ish”) and Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (“Me'orei HaEsh”)—opened a new stage in the development of halachah and continued this work in their correspondence, discussing the nature of such concepts as “electric current” and switching electrical circuits and appliances on and off. (With G-d's help, we will discuss this in greater detail when examining the prohibition against “building.”)
About 50 years ago, Rabbi Yehoshua Yeshaya Neuwirth (Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach's closest student) published “Shemirat Shabbat Kehilchatah,” which became an indispensable reference in virtually every Jewish home. The debate surrounding it, as well as the kaleidoscope of opinions of the leading sages of the generations, created a need for another reference work—“Orchot Shabbat,” on which we intend to base our column—“The Laws of Shabbat”.
[Alongside the books cited by the author of this article, the great teachers of our people wrote many other books dealing with the laws of Shabbat. It is also important to note the “place of honor” that the study of the laws of Shabbat holds in virtually all books of responsa.
In the author's opinion, the books he cites were the most widely accepted among our people and had the greatest influence on spreading knowledge of the laws of Shabbat. Editor's note.]
After this introduction, it is clear to any reasonable person that one cannot make independent halachic rulings based on the short articles in our column. They can only introduce one to the subject and help one understand when to consult a competent rabbi and how to plan one's Shabbat routine so as to avoid all the “tricky situations and hidden pitfalls.”
As we begin studying the laws of Shabbat, let us turn to the source: the Talmud says that all Shabbat prohibitions are derived from the construction of the portable Sanctuary in the wilderness—the Mishkan. Moshe Rabbeinu conveys the Almighty's command to build it, and then immediately speaks of the need to observe Shabbat. This kind of consecutive mention is called “semichut,” and our Sages accepted that all the types of work and activities essential to building the Sanctuary (the Mishkan) are the “avot melachot” (primary categories of work) prohibited on Shabbat. Elsewhere, in turn, the Talmud states that the derivatives of these categories of work are obviously also prohibited. Without going into a detailed explanation, the idea is that building the Mishkan parallels the creation of the world, and suspending this construction for one day (Shabbat) affirms the idea that man was commanded not to “create” anything new on the seventh day, following the Almighty's example.
As is well known, there are a total of 39 “avot melachot” (categories of work). We will begin with the prohibition against cooking on Shabbat and the Sages' decrees surrounding it.
May you put your son's wet clothes on a radiator after he has been playing snowballs? What about crumbling croutons into soup? Or pouring a guest another helping of hot soup into the bowl he is already using? May boiling water be added to a baby's bottle of cold milk? And how, in general, should you prepare a cup of tea on Shabbat in accordance with all the rules?
We will discuss this and much more in our column. We look forward to seeing you!