Shabbos 18

“These are cases where he declares the utensils ownerless.”

Today’s theme focuses on the prohibition against “stoking the flames” on Shabbat. This is applied to various scenarios that include placing bundles of flax in a pot, wool in a kettle, and uncooked or lightly cooked meat in an oven. Shammai, who appears to be recovered from the near violent disagreement yesterday with Hillel and his students, tells us today that it is permitted to allow food to simmer or roast on a spit-fire throughout the Shabbat if they are placed within their utensils while it is still day and are deemed ownerless. 

The Koren Talmud’s notes state that in order to consider a utensil ownerless, it must be relinquished before three people. We also learn a lesson in intention: if a woman fills a pot with wheat and lupines and places them in the oven, they may not be eaten on Shabbat. Here is where the idea of intention comes in: they may also not be eaten after the Shabbat for a period of time equivalent to the time they were in the oven, in order not to benefit from the prohibited labor. The idea of intention arises from the presumption that the cooking was accelerated in order to partake of a meal directly after the end of the Shabbat. 

This passage led me to research the custom of placing food on a fire before the onset of the Sabbath and leaving it to simmer throughout Sabbath day. There is some sort of calculation (which I do not fully understand) on the degree of edibility that is allowed for food to be able to cook throughout the Sabbath. It is customary to place the food on a hotplate and allow it to simmer over time in order to comply with Shabbat restrictions.

This reminded me of a horrible incident that occurred in Brooklyn on March 21, 2015 when a hot plate in an orthodox home caught fire overnight. The home broke out in flames while the family slept upstairs. The mother and one child survived, but seven children perished in the flames on that cold early spring day. The fire led to a debate about the custom of leaving food on a hot plate overnight and a drive to equip Orthodox homes with fire alarms. 

I know the horror of experiencing fire firsthand. My childhood home burned down when I was eleven years old. I returned home from school one day to a burned shell of a home. My mother had not yet arrived on the scene and I remember standing on the lawn of the house with my neighbors (one of whom heroically tried to put out the fire with his garden hose before the fire department arrived). I was trying to process as an eleven-year-old the destruction of the safety I had always taken for granted. What was left intact (there was not much) was soaked with the acrid smell that permeated the air. Almost every material item I had from my childhood – toys, artwork, books, clothes, souvenirs from travels – was destroyed. And because I was on the cusp of being a teenager it was truly an abrupt end to my childhood because I was too old to replace my toys and keep-sakes. To this day, fire scares me. I cannot imagine leaving a simmering pot on a stove unattended or walking away from a lit candle.
But my family was lucky. We all survived.  We must have had a guardian angel because our family dogs were at the groomers that day, or they might not have lived. It’s important to be safe. In every way.