Shabbos 2
“The acts of carrying out on Shabbat are two that comprise four.”
Today we start a new chapter and I have the privilege of cracking open a new book: The Koren Talmud Bavli, Shabbat Part One. Opening the fresh pages of this large illustrated book evokes feelings of what it is like to start something new in life – a new chapter in learning, a new journey through this meandering text.
The reading provides no context or introduction but starts with a parsing of what it means to prohibit the “carrying out” of an article on the Shabbos from a public domain to a private one, or visa versa. Somehow, these two examples become eight, then twelve and sixteen.
In order to understand what was going on with the reference to “two becomes four” I mapped out the cited examples. Here is the rundown (and let’s ignore the classist undertones for now) of how two becomes four:
A poor person stands outside in the public domain and the homeowner stands inside in his private domain. An object travels from outside to inside when the poor person hands it to his wealthier neighbor. The poor person is liable (for breaching the Sabbath law) and the homeowner is exempt.
A poor person reaches into the private homeowner’s domain, removes an object and places it in the public domain. The poor person is liable, and the homeowner is exempt.
The wealthier person (the 1%?) removes an object from his home and hands it to the poor person (a donation of sorts?) The homeowner is liable, and the poor person is exempt.
The homeowner takes an object away from the poor person (are we robbing the poor here?) and secures it in his home. The homeowner is liable, and the poor person is exempt.
There are four additional examples where a poor person reaches into the homeowner’s private domain and places an object into the hand of the homeowner, or the homeowner gives him something to take away with him. Two converse examples are provided where the homeowner reaches into the public domain where the poor person takes an object from him or gives him one. In these examples, where four becomes eight, neither party is fully responsible for removing an object from one domain to another and neither are held accountable. Abaye further divides these eight acts into sixteen in dispute of Rav Mattana’s analysis and challenges the believe that either party in this handing back and forth is exempt, for the “one who receives the object and the one who places the object, each participates in the performance of a prohibited action.”
What I found most interesting in all this back and forth is the attitude toward poverty in today’s reading. The poor person is outside the home of someone who is better off than him; perhaps he is looking in the window, wondering what life would be like in a comfortable abode. Where does he live? Is it in a damp cave somewhere where he has little light and privacy? Is it outside in a tent or under a cardboard box on the side of the road? Does he live in a dark, damp basement somewhere? Perhaps under the homeowner’s house? The treatment of the different classes seems indifferent to the plight of the poor in order to make a point about carrying objects on the Sabbath. This article from My Jewish Learning suggests we should recognize the poor as a member of our family, and invite them into our homes, for they are us and we should not see them as different or deserving of their fate.
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jewish-attitudes-toward-poverty/