Shabbos 39
“As Rav Tanḥum said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said that Rabbi Yannai said that Rav said…”
The Rabbis return to the kitchen to discuss eggs. An egg that is slightly cooked and rinsed in hot water, has violated the prohibition against cooking on the Sabbath because heating with water allows it to become edible. The Rabbis place an egg in an old cloth and debate if it is allowable to cook with the warmth of the sun. Rabbi Yosei is the lone dissenter who believes it is permissible, while the others say it is not.
The Talmud tells us that it does not constitute an impermissible act of stoking a flame by placing food in the sun to heat. However, it is prohibited to heat food with derivatives of the sun, or objects heated with heat of sun. The rationale is that if food is permitted to be heated with derivatives of the sun, then it will be permitted to heat food with derivatives of fire. The rebel Rabbi Yosei weighs in, lifts his long beard out of the way, and proclaims it is perfectly fine to heat food in this way.
The august Rabbis continue their analysis of the modest egg. It is permissible to “slightly roast” an egg on a hot rooftop but prohibited from roasting the same egg on boiling limestone. It is prohibited from roasting an egg in sand because sand resembles dirt and ashes, which conjures cooking and stoking flames.
The disagreement over wrapping an egg in cloth can become quite heated, with Rabbi Yosei sticking by his minority opinion. We are provided with advice on settling arguments (because how long can a disagreement over wrapping an egg continue): “As Rav Tanḥum said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said that Rabbi Yannai said that Rav said: Every place that you find two who disagree and each one of them establishes his opinion in a series of cases, and one of the Sages, a third one, adopts a compromise opinion and says that in some cases the halakha is in accordance with one, and in some cases the halakha is in accordance with the other, the halakha is in accordance with the opinion of the compromiser.” We are told that the principle holds true except in the case of ritual impurity, where Rabbi Eliezer is typically strict, Rabbi Yehoshua is lenient, and Rabbi Akiva usually offers a middle ground.
Because it is possible to find almost anything on the web, I searched for instructions on how to cook an egg in the sun and discovered that “it’s a thing.” I discovered that the July 4th holiday in the United States is also “National Fry an Egg on the Sidewalk Day.” Frying an egg on the sidewalk is probably the equivalent of the prohibition against cooking an egg on limestone, so I am not sure the Rabbis huddled in the kitchen would approve. But just the thought of a hot summer day in July reminds me of the summer that will eventually come. With Spring essentially cancelled by Covid-19, I am praying that we will be able to enjoy Summer and feel the heat on our shoulders while we are out and about and finally able to return to our lives. But I will leave the cooking of eggs to my favorite brunch place, Elmo’s in Chelsea, which I am praying will survive this shut down and be there again on Sunday mornings with their perfect huevos rancheros and mimosas.
This article in Smithsonian Magazine provides background on the science of cooking an egg in the sun: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/attempting-fry-egg-sidewalk-has-been-summer-tradition-over-100-years-180972556/