Shabbos 48
“Whichever way you look at it, there is a difficulty.”
We might want to be on guard when inviting Rabba and Rabbi Zeira to our homes; they are watching us closely and can be critical if we transgress in the observation of Sabbath laws. Exilarch opened his home to the Rabbis on the Sabbath. But while he was preparing a meal and wine for his guests, they were busy observing his housekeeper who placed a jug of cold water on top of a kettle filled with hot water. Rabba rebuked the servant for this transgression. We are reminded by Rabbi Zeira that if only the housekeeper would have placed one urn on top of another he might not have been so shamed. This is because the heat is preserved in the upper urn when one vessel is placed upon another, but when a jug of cold water is positioned upon a kettle, the cold water could be warmed by the heat of the upper vessel and is therefore prohibited.
But that wasn’t the end of the tale. When the housekeeper recovered from being reprimanded, he spread a kerchief over a vat of water and used a cup to draw water through the fabric filter. The poor guy was rebuked once again. Rabba observed the unfortunate soul squeezing water from the kerchief, and as a result violated a Torah prohibition. This was quite the scandal with two missteps in one night. The Rabbis most certainly would have reported back to the Yeshiva about the lax standards Exilarch kept in his home.
While Rabba and Rabbi Zeira are preoccupied with the placement of jugs and straining of liquid through a cloth, Rav Hisda is busy analyzing shirts and pillows. He establishes that one may not open the neck of a new shirt or stuff new material into a pillow on the Shabbat. However, if the stuffing falls out of a pillow, it is permissible to replace it.
We learn about the importance of connectors. If two of anything is connected together, and one becomes impure – perhaps through contact with a creeping animal – than the conjoined item will suffer the same fate. We are provided with a litany of examples: two garments that are loosely tied together with temporary stitches, a key ring, a woolen garment that is thread with temporary linen stiches, an axe handle, scissors, and oil and spice receptacles.
The wall of a stove becomes impure when it comes into contact with a creeping animal who has found its way into a kitchen. We are told that the law of connectors does not apply to air space. If the invading animal does not come in contact with the stove’s walls, they do not become impure. In essence, when two items are connected, they share a purity status. But this does not happen through osmosis in the air.
Gossip is a serious offense in the Torah. Miriam is inflicted with leprosy for speaking ill of her brother, Moses. I imagine there was a lot of tale telling in the Yeshivas of 2,000 years ago. I found an article in My Jewish Learning that tells the story of a man who asked for repentance after slandering the name of a certain Rabbi. He was told to tear apart a pillow and scatter its feathers to the wind by the Rabbi whose reputation he sullied. When he completed the deed, he reported back to the Rabbi, who told him to go back and collect all the feathers. When he said that it was an impossible task because the feathers had scattered to the wind, the Rabbi said that was the point of the exercise: that once a person’s good name is tainted, the damage cannot be undone. Perception becomes reality and it is difficult to take back bad words and expunge them from the wind.