Shabbat 34a — the Talmud in English

And the priests suffer distress because of it,

because they need

to go around it

and take a longer route.

Rabbi Shimon said:

Is there

anyone who knows that it has been established that this place is pure?

That is, does anyone know that this place, which is now subject to uncertainty about ritual impurity, was never a cemetery?

A certain elderly man said to him: Here Ben Zakkai uprooted lupine plants of teruma,

as he would plant teruma produce in this place and later uproot it. Produce grown from teruma requires protection in a state of ritual purity, and Ben Zakkai himself was a priest. This proves that this place had never been a cemetery.

He, Rabbi Shimon, did the same thing,

Rabbi Shimon,

also in this manner:

he would cut lupines and throw them, and a miracle would occur; wherever there was a corpse, it would surface, and they marked the location of the grave.

Wherever the

soil

was hard, he declared it pure.

And wherever the

soil

was loose, he marked it.

The elderly man said: Ben Yoḥai has purified a cemetery!

Rabbi Shimon said to him

Rabbi Shimon:

Had you been with us

at that gathering when we purified it,

even

if

you had been with us but had not joined us

in permitting it,

you would be speaking well

now by saying that the place is a cemetery.

But

now, since you were with us

when we purified it,

and you joined us

in permitting it,

people will say

that if

prostitutes

flatter

and beautify

one another,

all the more so Torah scholars

will certainly

assist one another and will not cause one another to stumble, as you have done.

Rabbi Shimon turned his eyes toward him,

Rabbi Shimon

and he died.

Rabbi Shimon went out

Rabbi Shimon

to the marketplace. He saw Yehuda ben Gerim and said: Does this man still have

a place

in the world?

He directed his eyes toward him and turned him into a heap of bones.

Mishna:

A person must say three things in his home

to the members of his household

on the eve of Shabbat, as it grows dark,

close to the onset of Shabbat. He should not say them earlier, so that they will not say: We still have time to do them:

a. Is

the tithe taken

from the produce intended to be eaten on Shabbat, including produce whose processing has not been completed? [Such produce is permitted on weekdays for casual eating, but is forbidden to eat on Shabbat. Shabbat establishes the produce as liable for tithing and forbids even casual eating of untithed produce whose processing has not been completed.]

b. Have you

made the eruv

of courtyards, which permits carrying from the house into the courtyard, and the eruv of boundaries, which permits walking an additional two thousand cubits beyond the Shabbat boundary?

c.

Light the lamp!

This statement is not phrased as a question, since one can see whether the lamp is lit.

When the time of twilight arrived, which is

uncertainly

dark and uncertainly not dark —

One may not tithe definite produce,

because rectifying untithed produce was prohibited by the Sages on Shabbat, as it resembles repairing a utensil, which is forbidden as “striking the final blow,” the completion of a process of labor.

And one may not immerse vessels

that became ritually impure, since purifying vessels likewise resembles repairing them.

And

all the more so

one may not light

at that time

the lamps,

since lighting is a form of labor forbidden by the Torah on Shabbat.

But one may tithe

at that time

demai

—produce purchased from an am ha-aretz, a person whose reliability concerning tithes is uncertain, which the Sages required one to tithe in case he had not done so—because rectifying demai is not considered significant rectification. Most ammei ha-aretz tithe their produce, and the requirement to tithe produce purchased from them is a stringency imposed by the Sages. Therefore, they were not stringent about forbidding tithing during twilight.

And one may make

eruvs of boundaries and courtyards. The Gemara will explain that this does not contradict the statement above in the Mishna that one must ensure that the eruv is made before twilight.

And one may insulate hot food

with something that preserves its heat.

But once it has grown dark, one may no longer tithe, make an eruv, or insulate food.

Gemara:

The Gemara asks:

From where are these matters derived,

that one must ask these three questions before the onset of Shabbat?

And it answers:

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: The verse states

[Job 5]

“And you will know that peace is in your tent, and you will inspect your dwelling

and you will not sin.”

Peace in the home depends on these three matters. If the food has not been prepared for eating, or it is impossible to carry from the house into the courtyard and to walk to the place one wishes to reach on Shabbat, or the house is dark, this leads to a disruption of peace in the home [see the notes in the Masoret HaShas and in the Rosh].

Rabba bar Rav Huna said: Although the Sages said that a person must say the three things, and so on, he must say them gently, so that they will accept them from him.

Rav Ashi said: I had not heard this statement of Rabba bar Rav Huna,

that they must be said gently, but nevertheless

I fulfilled

this

through reasoning.

The Gemara further asks:

This itself is difficult:

You said

at the beginning:

“A person must say three things in his home on the eve of Shabbat as it grows

[before]

dark.”

And it implies:

As it

[before it]

grows dark, he must;

but during twilight, which is

uncertainly dark and uncertainly not dark—

he should not

say them, because it is already forbidden at that time to make an eruv or separate tithes.

But then it teaches afterward: “Uncertainly dark and uncertainly not dark”—

one may make an eruv!?

The Gemara brings the answer of Rabbi Abba in the name of Rav Ḥiyya bar Ashi in the name of Rav, and gives a mnemonic for several other places in tractate Shabbat where the statement of Rabbi Abba in the name of Rav Ḥiyya bar Ashi in the name of Rav appears.

Mnemonic: “In the body”

[that is, in our discussion, where he comes to resolve the contradiction within the Mishna itself],

“song, bird, with a rope—a matter.”

Rabbi Abba said in the name of Rav Ḥiyya bar Ashi, who said in the name of Rav: There is no difficulty.

Here,

the first clause, which states that the eruv is permitted specifically while it is still day, is referring

to an eruv of boundaries,

since it is a significant act of rectification, as the prohibition against leaving the Shabbat boundary has a basis in the Torah.

Here,

the latter clause, which states that one may make an eruv during twilight, is referring

to an eruv of courtyards,

since the prohibition against carrying has no basis in the Torah. Therefore, making an eruv of courtyards is not considered a significant act of rectification, and such an act may be performed even during twilight.

The Gemara brings another halakhic ruling concerning placing an eruv of boundaries during twilight.

The principle of an eruv of boundaries is that a person acquires a place of residence at the location where he places the eruv. From there he may walk two thousand cubits in every direction.

This place of residence must be acquired by him at the onset of Shabbat, because after the onset of Shabbat he cannot change his “place of residence.”

Therefore, ideally, the eruv of boundaries should be placed before twilight, since that is, in case of uncertainty, the time when the sanctity of the day begins.

The eruv acquires the place of residence only if it was present at the onset of Shabbat, because, as stated, the place of residence is established at the onset of Shabbat. The Gemara now explains the status of someone who placed his eruv after the fact during twilight.

And Rava said: Two people said to one agent

to one agent:

Go

to the end of the city's Shabbat boundary

and make an eruv,

place an eruv of boundaries there,

for us,

on our behalf.

The agent went and placed the eruv on behalf of each of them, but two things occurred:

a. It happened that

for one

of them

the agent made an eruv

the agent

before twilight.

And

if

for one

of them he

made an eruv on his behalf

only afterward, when the time of

twilight arrived.

b. It happened that

the one for whom the eruv had been made before twilight—

his eruv was eaten

by a dog or a person during

twilight.

The eruv was therefore not present once it grew dark.

And

if

the one for whom the eruv had been made during twilight—

his eruv was eaten once it grew dark.

It follows

that both acquired an eruv.

With regard to the first eruv, which was placed before twilight, we treat twilight as night and say that the day had already become holy during twilight, before the eruv was eaten. With regard to the second eruv, we treat twilight as day, so the eruv was placed before the onset of Shabbat and remained there until the beginning of the night, which is the time when Shabbat began.

The Gemara asks:

Either way!

If twilight is day,

only the

later eruv acquires the place,

whereas the

first eruv does not acquire it,

since the eruv was eaten during twilight, which according to this possibility is still day.

And if twilight is night,

only the

first eruv acquires the place,

whereas the

later eruv does not acquire it,

because the eruv was placed after the onset of Shabbat.

And it answers: The period of

twilight

is uncertain

whether it is day or night. The prohibition of boundaries and the placing of an eruv are only rabbinic,

and in a rabbinic uncertainty

the ruling is lenient.

We learned in the Mishna that one may insulate hot food during twilight. It follows that after dark it is forbidden to insulate it, even with something that does not add heat [such as a covering that merely preserves existing heat]. Insulating with something that adds heat is forbidden even while it is still day [as stated below in the Mishna, 47b].

Rava said: Why did the Sages say: One may not insulate with something that does not add heat once it has grown dark,

such as wool, even though it does not add heat to the cooking?

It is a decree lest,

when he comes to insulate it, he finds the pot cold, and

he heats it,

thereby violating the prohibition of cooking on Shabbat.

Abaye said to him,

to Rava:

If so,

according to you, since there is concern even when insulating with something that does not add heat that he might come to heat the pot, concerning insulation

during twilight as well, let us decree

that it may not be insulated at that time! After all, regarding a rabbinic shevut prohibited because of concern for a Torah prohibition, the Sages issued a decree during twilight; the proof is that they prohibited tithing definite untithed produce at that time, because of the decree that one might come to repair utensils on Shabbat.

Rava said

to Abaye:

Ordinary pots are boiling

at the time of twilight, because they are removed from the fire shortly before twilight. Therefore, there is no concern at that time that one will find a cold pot and come to heat it.