Shabbat 11: Being Under the Rule of Others, Unintentional Breaches of Shabbat Halachot

We learn more about the words of Rava bar Mechasseya in the name of Rav Chama bar Gurya in the name of Rav:

• It is better to be under the yoke of Ishmael . than under the yoke of a stranger (the Romans)
• It is better to be ruled by a stranger and not by a Chabar (a Persian Zoroastrian fire priest)
• It is better to be under the rule of a Chabar and not under the rule of a Torah scholar, 
• It is better to be ruled by a Torah Scholar than under an orphan or a widow, for they are easily insulted and G-d promised to hear their cries and punish those who offend them
• It is preferable to suffer from any illness and not from an intestinal illness
• It is better not to suffer any pain even if terrible other than heart pain
• It is better to suffer a slight ache and not a headache
• It is better to suffer any evil and not an evil wife
• Even if all the seas were ink and the reeds near swamps were quills and the heavens would be parchment and the people were scribes, this would be insufficient to write all of the space of governmental authority (taken to mean 'what a government deals with')
• A fast is effective to help a bad dream like how fire burns chaff, especially on the day of the dream, and even on Shabbat

We are given a new Mishna, this time regarding halachot of Shabbat that might cause someone to transgress due to habit and routine.  The tailor cannot go out with his needle close to nightfall on erev Shabbat in caste he forgets he is carrying it and goes into the public domain after Shabbat begins.  The scribe cannot go out with his quill for the same reasons.  One may not shake his clothes on Shabbat to remove lice, and one may not read a book by candlelight to avoid adjusting the wick of the lamp.  However, the attendant sees where children are reading Torah by candlelight even on Shabbat while hi himself cannot read.  Similarly, the zav may not eat with his wife, the zava, even though they are both ritually impure because eating together may lead to more intimacy and they might become accustomed to sin.

The Gemara returns to the debate regarding being in one domain and drinking in another.  It is permitted to do this if one puts one's body into the secondary domain.  The question at hand: does this apply to the karmelit as well?  The rabbis argue whether this is simply a rabbinic decree, or whether it  might be prohibited only if one believes that this is done as a fence to discourage people from thinking that it is alright to behave leniently in public/private domains.

Returning to the Mishna, the rabbis wonder if it is "carrying" when a tailor's needle is simply stuck into his clothing on Shabbat.  The rabbis consider whether this is different from holding the needle in his hand.  Shouldn't a tailor have to hold the needle in a manner that is different than on his usual workday?  

And a zav may not go out on Shabbat with "his pouch that he ties to his organ in organ to absorb his emission".  If he goes out, he is exempt by Torah law but prohibited by rabbinic law.  If the zav goes out with his pouch accidentally on Shabbat, he is liable to bring a sin-offering.  We learn that a zav who sees two emissions is not yet liable to bring a sin-offering.  A zav needs the pouch so that his clothes will not get soiled, but also for purposes of knowing about his third emission so that he will know to count that as a ritually impure day.