Shabbat 74: Numbers of Sin Offerings for Prohibited Actions on Shabbat

When discussing the list of forty-less-one prohibitions of Shabbat, the rabbis consider adding pounding (regarding wheat).  But prohibitions cannot be added unless others are taken away.  The rabbis consider selecting food to be eaten immediately, which is permitted, or setting aside food for later, which is not.  The selection of food by utensils or from trays is also considered.

The rabbis speak about removing waste from food.  One might select lupines (a vegetable) for boiling, because they must be boiled seven times to be edible.  But one is not permitted to remove one part of the lupine from the rest, for the lupines are sweetened by that part.  One can be punished for chopping food too finely for preparation later, chopping wood for its sawdust, or softening/ hardening an object in an oven as if one were cooking.  One cannot make an earthenware vessel, oven, barrel or any vessel with a fixed location.  These actions would transgress the prohibitions on grinding, cutting, cooking, baking, kneading, and/or building.  

Creating an earthenware barrel on Shabbat would make one liable to bring seven sin-offerings:

• crumbling lumps of dirt: grinding
• selecting stones from the dirt
• kneading the mortar
• cutting the mortar into pieces of the right size
• building the mold
• kindling the fire
• firing the vessel: baking
• Finishing the job would involve smoothing

Abaye notes that one who creates a vessel from reeds on Shabbat is liable to bring eleven sin offerings for the sins of reaping, planting, gathering, selecting, smoothing, cutting, grinding, stretching the warp, constructing two meshes, weaving and overall building.  Sewing the mouth of the receptacle adds two more sin-offerings because of sewing and tying.

The rabbis go on to discuss ways that one might prohibit the laws of Shabbat regarding sheep and tying.  They consider what unusual ways one might perform these actions, including bleaching one's sheep's wool while on the sheep, and tying in order to encamp permanently as described in Numbers (9:18).