Shabbat 80: Carrying Lime as a Depilatory

The rabbis consider the prohibition of carrying enough ink to write two letters.  That ink might be dried, in the inkwell, and the rabbis cannot decide how to measure liability when only one letter can be written.

Rava compares this to one who carries out a half of a dried fig and places it in different domains, thecarries out another half and places it.  It is as if a dog snatched or burned the first half.  They are not placed together but the carrier is exempt.  As long as the second half-fig did not come to rest and were no less than three handbreadths apart are considered to be attached.  Rava explains that the definition of domain for Shabbat is like the definition of domain for gettin, bills of divorce: two areas separated by a beam are not considered one domain.

Blue eye shadow enough for only one eye is explained by Rav Huna.  Because modest women cover their faces with a veil.  They would not wear more than that much eye shadow.  The rabbis discuss both wax, glue, tar and sulphur as well.  They consider how much plaster would be required to plaster the cracks in the small tripod of a small stove - not much plaster.  

When carrying out lime, one should not bring out more than what is used to spread as a depilatory on the smallest of girls.  Or perhaps the amount used to soften and pamper the finger of the smallest of girls.  Or, perhaps, girls who had physically matured before the age of 12 and women who used it for cosmetic purposes.  The poor would use lime, the wealthy would  use fine flour , and the daughters of kings would use shemen hamor, olive oil taken from an olive not yet reached a third of its growth. 

We are told of Rav Beivai who smeared his daughter regularly limb by limb and she was so beautiful that he received four hundred zuz in gifts beyond her dowry.  Another man in that neighbourhood had a daughter and he smeared her all at once and she died.  He blamed Rav Beivai.  Rav Nachman said that Rav Beivai drank beer and so the lime was required.  But those who do not drink beer do not require to be smeared with lime.

The rabbis wonder about smearing lime on the kilkul, temples, and andifi, beneath the temples of girls and women.  A story is told about a colleague of Rabbi Nechemya who was stung by a hornet on his forehead and died.  The forehead was called his andifi.  From this we learn that oil is spread on the forehead not just for hair removal but for softening and soothing the skin.

We learn in a new Mishna that Rabbi Akiva teaches: one is liable for carrying out earth on Shabbat is equal to the seal of large sacks.  The rabbis believe that it is the size of the seal of letters.  For manure and fine sand, Akiva says the amount should be less than what is used to fertilize on stalk of cabbage.  The rabbis say it is enough to fertilize a leek.  Coarse sand is the amount used to put on a full spoon of plaster.  For carrying out a reed, we shouldn't carry out more than what is used to make a quill.  If the read is thicker than that used for writing or if it was fragmented, it must be smaller than that which is used to cook an egg that is already beaten and placed in a stew pot.  It is noted that we do not refer to an egg bulk on Shabbat but to a piece of the egg the size of a fig bulk.