Shabbat 113: Ruth, Honour; Knots, Folding, Making Beds, Clothing, Running, Thinking on Shabbat

A new Mishna teaches us that we may tie a bucket with a belt  on Shabbat because it will not be a permanent knot.  We may not tie a bucket with a rope though Rabbi Yehuda permits doing this.  Rabbi Yehuda states the principle that we are not liable for tying any knot that is not permanent.

The Gemara discusses type of ropes and belts; different types of bows.  The rabbis wonder whether or not all parts of a weaver's tools should be moved on Shabbat.  The rabbis also the dangers of consider both creating and filling in holes in fields or in the floors of homes.  In all of their considerations, the rabbis wonder about what is done on ordinary weekdays and ensuring that what is done on Shabbat is different  if the action is in question.

A second new Mishna teaches that we may fold garments under specific conditions.  We are also permitted to make our beds on erev Shabbat to prepare for Shabbat, but not from Shabbat to prepare for Yom Rishon. We cannot do anything on Shabbat that is in preparation for the following weekdays.  Rabbi Yishmael says that we may fold garments and make beds on Yom Kippur in preparation for Shabbat if Yom Kippur falls on a Friday.  The fats of offerings sacrificed on Shabbat are offered on Yom Kippur but not vice versa, because the sanctity of Shabbat is above all.  Rabbi Akiva argues that the fats of offerings are not offered on Shabbat nor on Yom Kippur. 

The rabbis argue about folding laundry about about bedding.  Only one person can fold the garment because more that that is similar to repairing garments.  Only a new garment can be folded on Shabbat.  Only white garments can be folded, and we can only fold garments that we are going to wear - if we have something else to wear for Shabbat, we should not be folding any other garments.  One should wear garment that beautify us, or at least are set aside on weekdays, to be used only on Shabbat.  

Our speech, (speaking only of mitzvot or pleasure, not business or pain) and our walking should be different from the rest of the week, it is argued.  Children are permitted to walk or run in any way that gives them pleasure, however.  A bizarre comment is suggested by Rabbi Yishmael: A large step takes away one five-hundredth of a person's eyesight.  The Gemara argues that one's sight is restored during kiddush on Shabbat evening.  We are never permitted to eat dirt.

We begin a conversation in the Gemara about Naomi and Ruth.  The rabbis consider all that Ruth does and they laud her perfectly appropriate and dutiful behavious.  In all of Boaz's words to her, the rabbis use their interpretive skills to refer to her as the source of King David.

We end with a discussion about Rabbi Yochanan, who called his clothing his honour.  Thus in Isaiah (10:16), when "under his honour He will burn a burning like a burning fire", we could learn that the King of Assyria's soldiers were burned but their clothings were not burned somehow.  Rabbi Elazar suggested that "under his honour" mean 'in place of ' his honour.  Thus instead of the honour, the body, there were ashes.  Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachamani said that under his honour refers to beneath his flesh, like the burning of Aaron's sons.  There, the soul burned while the bodies remained intact.  Here, too, the souls of the Assyrian soldiers burned while their bodies remained intact.