Monday 8 June 2020

Shabbat 94: On Carrying Out Animals, Removing Hair, Putting on Makeup on Shabbat

Before beginning discussion on a new Mishna, we learn about carrying out animals on Shabbat.  The rabbis remind us that we don't truly carry out living beings because animals - horses, birds, etc. - carry themselves out.  This brings us to a conversation about selling to Gentiles.  

The rabbis turn back to their conversation about carrying out even an olive bulk of an object that imparts ritual impurity in the first degree atop of a bed.  Must they bring a sin offering if it is brought into the public domain? What if it is only brought to the karmelit, the area between the private and public domains?  We learn that a corpse is to be left in the home if at all possible and the other people should be removed.  If the corpse is decomposing, it is permitted to carry it out for the sake of human dignity: the principle is "Great is human dignity, as it overrides a prohibition in the Torah: 'You shall not deviate from that which they tell you to the right or to the left'" (Deuteronomy 17:11).  Sometimes a loaf of bread or an infant is put on the corpse to facilitate its movement on Shabbat.  Or Gentiles could move the corpse.

The rabbis relate this to the two white hairs that determine whether or not a person has leprosy.  What if someone pulls out some but not all of his white hairs? If his action is ineffective and he still has white hairs, he has not violated the prohibition.  But his might still be impure.  

The new Mishna on today's daf teaches that one who removes his finger-nails with one another on Shabbat with out scissors or with teeth and the same is true to one who removes hair or mustasche or beard or braiding hair  or applying blue eye shadow or applying blush - each of these is liable as they have performed a labour prohibited by Torah law.  The Rabbis prohibited these by Rabbinic decree and said that none of these actions actually constitute prohibited labours on Shabbat.

Clearly one is liable for removing fingernails using a utensil.  It is not shearing for we are not interested in the resulting sheared part of the nail.  If we remove for ourselves we are liable, but we might be exempt if we remove our fingernails for someone else.  And Rabbi Eliezer says that we are liable for cutting another's fingernails, too.  Removing enough hair to fill the opening of the scissors on Shabbat is liable.  Rav Yehuda says that this is two hairs.  But didn't a bariata teaches that cutting hair and making baldness is an expression of mourning?  Two hairs would be the measure for both.

Rabbi Eliazer says that we are liable for removing even one hair.  The Sages agree that one who collects and plucks white hairs from black ones is liable even if he removed a single hair.  This is always prohibited, based on Deuteronomy 22?5): "A woman shall not don man's clothes and a man shall not wear a woman's garment".  Thus beautification is prohibited for men.  Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar notes that if a fingernail has been ripped, one may remove the rest of the nail on Shabbat.  Using a utensil would make one liable for a sin offering.  Removing the remainder of the nail by hand is permitted.  Using a utensil is exempt but is prohibited ab initio.  Other rulings are suggested for nails that are not mostly severed, for nails that are facing different directions, and for nails that cause pain.  

When a woman braids her hair, applies blue eye shadow or blush, Rabbi Eliezer deems that liable by Torah law.  This is weaving, says Rabbi Avin who said that Rabbi Yosei son of Rabbi Chanina said.  A woman who applies blue eye shadow is acting as if she is writing.  A woman who applies blush is like one who is spinning, for blush was made by a string from a doughy substance that would be passed over their faces.  The rabbis said to Rabbi Abbahu, are these the typical manners of weaving, writing and spinning?  Of course not.  Rabbi Abbahu said that Rabbi Yose, son of Rabbi Chanina said that there are other liabilities: applying eyeshadow is like dyeing.  Braiding and applying blush are like building, and it is typical building too - G- built the side that G-d took from Adam into a woman (Gen.2:22).

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