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Week 5 - TUESDAY - 28 Dec. 1999

SHABBAT: CHAPTER 8: MISHNA 4

Glue - enough to put on the top of the lime-twig; pitch and sulfur - enough to make a hole; wax - enough to put on a small hole; harsit - enough to make the mouth of the furnace ofgoldsmelters. Rabbi Yehudah says. Enough to make a peg. Bran - enough to put over the mouth of the furnace of goldsmelters; lime - enough to paint the smallest of the girls. Rabbi Yehudah says: “Enough to make a hair-crown.” Rabbi Nehemiah says: “Enough to make andipy.”

Kahati

If one carries glue on Shabbat, its measure [to incur liability] is enough to put on the top of the lime-twig - the top of the shoot. They used to smear glue on the top of the shoot so that a bird which perched on the shoot would stick to it, then they came and caught it (Hameiri). According to another interpretation, they used to put a plank at the end of a shoot, and they put glue on this. It was necessary to put a large amount of glue there to trap the bird (Rashi);

pitch and sulfur, their measure is enough to make a hole - they used to put mercury in a bottle and close up its mouth with pitch or with sulfur, and afterwards they made a hole in this stopper in order to take out the mercury through it (Rashi). According to another interpretation, "enough to make a hole" means enough to stop up a hole (Hameiri)', here, "to make" means to repair (Rabbi H. Albek);

wax, its measure is enough to put on a small hole - on the hole in the stopper of a wine bottle;

harsit - a crushed brick, or, according to another interpretation, a type of clay from which pottery is made (He'arukh) enough to make the mouth of the furnace of goldsmelters - the mouth of the furnace in which gold was smelted, in which a bellows was inserted. According to another interpretation, "enough to make" enough to stop up the opening of the furnace into which the bellows was inserted (Hameiri).

Rabbi Yehudah says: Enough to make a peg - a prop for the seat of the furnace (Rambarn, Bartenura). The Gemara explains: "Enough to plaster a peg of a small portable stove," i.e., to plaster the cracks in it (Rashi).

Bran, its measure is enough to put over the mouth of the furnace of goldsmelters - in order to increase the fire when the gold is being melted;

lime, its measure is enough to paint the smallest of the girls - A baraita is quoted in the Gemara: Sufficient to paint a girl's little finger. It further states that if Jewish girls attained puberty but had not yet reached their chronological majority (i.e., they had produced two pubic hairs but had not yet attained the proper age for this Rashi), poor girls were painted with lime (a depilatory), rich girls were dusted with fine flour, and the daughters of royalty were anointed with oil of myrrh (the oil from olives less than one-third grown).

Rabbi Yehudah says: Enough to make a hair-crown - Some have a version in the mishnah, “Enough to paint a hair-crown” to plaster the

temples, to make the hair on them lie down, and to fold it back.

Rabbi Nehemiah says: Enough to make andipy - according to one interpretation, enough to apply lime to the forehead in order to redden it; according to another, in order to make marks on a container in which wine or oil is measured, for the markings of the different measures were made with lime. The halakhah follows neither Rabbi Yehudah nor Rabbi Nehemiah.

SHABBAT: CHAPTER 8: MISHNA 5

Earth - as the seal of packing bags, so Rabbi Akiva. But the Sages say: “As the seal of letters”. Dung and fine sand - enough to manure a cabbage stalk, so Rabbi Akiva; but the Sages say: “enough to manure a leek”. Coarse sand - enough to put on a trowel of lime. A reed - enough to make a pen; and if it is thick or broken - enough to boil with it the lightest of eggs, beaten and placed in the stew-pot.

Kehati

Earth - red clay which is used for seals, the measure for carrying is as the seal of packing bags - the amount required to put a seal on bags of merchandise, so Rabbi Akiva.

But the Sages say: As the seal of letters - this measure is smaller than the measure given by Rabbi Akiva, for the seal placed on letters requires less earth than the one placed on packing bags.

Dung and fine sand, their measure is enough to manure a cabbage stalk - one single plant, so Rabbi Akiva.

But the Sages say: "Enough to manure a leek" - this measure is smaller than that of a cabbage stalk.

Coarse sand, its measure is enough to put on a trowel of lime - plasterers used to mix sand with lime; the measure for carrying sand is the measure required to mix with a plasterer's trowel full of lime.

A reed, its measure is enough to make a pen - which is suitable for writing, i.e., that reaches the joints of his Fingers (Gemara); and if it - the reed, is thick or broken - crushed, and is not fit to be used as a pen, its legal status is as a piece of wood, and its measure is enough to boil with it the lightest of eggs -

A chicken's egg is boiled more easily than any other egg, beaten - stirred and mixed with oil, thereby accelerating the boiling, and placed in the stew-pot - in a pre-warmed pot. The Gemara explains that the measure is not the amount required to boil the entire egg, but only a dried fig's-bulk of it, for all Shabbat measures in connection with food are a dried fig's-bulk.

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