Q&A: Uprooted Unintentionally and Set Down Intentionally
Uprooted Unintentionally and Set Down Intentionally
Question
If someone lifted an object unintentionally and set it down intentionally, has he violated the prohibition of carrying on the Sabbath? Is he allowed to set it down?
Answer
First of all, it is forbidden to set it down, because setting down without lifting is also prohibited rabbinically. Is there a Torah-level prohibited labor here? That is an interesting question. Seemingly not, since half of it was done unintentionally. But on the other hand, once I know that I lifted it and now I set it down consciously, thereby deliberately completing the act, there is room to argue that I performed carrying in or out deliberately (everything follows the conclusion; the act is judged by its end). In short, straightforwardly no, but there is room to hesitate. The same should be considered regarding labors such as weaving two mesh-spaces or writing two letters, where the beginning is done unintentionally and the completion deliberately. This may perhaps be connected to the topic of dragging, but this is not the place to elaborate.
A simple Jew came before the town rabbi and asked: “Rabbi, I stuck a dairy spoon into a meat pot—oh dear, what shall I do?” Furrows were plowed across the rabbi’s forehead. He cupped his beard, shook his head, and replied: “My son, if you had asked me about a dairy spoon that was stuck into a dairy pot, then of course it would be permitted. And if the pot were meat and the spoon had not been stuck into it, that too would certainly be permitted. But now that the spoon is dairy and the pot is meat and the spoon was stuck into it—well, that requires looking into the halakhic decisors.”